I made good on my promise for today and cooked a new recipe for dinner. Aren’t you glad I’m FINALLY back on the whole blogging what I cook thing? I know you were all sitting up nights wondering when I’d stop blogging about my darn honeymoon and get to recipes…
Of course there’s a back story to dinner tonight. See, yesterday, I took a package of ground turkey breast out of the freezer and had every intent of cooking. Then I made the mistake of taking a nap and I lost any motivation to cook, so Adam put the turkey in the fridge and I had to use it today.
I searched for a ground turkey recipe that went a bit farther away from the “normal” ground turkey recipes of meatloaf, chili, and pasta sauce. I came across a recipe for Turkey Florentine Meatballs with an Italian Cheese sauce. They sounded fantastic. Then I looked at where the recipe came from…
I’ve said it before.
I’ll say it again.
I can’t STAND Rachael Ray.
BUT, the woman does have amazing recipes! I took her recipe for Turkey Florentine Meatballs and tweaked it a bit to be a little healthier. I used white meat turkey, fat free milk, and only 2/3 of the cheese. I made a side of whole wheat gnocchi to go with it and I’m thrilled with the result.
Do you know why Florentine dishes are called “Florentine”?
According to www.mrbreakfast.com, “Florentine refers to foods that are cooked in the style of Florence… specifically egg, meat and fish dishes that contain spinach and, most often, a creamy Mornay-style sauce.” Thanks Mr. Breakfast! Without further adeiu…
Ingredients
1 box frozen spinach, defrosted in the microwave
1 1/3 pound (1 package) ground turkey breast
1 medium onion, finely chopped, divided
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 large egg
1 3/4 cups milk, divided
3/4 cup bread crumbs, 3 handfuls
1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, 2 palm fulls
Coarse salt and black pepper
Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup chicken stock
1 (10-ounce) sack shredded provolone or blend of Italian cheeses, available on dairy
aisle
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, eyeball it
1/4 cup parsley leaves, chopped
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Wring defrosted spinach dry in a clean kitchen towel. Place turkey in a bowl and make a well in the middle of it. Add the spinach, all but 3 tablespoons of the onion, all of the garlic, 1 large egg, about 1/4 cup milk, bread crumbs, grated Parmesan, salt and pepper. Mix well. Form into 12 large balls and drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil. Arrange on a nonstick cookie sheet and roast 20 minutes, or until cooked through.
While balls are in the oven, heat a small sauce pot over medium heat. Add a drizzle of extra-virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons butter. Melt butter, add remaining finely chopped onion and cook 2 minutes then whisk in flour. Cook flour 1 minute, then whisk in 1 1/2 cups milk and 1 cup stock. Bring liquid up to a boil then stir in shredded provolone or blended Italian cheeses. Season the sauce with salt, pepper and nutmeg, turn heat to lowest setting.
Place 3 balls on dinner plates and top with sauce, garnish with parsley.
Seriously. Try this. You’ll love it!
Now, about a week ago, the lovely Christina awarded me with this Beautiful Blogger award:
The rules are that I have to name 7 things you might not know about me and then pass this on to 7 other bloggers. Someone else passed this to me as well, and for the life of me, I can’t remember who… so if it was you, please tell me!!!
Here goes:
1. I have no idea what color my hair naturally is. I’ve been dying it in some way since I was 12 years old!
2. I haven’t been to the dentist in a really long time. Like, way too many years. I know its bad, and I’m going soon.
3. I’ve only ever been out of the country twice: once to Spain when I was 18 and once well, to Jamaica a couple weeks ago.
4. I still try to watch 90210 reruns on the Soap Network as often as I can.
5. I’ve never cooked any red meat with bones in it. No ribs, roasts, anything. They kind of scare me.
6. Cooking scallops freaks me out too. They’re so expensive and SO easy to mess up!
7. I quit smoking over a year ago. Yes, I smoked. I found myself hating myself for still doing it after my grandma died and it took me that long to really truly quit… And I quit cold turkey last New Year’s Day. I gained 15 lbs in the process, but I can breathe now!
And 7 bloggers I pass this to:
Thanks for the award Christina!
There’s a new House on tonight, and I have a chocolate wafer calling my name… have a great night all! EVEN MORE COOKING tomorrow!
We also noticed a great feature on the menu that I SWEAR wasn’t there when I was younger:
Yes, that’s a Retro Soda Fountain! I really wanted an egg cream, but the waitress wasn’t sure how to make it, so I didn’t want to risk it! Jenn ordered a black cow, which didn’t disappoint when it arrived! She was nice enough to share it with me!
I ordered for dinner my old favorite…the Italian Turkey Sandwich. As I mentioned, when I used to frequent Graziano’s, I wasn’t eating red meat, so I always ordered either vegetarian or turkey entrees there. The Italian Turkey Sandwich wasn’t what it sounds like: a turkey sandwich with marinara and mozzarella cheese. It’s more like an Italian beef/French Dip sandwich made with turkey instead of beef. I got it with their seasoned Italian fries and sweet roasted peppers on top:
It was just as good as I remembered! Jenn got a delicious roasted vegetable and goat cheese pizza, but you’ll have to check her recap for pictures. We had so much fun catching up, and I can’t wait to see her again soon!
