Sarcastic Cooking

Dishing up honest food with a dash of humor...

Spinach and Artichoke Cheese Ball Covered in Bacon Breadcrumbs

Spinach and Artichoke Cheese Ball Covered in Bacon Breadcrumbs | Sarcastic Cooking

Balls, and balls, and balls! I have seen so many recipes for cheese balls come through my blog feed today. And still, here I am shoving another ball in your face. Maybe the reason people are all about cheese balls for a New Year’s Eve appetizer recipe is because they are so easy.

Up until this year, the only balls of cheese I was familiar with are the ones from my college days, fried cheese curds. Every Wednesday, my friends and I would put on our best jeans and ironic t-shirts and head to our local college bar for $2 pitchers of beer and $5 baskets of cheese balls. Yes, you read that correctly, Wednesday. After we finished our homework and studying, of course. [Read more…]

Copycat Potbelly’s Mediterranean Veggie Sandwich and a Giveaway

Oh boy, oh boy, oh boy!!! I am so excited about this giveaway and recipe today, I cannot even hide my excitement. I actually wish I could enter this giveaway myself!

As I have mentioned before, if you follow my Instagram and Twitter feed, (if you don’t why don’t you, I thought we were friends??) you know that my pregnancy cravings have consisted of pickles and Potbelly’s sandwiches. More specifically, their Mediterranean sandwich. Since I am a first time pregnant lady, I am all paranoid about eating lunchmeat, so I always get this sandwich either with chicken or with mushrooms instead of any meat. It is so good. Also, grabbing one of their shakes on the way out for a snack later is a really good idea too! [Read more…]

Shaved Artichoke Pizza

A while ago, Mike and I went out to dinner with some good friends. We went to a little fancy pizza place that we had never ever been to before. It was tucked away downtown in between all these well-known restaurants. I would have walked right past it—wait, actually we drove past it. Twice!

I love little unassuming places like this. Good food made in a simple wood burning oven. Our friends say this is their fancy date restaurant. If we lived closer, this would be an every single weekend kind of restaurant. But that is because Mike and I love routine. [Read more…]

Mediterranean Fajitas

When my siblings and I were younger, our family used to go to dinner every other Sunday with my Grandma. My Grandma, as I have told you before, only has a few favorite restaurants. I’ve spoken about her love of Bennigan’s. She also loved to go to any buffet, Bohemian restaurants, or Chili’s.

At Chili’s she would always order a margarita and the fajitas. She chose the fajita’s because she always had a lot of leftovers to take home in a “doggy bag.” That is actually her main reason for going to most of the restaurants she likes to this day. [Read more…]

Fried Citrus & Herb Artichoke Hearts

I am a huge fan of artichoke hearts. I buy them in the jar in a marinade. I add them to salads and snack on them solo, while standing in my kitchen all alone because I am weird like that.

I have never ever made anything with or even handled a real fresh artichoke. I remember back in high school. I was a sophomore and, in our English class, we had to do a “how to” speech. I demonstrated how to make strawberry pretzel Jell-O. It was a huge hit.

There were these two 100% Italian boys in my class who demonstrated how to clean and prepare an artichoke. So, when I was doing my weekly grocery shopping and saw artichoke hearts, I thought, well, if these high school boys could do it, so could I!

My experience of peeling off a majority of the leaves to get to the heart was a bit prickly, but easy. Then you have to scrape out the hairy choke part—ok, easy.

Then heat the oil, give them a quick fry, and then toss with citrus zest and herbs. So easy! It is like a bite size bloomin’ onion, except not breaded and, well, not an onion. Don’t be scurred of the artichoke! They may be a bit prickly, but besides that, I say they are so easy to work with.

This would definitely be a show stopping holiday appetizer.

Fried Citrus & Herb Artichoke Hearts
 
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Author:
Serves: 4 – 6

Ingredients
  • 4 Large Artichokes
  • ½ Lemon
  • Vegetable Oil, for frying
  • 2 Tablespoons Minced Flat-Leaf Parsley
  • 1 Teaspoon Finely Grated Lemon Zest
  • 1 Teaspoon Finely Grated Orange Zest
  • ½ Teaspoon Crushed Red Pepper Flakes
  • 1 Teaspoon Sea Salt

Instructions
  1. Working with 1 artichoke at a time, using a serrated knife or just pulling them off by hand, trim off all but 2 inches of the leaves. Pull off and discard the dark green outer leaves, then peel and trim the bottom and the stem. Quarter the artichoke and scrape out the hairy choke. Rub the artichoke quarters all over with the lemon half, squeeze the extra lemon juice into a small bowl of water and add the quartered artichoke to the lemon water. Repeat with the remaining artichokes.
  2. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Add the artichoke heart quarters to the boiling water. Blanch them for about three minutes. Remove hearts and pat dry.
  3. In a medium saucepan, heat 1 inch of oil to 350°. Fry the artichokes until crisp, 3 to 5 minutes. Transfer to paper towels to drain.
  4. In a large bowl, toss the artichokes together with the parsley, zests, red pepper, and salt. Serve right away.

Recipe adapted from Food & Wine.

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