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!

Turkey cakes

These cakes are delicious and can be made with chicken, too - but with Thanksgiving around the corner, is a great way to use up leftover turkey. I've also been quite flexible with the recipe, especially with the herbs, so... experiment! One thing I've enjoyed adding is corn.

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1 C onion, diced
1/2 C celery, diced
2 T butter
2 C cooked turkey or chicken
1 1/2 C bread crumbs
1/4 C chopped fresh parsley
1 T chopped fresh sage
1 T chopped fresh thyme
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
4 eggs
4 T vegetable oil

Saute the onionjs and celery in butter over medium heat until soft. Transfer to a large bowl, let cool slightly, then add meat, bread crumbs, herbs, salt, and pepper. Fold in the eggs.

To form the cakes, lightly pack the mixture into a 1/3-cup measure, and then press down into 3-inch cakes on a flour-lined baking sheet. Chill at least 15 minutes, and dust the tops of the cakes with flour.

Fry the cakes in two batches in a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat using 2 T oil per batch. Cook until golden, about 4 minutes, then flip and fry 1-2 minutes more.

I like to eat these with tomatoes and avocado.