Road Trip Food - Meatballs and Beef Jerky

Meatballs as a dinner on part of a road trip:

20 oz. ground turkey
a couple handfuls of fresh spinach chopped finely
some powdered garlic
some dried basil
some dried thyme

Mush it all together, form into ~1" balls, drop onto a cookie sheet, tuck in any spinach ends that are sticking out excessively, and bake at 350 for about 22 minutes.  I put them on parchment paper to help minimize the mess on the cookie sheet.  But they do kind of end up sitting in a pile of their own fat, which is fine, but un-appetizing looking.  I've been wondering about baking these on racks above cookie sheets.  Maybe next time.

Dry-Rub Beef Jerky:

I was mildly worried about how long it would take - so I opted for a dry rub, which helps the meat dry faster than a marinade.

3 lb. of rump roast, sliced thinly, large patches of visible fat trimmed away.  (How thin?  Actually this batch was sandwich-meat thin - thanks to the awesome butcher counter at Harmons.)

Layer into a bowl, sprinklying salt, pepper, garlic, and cumin onto each layer.  Cover with plastic wrap to minimize contact with air, let sit overnight.

Put in dehydrator according to dehydrator instructions.  This took me three batches at about 10 hours each.  But, again, the meat was really, really thin.  I'm storing this in the fridge with a few paper towels in the bag to help pick up any fat or condensation.

Awesome!
Scooter