Weeks of good food!!

I have been at B&Qs celebrating the arrival of beautiful G for a couple of weeks and and you know there is always lots of good food to be had at their place. We should have been showing you some of the yummy things we have been creating.... but we didn't. So to repent on my final night here we took some pics and are going to share the yummy Chipotle Meatballs meal we had tonight. We made it with ground turkey and loved the special surprise flavor of bacon. It is baked so you don't have to worry about turning the meatballs while they are cooking. They were really complemented well with mashed sweet potatoes. B added low fat cream cheese to the potatoes so they were especially scrupdilliocious!

Here are the pics and recipe....... enjoy!!

Chipotle Meatballs Recipe

(from Everyday Mexican - by Rick Bayless)

INGREDIENTS

• 3 slices bacon in 1-inch pieces
• 3 garlic cloves, peeled
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• Salt
• 1 ¼ pounds ground pork ( we used turkey)
• 1/2 cup (loosely packed) coarsely chopped mint leaves, more for garnish - not sure if Brooke put these in... but I didn't notice the flavor of them, if she did)
• 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted), drained of all but ¼ cup juice
• 1 or 2 canned chipotle chilies in adobo, stemmed, seeded and sauce reserved - didn't use this much.... use to you like of HOTNESS
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• About 1½ cups beef or chicken broth (we didn't add any -- it was a fine consistency).

METHOD

1 Heat oven to 450 degrees. In a food processor, combine bacon and 1 garlic clove. Process until finely chopped. Add eggs, bread crumbs and 1 teaspoon salt. Pulse several times to combine thoroughly, then add pork and mint. (We did not add the meat. We hand mixed it because the texture if weird if the turkey is processed like that) Pulse a few more times until well combined but not a paste. Remove meat from processor.

2 With wet hands, form meat into about 16 plum-size balls ( we did a bazillion walnut sized) and space them out in a 13-by-9-inch baking dish. Bake until lightly browned, about 15 minutes.

3 While meatballs bake, combine tomatoes, ¼ cup tomato juice, chipotles, 1 to 2 tablespoons chipotle sauce, oregano, remaining garlic cloves (cut in half) and ½ teaspoon salt in a blender or food processor. Process to a smooth purée.

4 When meatballs are ready, spoon off rendered fat from baking dish, then pour tomato mixture on top, covering meatballs evenly. Bake until sauce has thickened somewhat, 15 to 20 minutes.

5 Heat broth in a small saucepan. Divide meatballs among four dinner plates, leaving sauce behind. Stir enough broth into sauce to give it a spoonable consistency. Taste and season with salt, if necessary. Spoon sauce over meatballs, decorate with extra mint leaves, if you wish, and serve.

Serves four....... if you are really a big eatter....6 for smaller eaters