Turkey Meatballs

I made these on Sunday and they turned out really delicious. I will include the recipe as it is written in the Joy of Cooking, with my substitutions in parenthesis. As you will see I made a lot of changes and it still turned out delicious. I mixed the meatballs with pasta, steamed carrots, and a yellow bell pepper. Quite tasty!

Saute 1/2 cup chopped onion with one cloves garlic in olive oil. Cook until translucent. (I used closer to one cup and the onions were a little toasty.)
In a bowl add:
onions from above
1 lb. ground turkey (1.4 lbs)
1 large egg
1/4 cup grated Parmesan (7 shakes from of parm from the bottle! Don't tell anyone:))
2 tablespoons milk (I only had buttermilk. I know it sounds crazy, but maybe it was the key to my success?)
2 tablespoons breadcrumbs (one slice toasted bread smashed with a rolling pin. I then realized I actually had bread crumbs and I added a hearty helping of that as well.)
1 tablespoon tomato paste (ketchup)
1 tablespoon fresh basil or 1 teaspoon dried basil
Sea salt and pepper

Mix it all up with your hands and thoroughly combine. Roll into 1 inch balls and roll into cornmeal. Heat oil in a large pan. Add meatballs and brown, about 10 minutes. I found that covering the pan with a lid helped things cook more evenly. And that is it!

Mommy's Buttermilk Pancakes

This makes enough for about 2 people...I usually double it because the pancakes are good later to snack on cold.

Sift before measuring: 1 cup cake flour (make sure this is cake flour and not normal flour)

Resift with:
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda

Beat until light: 1 egg
add: 1 cup buttermilk

Combine the dry & liquid ingredients with a few swift strokes

Beat in: 1 - 2 tbsp melted butter

I cook on a electric griddle and set it at 350....you can always cook them on the stove too though. Just pour some batter, and then one the cakes start bubbling up a little they are ready to flip.

Buttermilk Potato Bread

Made this for Jessica's birthday party, and it seemed to be of at least moderate popularity. I love it, and it goes great with brie, salad, or really, any meal of your choosing.

3/4 C freshly cooked potatoes, mashed (but not too much - it's awesome to find potato chunks in the bread)
1 stick butter
2 C room-temperature buttermilk
2 packages (1 1/2 T) active dry yeast
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
2 T sugar
2 1/2 tsp salt
6 1/4 C flour

While the potatoes are still warm, stir in the butter. Add the buttermilk, yeast, eggs, sugar, and salt and mix well. Then add in the flour very gradually, until you get a dough that's moist but not sticky. It takes a fair amount of mixing and kneading to get it to the right consistency, but press on - it'll get there.

Knead the dough about 10 minutes, then transfer into an oiled bowl and turn one to cover; cover with plastic wrap and let sit 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the dough has doubled in size. Punch it down, not too hard, divide in two, then lay (seam-side down) in two greased bread pans. Let sit another hour (it will again almost double in size), then brush the tops of the loaves with a beaten egg with a pinch of salt in it.

Bake in a 375 oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the crust is golden brown and the bottom of the pans sound hollow when tapped. Let cool for 1/2 hr, then cut and serve!