Kafta Kabobs

Why oh why is Mediterranean food so delicious?!  I just love it to pieces.  Just one minor little hiccup... I hate olives.  blah!  Yes yes like loving French food but hating cheese.  Or loving Daily Show and hating Jon Stewart (gasp!)  What can I say, I dislike salty, slimy, briny, chewy black eyeball looking things.

Anyway, this post is dedicated to my dear friend and former teaching colleague, Gina!  First off I owe her an apology for not responding to her email this weekend.  Sorry Gina - I have no excuse other than I'm lame.  You're the best and deserve the best and eff all the rest!  Nuff said!

On ferry to San Juan Islands

Last week or so I blogged about making tzatziki.  [Andrea left a comment on the tzatkiki post with a link to a fab sounding Mediterranean layer dip.  ooh just lose those olives. Thanks Andrea!]  Gina emailed me and said she "loved tzatziki ... fond memories of hotty Greek boyfriend from college ... please post what to put it on!"  Ok raise your hand if you want to hear more about hotty Greek boyfriend?  Stay tuned for details from G in the comments.  hint hint, G.

I feel like I'm still working on Falafel so I made Kafta Kabobs instead.  This is a killer recipe and actually my bro-in-law's favorite.  Couple notes, you can bake like meatballs or actually skewer and grill.  We grill in the summer and bake in the winter.  Do what you like.  Notice anything missing in the picture above?  Yep, tzatziki!  DUH!  In my haste to snap a shot before gobbling it down I forgot it.  Woops.  Imagine it there.

Kafta Kabobs

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground lamb (this isn't always avail in grocery store.  We've used all beef plenty of times just fine)
3/4 cup parsley minced
1 small to medium onion finely diced
2-3 cloves garlic crushed
2 tsp cumin (heaven)
1/4 tsp cinnamon
salt/pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray.

Weigh your options here... I tend to use my food processor and pulse the parsley, throw in large bowl, pulse the onion throw in bowl with parsely, then pulse the garlic throw in bowl with parsley and onion.  This is instead of prepping by hand.  The trade-off is it saves time but you have to wash the food processor vs one knife.  I'd rather wash personally.

Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and mix until well combined.  Another option is to use the Kitchenaide if you have one.  You have to dirty a large bowl anyway so why not use the Kitchenaide and wash the paddle.  Easy.  Only use "Stir" setting and mix until combined.

Shape into short little sausage sized kabobs.  Plop onto cookie sheet and bake for 30 minutes or so.  I cut one in half to make sure they are done.  The best thing about these is you can double or triple the recipe and freeze after baking.  They reheat awesome!  Chow down!