Innovation in the Kitchen

Some inventions are related to great need while others are inspiration in the middle of the night. This one was brought about by a minor annoyance.

I host a chili cook-off every year and my wife came up with a great idea several years ago to turn our upright freezer into a drink cooler for the party. It is in the area of the party, holds enough cans and bottles to serve the 40 or so attendees and keeps them cold. We just need to occasionally turn it on low and then turn it off after things are ice cold, so the drinks don’t become…uh…ice.

As a result of using the freezer this way, we need to move all frozen items into the freezer that is part of our refrigerator. Leading up to the party I’ll strive to use up as much as I can that is frozen, but there is always quite a bit we have to cram into the freezer compartment. Once everything is moved we defrost the freezer, dry it out and load it up with beverages.

This year I did not do a very good job of using up frozen items and when it came time to move the items, the freezer compartment was completely full. During the following couple of days whenever I would need something from the freezer, it often meant moving 4-5 items to get to what I wanted. After the third or fourth time of moving a frozen pie crust, a bag of meatballs, a box of puff pastry and a little bag of tomato paste (every recipe only needs 1 tablespoon but the smallest can is 6oz, so I’ve started freezing the remainder), I decided to make something so I wouldn’t have to touch them any more.

Meatball pie! It did not retain the pie shape when put on the plate, but tasted really good.

I added carrots, onion, green pepper, spaghetti sauce and cheese.

Dice and saute the veggies.

Meanwhile heat up the meatballs with some sauce and the paste. I thought the paste would help thicken things and hold the “pie” together a bit better than the sauce alone.

Add it all together.

Put it into the pie crust.

Cover with cheese.

Lay the puff pastry over it and trim.

After baking.

It was very good. My eldest son wants me to make it again. But that means I’d have to touch those items again!