A lovely evening at home

Tonight I managed to make another meal for my man. I'm going to be trying harder over the next year or so to plan menus every week and use up ingredients that I already have on hand. Tonight sparked some of that. I've got plenty of tomatoes around the house (since my garden tomatoes do seem to be ripening at full speed now!) and I was in the mood from some of my frozen organic beef. Doing a quick Internet search, I came across this great recipe!

Fontina stuffed Grilled Meatball Skewers
(original from Better Homes & Gardens)
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 cup parmesan cheese, grated
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning
1 1/2 lb lean ground beef
2 oz thinly sliced proscuitto, chopped
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cracked pepper
1/2" cubes of fontina cheese
1 package baby bella mushrooms
1 pint grape tomatoes
Balsamic Glaze
1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
2 tsp of olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1/4 tsp Italian seasoning
1/4 tsp of salt
1/8 tsp black pepper

Mix meatball ingredients together, then shape a small handful of each around a cube of cheese. Alternate these balls on a skewer with the tomatoes and mushrooms. Once complete, place kabobs on a medium heat grill for about 10-12 minutes. Halfway through cooking time, brush each kabob with balsamic glaze.

I made a few modifications to the meatballs, in that I only used 1 lb of beef, added ~1/2 cup of Italian breadcrumbs, ~1/4 cup of Pepperidge farm stuffing (flakes not cubes), eliminated the Italian seasoning, and splashed on 1 Tbsp of water. Otherwise the recipe was a good start. Another thing to note, is that making this recipe and using what I thought were 1/2" cubes of fontina (maybe they were just a touch smaller), I got a lot more than the 16 meatballs the recipe suggests. I think 29 to be exact. My baby bella mushrooms were sort of on the larger side, and I made the meatballs to be just smaller than those. Go figure.Anyway, while grilling up some meatballs, I also go started on one of my standard summer sides; Lemon herb orzo. I boiled some orzo in chicken stock until al dente, drained it, then threw in some mixed herbs (today sage, chives and parsley), ~2 Tbsp butter, and the juice of 1 lemon. Serious delicious eats.
We also had small garden salads to start dinner, and of course, we opened a bottle of wine. I happened to have this bottle of chianti on hand from when I stocked up as Bella Vino was going out of business. It's a 2006 chianti, and I have to say, is one of the more delicious reds I've had in a while. Very easy drinking with simple dark berry undertones and plenty of subtle spice. Brad gave this meal a "let's have that again" rating.