Food from other people

No photo of food this time around but this is what the view looks like for me these days . . . holding baby girl and getting a chance to rest. Some of the reasons I'm able to rest and recover is because a) I have had a lot of help from family and friends - particularly my mom! b) baby girl is a good sleeper and big sister has been doing pretty well with the transition to not being the only kid and c) we've been blessed with food that others have made for us in the past weeks since baby girl was born.

Friends are bringing us meals for a few more weeks and it's been such a huge help in the evening to not have to cook and have a hot, wonderful meal delivered by people we love! If you'd like to bless a friend with meals, check out www.mealbaby.com. It's an online meal registry and works really well.

I thought I'd share two recipes of food we've had recently. My friend Will brought over some Nutella Brownies which were awesome . . . we polished them off before he even left our house (not the full batch below). He made them in mini muffin tins this time but I'm not sure of cooking times for that modification.

The other recipe is for meatballs that my mother-in-law has been making for church potlucks. Now, as my family can attest to, I'm not a huge meatball fan. But, I really like these - they are more like mini meatloaf and there isn't too much sauce (which I prefer). These also disappeared really quickly in our house after they were delivered!

Will's Nutella Brownies (8 large brownies)
originally in Sunset magazine

About ½ cup butter
1 oz. unsweetened chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup flour
1/2 cup Nutella

1. Preheat oven to 350. Generously butter or spray 8 muffin cups

2. Microwave ½ cup butter in a heatproof bowl to melt. Add chocolate, stirring until melted, then add sugar and cocoa and stir to blend. Whisk in eggs, vanilla, and salt. Add flour and stir until smooth. Spoon batter evenly into muffin cups.

3. Using a small spoon, make a depression in each portion of batter 1 in. wide and ½ in. deep. Spoon 1 tbsp Nutella into each.

4. Bake until a toothpick inserted into brownie part comes out with just a few moist crumbs, 20-24 minutes. Let cool on a rack about 10 minutes. Using a small metal spatula, loosen brownies from pans, move to rack, and cool completely.

Judy's Barbequed Meat Balls

Meatballs:
2 1/4 lbs ground beef
1 1/4 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups milk
1 small onion, chopped
2 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/4 tsp pepper
Diced celery and green pepper if desired

Sauce:
1 cup tomato catsup
2 1/4 T worchestershire sauce
1 1/4 cup water
3 3/4 T vinegar
3 T sugar

Mix the meatball ingredients and form into balls. Brown in skillet. Transfer to oven proof pot or casserole dish. Combine sauce ingredients and pour the sauce over the meatballs and bake 1 hour at 350 degrees.