happy football season!

football season is here. which means fall is almost here too! the cooler weather and game day food are some of my favorite things about this season. in honor of the first sunday of football, we had saucy asian meatballs and korean beef tacos. the korean tacos are a longtime fave here but the meatballs were a new recipe. we'll definitely be making them again! 

saucy asian meatballs (adapted from gimme some oven) 

• 1 lb ground pork or ground beef 
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
• optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds, sliced scallions 
for the sauce
• 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger

preheat oven to 400

in a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined. shape into balls (i made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 35 meatballs), and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. bake for 20-25 minutes, or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside. 

while the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended. once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually in the sauce mixture. Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs and gently stir them until covered. 

serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired.

cake batter rice krispy treats

since this weekend is the unofficial start of summer and we're heading to a barbecue tomorrow, i had the perfect excuse to make some cake batter rice krispy treats that i'd been eyeing on gimme some oven. not that i really need an excuse to make something involving cake batter!

cake batter rice krispy treats

• 3 tablespoons of butter
• 1 (10 oz.) bag of mini marshmallows
• 1/3 cup yellow cake mix
• 6 cups crispy rice cereal
• 1.75 oz container of sprinkles or rainbow nonpareils

melt butter in a large saucepan over low heat and add marshmallows. stir until they begin to melt, adding in cake mix one spoonful at a time so its combined. stir in cereal so it is completely coated with marshmallow mixture. sprinkle in half of the sprinkles and mix. press into a baking dish (i used an 8 x 8 pan) and top with remaining sprinkles. let sit for about 30 minutes before cutting. spraying a knife with nonstick spray helps to cut them.