We dug another old favorite from Plated out of the archive last night and I just have to share. This Greek meatball dish is amazing!

2 tomatoes, divided
1/2 English cucumber (or 2 of the small size)
1/8 oz parsley, divided
1 lemon
olive oil
1 red onion, divided*
1 spice mix (1/8 tsp each cinnamon, coriander & cumin, 1/4 tsp each dried mint & dried oregano)
2 Tbsp breadcrumbs (I use Panko)
1 egg
salt & pepper
10 oz ground pork*
2 oz crumbled feta cheese
1 c flour, divided
1 tsp baking powder
1/3 c milk
tzatziki sauce, if desired*

Preheat oven to 425F. Rinse all produce. Cut the tomatoes into 1/2″ dice; finely chop 1/4 of of the cut tomatoes (leaving the remainder in 1/2″ dice for making the salad). Quarter or half the cucumber lengthwise (depending on size), then cut crosswise into 1/2-inch pieces. Rough chop the parsley leaves. Halve the lemon. Peel the onion & cut into small dice.

In a large bowl, combine spice mix, breadcrumbs, the finely chopped tomato, 1 Tbsp of the onion, egg, 1/2 tsp salt & pepper; add the pork. Using your hands, mix well & then form into 10 equal balls, about 2″. Arrange meatballs on a foil-lined baking sheet, spacing apart as much as possible. Bake until cooked through & slightly browned, about 15 minutes.

In a medium bowl, whisk together juice of 1/2 lemon, 1 Tbsp olive oil, 1/4 tsp salt, and pepper. Add feta, cucumber, remaining diced tomato, half the parsley, and remaining onion. Toss to combine & set aside to marinate.

Reserve 1 tsp flour in a small bowl & set aside. In a separate medium bowl, combine baking powder, 1/3 c milk, remaining flour, remaining parsley, and 1/8 tsp salt. Stir vigorously until combined & a dough begins to form. Sprinkle reserved flour onto a clean, dry surface; turn out the dough and knead until soft & pliable, about 2-3 minutes. Divide into 2 equal pieces.

Using a rolling pin or your hands, roll & stretch dough into circular shape, about 1/4″ thick. Heat 2 Tbsp oil in a large nonstick pan over medium-high heat. When oil is shimmering, add dough, one disc at a time. Cook, working in batches, if needed, and adding oil as needed, until golden — 3-4 minutes. Flip, reduce heat to medium, and cook until dough is cooked through — another 3-4 minutes.

Transfer flatbreads, pork keftedes, and Greek salad to serving plates.

*NOTES: Ground pork typically comes in 1-lb packages, so I make 16 one-ounce meatballs. I don’t really adjust anything else. Red onion is strong, so we use far, FAR less than one whole onion… I don’t think we use even 1/4. Your mileage may vary. We have also found that adding some tzatziki sauce to the plate is excellent — it’s become a must when we serve this dish!

Simple Tzatziki Sauce

4 oz Greek yogurt
1 cucumber
salt & pepper

Coarsely grate cucumber; place between paper towels to remove moisture.

In a small bowl, combine yogurt, grated cucumbers, and season generously with salt & pepper.

This is a super-simple & pared down tzatziki sauce that works great with this recipe — feel free to add some garlic, lemon juice, if desired.

…but methinks that if this forecast comes true, it must break a record or two!

My benchmark for "nice" April weather in Wisconsin has always been 1987, the year that Ali was born. We'd had a very mild winter and then, suddenly, it was spring — 70F when I went to the hospital, pretty much remaining there during my stay. I watched the leaves pop out while I was in the hospital! On my release, which was Easter Sunday that year, we had Easter dinner at my mom's… outside!

Obviously, we had Easter dinner outside (more or less) again this year, but WOW, would you look at those temperatures? A full week earlier and 6-11 degrees warmer than my benchmark of 1987.

As I recall, it continued mild in '87 right up until Memorial Day Weekend when it suddenly got HOTTER THAN HELL! And it stayed HOT all summer long. 2yo Katie's hair was so curly that summer, and Ali & I just sat in front of whatever air conditioner or fan we could find so we wouldn't melt into a puddle.

ANYWAY, enough again about the weather!

I found the curried shrimp recipe that I mentioned the other day and remembered why I really wanted to share it — it wasn't just rice, it was cauliflower fried rice. It was so good! The recipe is called Cauliflower Fried Rice with Curried Shrimp, it's from Food Network. I cut it in half when I made it because I had a half-pound of shrimp in the freezer. As mentioned earlier, I had WAY too much rice. Part of that was by design — I didn't want to have any leftover riced cauliflower, so I upped the proportion of rice to match — but my BIGGEST mistake was MAKING that much rice instead of USING that much rice. I put 2 cups of dry rice in my Instant Pot (my favorite way to cook rice these days), which of course yielded A LOT! I just wasn't thinking, and USED IT ALL. Rusty quizzed me a couple of times about the quantity of rice & how it was listed in the recipe, and my blunder still didn't register… for quite a while.