Aisle Twelve

Raise your hand if you can't stand one more second of a basketball game.  (Hand raised high in air.)  Yes, March Madness has made its presence known in this household.  One way I can tolerate this much basketball is to make it an event, a food event naturally.  I made these meatballs for Superbowl Sunday but sadly, forgot to take a picture.  Luckily I remembered this time. These meatballs are definitely on the spicy side, so they are not something to make for the faint of heart.  I saw a couple different recipes for these on Pinterest, but when I made them, something was just off.  This recipe I created by using the recipe for my Grandma's meatballs, but instead of using ground beef I used ground chicken.  One of the recipes on Pinterest called for the meatballs to be baked.  While this sounds like a good idea to try to make them a little healthier, what I found is that the meatballs were baking in their own greasy, slimy juices and it just made for a weird texture w

I'm not Irish, but if there was one heritage I wish I could be its Irish; and French, and Greek, and Brazilian, and Argentinian...ok, so I admire a lot of heritages.  But Irish seems like a good thing to be, especially this time of year.  So on a particularly rainy and dreary Sunday, after a week of colds and sickness, beef and stout stew sounded like a good idea.  I searched the Internet for a recipe that I could use, but I didn't find one I liked.  Meaning: I wanted one that was simple and didn't take too long (so no slow cooker.)  So, I made up my own recipe.  I've only done this a handful of times with mixed success, so I was a little nervous.  But it turned out great!  I basically went with a beouf bourginon process, only with stout instead of red wine.  It might not be the most authentic Irish stew, but I hope it would make an Irish person proud.  Beef and Stout Stew (Serves 4) 1 lb beef stew meat, cut into 1 1/2 inch cubes* 1 bottle of