Local Beef and Pork Meatballs with Mushroom Gravy & Pasta

Back again with a fun dinner for you and the family! These meatballs are perfect for this fall weather and hopefully it’ll be a hit! It took me about an hour to make the recipe so it’s a good one to make before you pick the kiddos up from school.

Meatballs and Mushroom Gravy

1 pound Ground Pork

1 pound Ground Beef

1 Bell Pepper Medium Diced, 1 yellow onion medium diced, and 3 cloves of garlic chopped & mixed together in a bowl.

2 cups chopped mushrooms

1 Egg

2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoon Black Pepper

1/2 cup breadcrumbs

3 Tablespoons butter

1/4 cup AP Flour

1/4 cup red wine

2 cups beef stock

1 Tablespoon Dijon Mustard

1 pound of your favorite Pasta (Cooked)

Git-R-Done

Step one is to make our meatballs. Place your ground meats in a bowl and mix in 1 teaspoon of the salt and pepper, the egg, the breadcrumbs, and 3/4 of a cup of the peppers, onions, and garlic. Mix thoroughly. Melt your butter in a large high sided pan that you can put a lid on. Ball your meatballs up so they’re a little larger than a golf ball and sear on both sides. Remove the meatballs and sweat the remaining pepper & onion mixture. Add your mushrooms and sauté them. Now it’s time to deglaze with the red wine and reduce by about half. Add your beef stock, remaining salt, pepper and the mustard and bring to a slow simmer. Add your meatballs back into the liquid, place a lid on your pan, and cook for 30 minutes. If your pasta isn’t cooked by now this is the perfect chance to do it! After 30 minutes you’re ready to go. Place pasta down first, then a couple of meatballs, and smother that stuff with your gravy! Enjoy!

That’s about the size you’re looking for and the sear color.

Deglazing our pan while enjoying some fine wine.

Click that video to see the positive reviews!

Pro Tip: You can meal prep the meatballs in the gravy and all you need to do is heat and serve.

Pro Tip 2: Pick a red wine you’d like to drink with dinner to cook with and it’ll be an amazing pairing.

Cheers!

Chip

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Looking for a fun dinner idea for the kids? Then this blog post is for you! Today I’m going to walk you through making mini chicken pot pies. Don’t be intimidated by the amount of steps. All the steps are relatively easy. All you’ll need is a muffin tin and a food processor.

Mini Chicken Pot Pies

Pie Crust

2 2/3 cups of flour

8 ounces (AKA two sticks) of COLD unsalted butter

1/2 cup ice water

pinch of salt

Git-R-Done

The first step is making the pie crust. It is easier to do this in a food processor or mixer but it can be done by hand. Place flour and salt in food processor. Cube up butter and add to the flour. Runn the food processor until the butter has been cut into the flour mixture. You don’t want large chunks of butter in the flour. Now slowly drizzle the water into the flour mixture while running the food processor. The dough should feel sort of like playdough. Place dough on a floured surface and gently work into a ball. You do not want to over mix because the dough will become tough. If you’re going to use the dough right away allow it to rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. You can also make this dough and use it the next day or so.

Pie Filling

4 ounces butter (AKA one stick)

1/4 cup of flour

Half an Onion Medium Diced

1/2 cup carrots, Peeled and Medium Diced

1/2 cup celery medium diced

2 cloves of chopped garlic

2 or 3 chicken breasts, cooked and shredded

1 cup of milk

1 cup chicken broth

Git-R-Done

Melt your butter in a large pot. Add your vegetables and cook until the onions are translucent. Try your best not to get any color on the vegetables. Add your flour and cook for a minute or so. You do not want any color on the flour. The flour mixture should look like wet sand so you may need to add more butter or flour to get the correct consistency. Now add your chicken broth and milk and allow to come to a simmer. The liquid should thicken. If it is too thick feel free to add more broth or milk to get the consistency, you like! This can also be done in advance.

Now it’s time for assembly!

Cut your pie dough in half and roll it on a floured surface until it’s about an 1/8 of an inch thick. Depending on the size of your muffin tins you might have to get creative how to cut the dough. I used a rocks glass to cut the dough and i needed to roll it a little more so I had enough dough to Fill the muffin tin. Spray the muffin tin with pan spray for the amount of pot pies you’re making. Lay the dough so it covers the bottoms and the sides of the tin. Now take your filling and fill each pie up a little over 3/4s of the way. Now you need to roll out the tops for your pies! Roll out more pie dough in the same way and the same size to cover them up. Place a piece of dough on top of each pie and press with a fork where the two pieces of dough touch to seal. Take a small knife and cut a slit on top so steam can escape while you’re baking.

Filling up the pies.

Filled and Topped Pies

SHAKE AND BAKE

Set your oven to 400 degrees for and bake for about 20 minutes. I always start at 20 minutes and bake longer if i need to. The dough should be slightly browned and firm to the touch. Allow to cool for 15-20 minutes and you should be good to go!

Pro Tip: You could use store bought pie crust if you’re looking to save time.

Pro Tip 2: Feel free to add some frozen peas to the filling.

Cheers!

Chip