When you have a child, you don’t attend as many parties as you used to, pre-child. At least, my husband and I don’t, but that may not be the best indicator of what most people do or do not do. I mean, we rent movies from the library (it’s free! You can keep them for three weeks!), and, up until about a month ago, I’d been using the same cell phone that I’d had since 2007 (what? It still worked—sort of). What I am saying is, we’re not your average people. If anything, we’re probably pretty below average. All right, now I am just starting to feel a little depressed.
Moving on, sometimes when I think of the holiday seasons my husband and I used to celebrate, pre-child, I fondly remember the packed tables of tiny finger foods, petite glasses of sparkling beverages, and the dulcet tones of—all right, so none of that ever really happened. Mostly our pre-child holiday party experiences were a lot like our pre-child any-time-of-the-year party experiences: beer, chips, band in the basement.
The thing is, I’ve never been a dedicated party person. The experience of too many humans packed into one space tends to leave me a bit cramped and annoyed, and, to be candid, whenever I tried to enjoy a loud basement band I inevitably spent the majority of my band-watching time being worried that people might spill stuff all over the floor or drunkenly slam into me, or perhaps spill stuff all over me while drunkenly slamming into the floor. I’m too much of a wienie for parties.
But! I still like party food, even if that food is decidedly different from the type of foods I ate when I actually went to parties. How nice would it have been to walk into a (calm) party and see these delightful little turkey meatballs sitting on a platter, self-decorated Italian parsley-adorned toothpick dutifully saluting forth from each one? With little pearls of feta cheese hidden in each bite, the taste pairing so beautifully with the mellow spices and bright hit of lemon zest, these meatballs are the perfect addition to an offering of tasty party snacks. We ate them on a quiet evening, as a party of three, then retreated to the living room afterwards to partake in a bit of dancing. To Minor Threat. (What? We haven’t completely changed.)
More Party-Appropriate Foods: Smoked Salmon Canapés on Potato Crisps, Tiny Party Sandwiches, Quick All-Parmesan Crackers (gluten-free!), Savory Walnut and Olive Oil Sables, Crispy Roasted Masala Chickpeas and, wow, I am only now realizing how many tiny, fork-free foods I have on this site.
Mediterranean Cocktail Meatballs
1 pound of ground turkey, not lean
¼ cup chopped onion
1 large clove of garlic, finely minced
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped Italian parsley
1 tablespoon chopped fresh mint
1 teaspoon ground coriander
¼ teaspoon ground cumin
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
4 ounces crumbed feta cheese
salt and pepper to taste
Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Alternately, if you want to pan fry the meatballs instead of bake them, you can forgo the baking sheet and oven and just grab a large skillet.
In a large bowl, combine all of the ingredients, except for the feta cheese. Using your hands or a sturdy spatula, mix together all of the ingredients until they are well combined. Gently fold in the feta until uniformly incorporated.
Form about 1 level tablespoon of the meat mixture at a time into a small meatball. You can either place the meatballs on the parchment-lined baking sheet and then bake them for around 12 to 15 minutes until they are cooked through, or you can pan fry them in a little olive oil in a hot skillet, turning every couple of minutes until the meatballs have browned on the outside and cooked completely through.
Makes roughly 40 meatballs, give or take a few, depending on how generous your tablespoon scoops are.
Savory Salty Sweet 