Meatball Surprise

I am not the worlds greatest lover of meat and meat dishes however, I do enjoy beef mince.  The problem is normally how do you give it a new dress each time to  make it interesting and different?  I have tried many ways and often come back to the good old trusted meatball.  They are so yummy and with the different spices you can make a wide variety.  

At the same time I have a loving relationship with jalapeno chillies.  Anything jalapeno is a winner in my book.  I sourced the normal Google field and came across some variations but nothing that really tickled my fancy.  In the end I decided to take a bit from here and a bit from there and do my own thing - Meatball surprise.  I hope you enjoy the recipe and the end result as much as my whole family did.

Ingredients:

• 500g of beef mince
• 1 tub of cream cheese - plain unflavored at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons ketchup/tomato sauce
• 3 tablespoons chutney
• 4 Jalapeno chillies (you can substitute this for any other chilly you prefer)
• 1cup flour
• 1 large onion
• 1 medium sized tomato
• 1teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 teaspoon onion powder
• 2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoon of meat spice or any barbeque flavored spice
•  a handful of fresh chives finely chopped

Add caption

Now the fun part starts!

1. Mix the cream cheese

• Chop your chillies until they are fine but not still have juicy little pieces. Remember if you do not want the mega burn you need to remove the pips.
• Chop your fresh chives and separate about 1/4 of the batch. Keep the rest to one side.
• Mix your chopped chillies and the 1/4 of the chives in with the cream cheese until it is well mixed and spread throughout the mixture.

2. Create the juicy part

• In a blender, place your tomato, onion, chutney, ketchup, and spices together and blend until all the onion and tomato pieces are finely chopped but not turned into a juice. You can also chop the onion and tomato by hand if you do not have a blender and then mix in the rest of the ingredients.

•  Once everything is finely chopped add the chives that you have saved to the mixture.

3. Mix your meat and other ingredients

• Add the tomato and onion mix to your mince meat and slowly start adding the flour while you mix.  You may find that you want to add more or less depending on the consistency you want in the final mixture.  Remember the mixture must be quite stiff for the meatballs to keep their shape during the cooking process.

4. Shape and hollow

• Now you need to get your hands in there and shape your meatballs.  Pinch some of the mixture off and roll between your hands until you have a nice stiff ball that holds it shape when placed on the baking tray. Use your thumb or the back of a table spoon and press a hollow in each meatball.

Don't worry if they loose a bit of their shape you will be shaping them again later.

5.  Filling 

• Once you have laid out all your meatballs spoon your cream cheese and chilly mixture into each of the hollows you created.  Keep on spooning in the mixture until you feel that they are nicely filled and slightly heaped up. Remember  you want lots of filling that you can taste not just an after thought of what could have been :)

6. Create the surprise

• When all the hollows are filled start folding the meat from the sides to cover the cream cheese filling. Work slowly and gently so that the filling does not pop out from the bottom.

• Once the filling is covered, start rolling the meatball between your hands again to form a nice round ball that is well combined. Place the completed meatballs in an oven tray and drizzle a little bit of olive oil in the bottom of the tray.

7.  Bake

• Bake the meatballs in the oven at 200C or 390F for about 30 minutes or until they are cooked.  Your cooking time will vary depending on the size of the meatballs. They should be nice and brown. You can serve with any side dish you prefer.  We enjoyed ours with fluffy potato mash with a rich onion gravy and a small salad heap.

I promise you these are a winner and they fly off the plate.  My batch only lasted for one sitting and there were none left for the next day.  They have a very slight burn combined with the rich cream cheese taste - delectable!

Enjoy!

The Funny Snoody

Everywhere I look I see pictures of snoody's (that's short for snood combined with a hood).  Young and old seem to be wearing them, making them or even asking the knitters and crochet fanatics in their family to make them one.  Eventually it was not long before someone in my family asked me to make her a snoody.  So ordered to started.  Her specific orders:  must be of thick wool, bright colored and must have ears. 

Now why would a grown woman want ears on a snoody?  To understand this part of the order you must understand my younger sister.  She is still the eternal teenager even though she is the mother of an 11 year old.  Always ready for a challenge and with the whimsical taste of a teenager - hence the ears.

Wool purchased, in stunning teal blue with some sassy buttons, I run into the first problem.  The picture link she sent me does not provide a pattern  - why would it?  That would make my life easy and she is not about to make it easy for me.  

After searching the internet for a while I still could not find anything remotely the same as what she was looking for.  Not one to give up that easily I decide to go with my gut and follow the basic design of what I can see on the pictures.  Needless to say I started and pulled out and started and pulled out a dozen times before it finally took the shape I wanted.

Finally after two nights of late crochet I finished.  One bright snoody, with ears produced!!!