May, 2006

  1. Chicken Salad Balls

    May 31, 2006 by Tarrant Figlio

    From Southern Living: Our Best Recipes. Volume 3, 1978.

    1 cup cooked chicken

    1 tablespoon chopped onion

    2 tablespoons chopped pimiento

    dash of hot sauce

    1/2 cup salad dressing or mayonnaise*

    1 cup chopped pecans

    *the cookbook actually has a typo here that says manonnaise…maybe because they are balls? I don’t think I would use this much mayo.

    Combine all ingredients, mixing well; chill several hours. Shape into 1-inch balls. Yield: about 2 dozen.

    For a another interesting chicken balls recipe, though I don’t know if it qualifies as retro at all, and it isn’t chicken salad balled up see the Hot Chicken Balls Salad recipe.


  2. Mama’s Meatballs

    May 30, 2006 by Tarrant Figlio

    Make your favorite meatball recipe or better yet “cheat” and buy them frozen. This would be a recipe for small meatballs, not those giant things that go on spaghetti. Cook them thoroughly. (Don’t forget your food thermometer! Ok, so, I have never used a food thermometer to make this recipe but you really ought to because ground meat is like that.)

    Before the advent of frozen meatballs, my mother generally mixed ground beef, onion soup mix, an egg and breadcrumbs together for the meatballs for this recipe. Clearly meatballs themselves are not her specialty but it doesn’t really matter because, well, the sauce is the thing.

    Combine 1 package of onion soup mix, one small jar apricot jam/preserves, 1 small bottle russian dressing in a small saucepot. Heat until melted/combined. Pour over meatballs. Then you can serve or you can throw them in a crockpot on low and let them work their party magic. Rumor is that you can serve them over rice or noodles, but can’t say that I have ever done such a thing.


  3. Retro-Food of the Week: Balls

    May 30, 2006 by Tarrant Figlio

    Yes, that’s right. We are going to grow a pair and cook balls this week. Meatballs, sausage balls, maybe even matzoh balls and those yummy-no cook peanut butter chocolate balls.

    No, no, sorry to disappoint you, no family jewels on the menu, if you are interested in recipes for those, click here.


  4. Brim Coffee

    May 29, 2006 by Tarrant Figlio

    BrimDoes anyone know when Brim coffee vanished? Does anyone know that it has vanished for certain? How many of you complete “fill it to the rim” with Brim? Have you ever had a cup of Brim? I am afraid I haven’t, but I will admit that some of my earliest coffee experimenting was with the Sunrise coffee also pictured on this page from Rita’s Retros. My mother had a jar of sunrise that I think my grandparents had left, though I am not sure of that. I do remember digging into the hardened mass with a spoon and deciding coffee was overrated. (keep in mind I was probably 6) I am glad I got past that.
    Accompanying this post is the inspirational mug of Late Night Log-in from Boca Java. I am enjoying it quite a bit. Smooth I think describes it to perfection. Smooth, of course being a code word for: nice for folks who think they like coffee but really like something drinkable. It truly suits me: the coffee drinker who finds the fussiness of the coffee pros a bit off-putting and likes coffee in the morning or with dessert but reaches for Coca-cola the rest of the day. For this, I might be able to put away my coke.