Foods you enjoyed as a kid never taste exactly as you remember them; but sometimes you can get pretty close.
Today we made footballs according to the by guess and by gosh method. Using the old hand cranked grinder we ground up about a pound and half of leftover turkey (both white and dark meat) along with about the same amount of cooked Swiss Chard. Then we added about an ounce or so of grated Locatelli, about a teaspoon each of salt and garlic powder, and about a half teaspoon of pepper. I mixed that all up well, Alex and I tasted it for flavor, and then I formed it into footballs about two inches in diameter at the equator. I floured, egged, and breaded those; and then deep fried them.
Excellent! We ate them with mashed potatoes, leftover turkey gravy and swiss chard saute'd with garlic.
Now the question is whether they actually were different from Mom's because she used frozen spinach and we used the last picking of Swiss Chard from the garden (leaves only - the stems are now pithy); or whether 62 year old taste buds don't work exactly the same as 10 year old ones.
Either way they were very fine indeed. A very fine way to dispose of leftover turkey without having to suffer the taste of leftover turkey.
Sully's Side
- Sully
- Collegeville, PA, United States
- Born in Norristown, Pa. to loving parents with whom I stayed close until they passed away. Went to Catholic schools back when we learned the state abbreviations and other things in fear of the rod. Studied some and partied a lot at Illinois Tech courtesy of the U.S. Navy and then went off to 'see His wonders in the deep' for four years in return. Married longer ago than seems possible to a wonderful wife. Fell into and mastered a reasonably lucrative white collar craft. Raised a great son who's now self sufficient. Have been lucky to be able to stay close to my brothers, sister, aunts, uncles and many cousins. Have almost always been able to find interesting and productive work when I've needed or wanted it. Have read more books and been to more places than I could ever have imagined as a gawky kid in the 1950's. Still going reasonably strong long past the millenium which seemed an impossibly far away date back when I was in 'the season of the rising sap'.
6 comments:
I bet they were awesome! I can't wait to make ravioli with everyone. John III is coming, Dave and Bobby and my folks, I believe. Will you be sending out some details? I'm wondering if I need to bring my KitchenAid or just the pasta/grinder attachments.
Uh, that was me, Jenny.
If you have any turkey leftover you could use that for the Ravioli's. Your Mom told me that little trick.
Don A
You can use leftover turkey to make ravioli; but as it turns out Linda just found the holy grail of recipes. In my Aunt Mary's writing on a card there is the recipe for 5 pounds of flour worth of ravioli dough, along with the recipe for the cooked chicken and pork mix to go along with that amount of dough. And on the back there is also a recipe for enough ricotta filling to go along with that volume of dough. The only thing it doesn't say is how many ravioli that 5 pound of flour recipe makes. I'm assuming that was their production recipe for 16 back in the day when Grandmom Luzi and Aunt Mary would have all of us for a holiday dinner. One of these days I'll put it on the blog.
Jenny,
John was telling me about his pasta/grinder attachment thing. Do we need two of those machines to keep two lines of ravioli fillers supplied with dough or will one be enough?
Angela and I are coordinating on an overall list of attendees and on quantities. Based on the number of people we will probably be making two of Aunt Mary's recipes, hence 10 pounds of flour to produce on the order of 400 to 500 ravioli. We will also be producing at least a couple of hundred stuffed olives.
Wow. I cannot wait! I will bring my KitchenAid with the attachments, but I actually have never used either for this sort of thing. I always make the dough and also roll and cut it by hand. John and I are going to practice a little in the morning, so we should be pros by the time we get to your place!
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