Rubbishy Cookery

  A good friend gave me the original recipe for these meatballs, apparently from her head. It was never written down. It was so simple, and I made it so regularly, the recipe lived in my head too. But then years passed, times changed, and I somehow stopped making these meatballs. Out of the blue, something made me think of them again. But the recipe was long purged from my head, likely to make room for some new drivel. But somewhere in the recesses of my aging brain, along with some muscle memory once I got started, and some creative license, I’ve brought them back, baby! Ingredients: Sorry, no photos today. I’m getting a « 403 error » from Blogger so I guess I’m banned from uploading photos from my device. Alas. For the meatballs: - 1 pound ground beef - 1 egg - quick oats, a handful or so - about a Tbsp each of garlic and onion powders  - a finely chopped shallot  - fresh or dried dill - a glug or two of canola oil  And for the saucy gravy: - tamari sauce  - 1...

  Happy New Year! Let’s start 2026 on the right foot with a nice chili dinner! Ingredients: Directions: Start with a couple of good glugs of neutral flavoured oil (I’m using canola oil) in a big pot and heat over medium high heat. Chop an onion and add it to the hot oil pot: Sauté the chopped onion until softened: Then add 3-ish finely chopped garlic cloves and sauté further for a few moments until fragrant and maybe not as browned as I’ve done: Then add your lean ground beef, hopefully not still partially frozen like mine: Is fine! Brown the beef with the onions and garlic on medium heat until no longer pink: Still pink! Keep going: Perfect!  Now start adding spices: a really generous amount of chili powder, about a tablespoon of ground cumin, and a few shakes of ground chipotle powder: Golly it’s hard to see with all that steam! Stir that all together on medium heat until the spice aroma fills your kitchen with fragrant spicy goodness, then add a can of tomatoes: Pro tip: ma...

  Wow—today is not only the 50th rubbishy post, but also the Winter Solstice, and where I live, the first winter storm (a nor’ easter, no less!) of the year! Let’s get cosy and make a warm pot of Tuscan soup! Ingredients: What you’ll notice in the photo above is the great deal on ground turkey—enjoy today, 50% off! What a deal! What you may not notice in the photo above is that the fresh kale was harvested from my backyard garden just hours before the storm started.  Imagine—a December harvest of kale! And half price ground turkey! I feel hashtag blessed. Directions: Start by mixing ingredients for the turkey meatballs: ground turkey, a generous handful or two of quick cook rolled oats, 1-2 tablespoons-ish each of garlic powder, onion powder, dried thyme, dried basil, not pictured but assumed S&P, and a really good amount of finely grated Parmesan cheese. Mix it all up with your hands and add more oats if necessary to get a good texture, i.e., one in which to form meatball...

  There’s a chill in the air! Let’s make split pea soup! Ingredients: Missing from the above photo but added later: a parsnip. And: Note that the pink object in the baggie is a defrosted chicken breast, not the typical meat in split pea soup. But that’s what was in the house so it will work. Nice, more traditional options would be ham or bacon, or I’ve also used smoked turkey drumsticks. I’ve also left out the meat and had a completely vegetarian/vegan soup that was still excellent. So you have options galore! Directions: If, like me, you’re working with a defrosted chicken breast, prepare it as in Recipe #14 with S&P, a little oil, and bake for about 30 minutes until fully cooked and browned: Meanwhile, in a big soup pot, add two cups of rinsed split peas and a lot of water and bring to a boil: Spooning off and discarding the foam as it develops: Once it reaches a full boil and all the foam has been removed, let it simmer for a while, maybe 45 minutes or so, give or take. It w...