May 15
Cloudy. Chance of Meatballs 100%. Maybe Some Volcanic Activity.
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- "Quicker" Meatballs [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- 1 pound beef
- 1 small onion
- 2 cloves garlic (unpeeled)
- salt & pepper
- 1 teaspoon basil
- .5 teaspoon oregano
- 1 tablespoon parsley (cleaned and chopped)
- .33 cup breadcrumbs
- .5 cup cheese (freshly grated, loosely packed)
- 2 large eggs (lightly beaten)
- .5 cup milk
- 2 tablespoons oil (divided)
- 1 recipe tomato sauce
- pasta
Instructions
We dump our ground sirloin into a large bowl. We wash our hands well and then, on our cutting board, we cut the ends off the onion and cut it in half. We discard the peel and cut the onion in half again. We just want the pieces small enough to fit in the chopper attachment of our immersion blender.
We pulse the onion in the chopper until it is finely ground. We dump the watery mixture onto the beef and then press in one garlic clove. We remove and discard the garlic peel from the garlic press and then add the remaining garlic clove. We also add a good pinch of coarse salt and some freshly ground black pepper to the meat.
Next, we add the dried basil, oregano, fresh parsley, breadcrumbs, cheese, eggs (lightly beaten in a ramekin with a fork), and milk to the bowl. We get two dinner plates set on the counter for the formed meatballs. We run out of breadcrumbs so we do not use any additional breadcrumbs in the mixture or as a coating as in our traditional recipe. We proceed on.
Though a bit messy, the best way to mix everything is with our hands. We put on clean disposable gloves and form a meatball into a 1½ inch ball. We place the meatball on the clean plate, and continue with the rest of the meat. We form 15 meatballs in all.
After discarding the gloves and washing up our prep area, we heat 1½ tablespoons of olive oil in our Dutch oven on medium heat.
We begin by frying 8 of the meatballs. We put them gently in the pan and cook them on one side for about 2 minutes, and then rotate them. We brown all sides, about 6 minutes total. We drain these on a clean paper towel lined plate, while we fry the rest in the remaining olive oil.
When all of the meatballs are cooked (although not all the way through yet), we wipe out the Dutch oven using tongs and paper towels. We proceed to cook a <a year="2004" month="04" day="26" label="sauce">quick tomato sauce</a>.
Since we serve the sauce with meatballs over pasta, we also start heating a pot of water at this point.
When the sauce is bubbling, we place the almost-cooked meatballs in the tomato sauce and simmer gently for at least 15 minutes (enough time to get the pasta cooked).
We serve the meatballs with extra sauce on the side. In a sandwich or over pasta, they are yummy!
- Sautéed Spinach with Garlic [View Recipe]
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Ingredients
- 4 cups spinach (tough stems removed, cleaned <howto label="salad"/>, tightly packed)
- 2 cloves garlic
- .5 tablespoon oil
- salt & pepper
Instructions
We start by getting the spinach ready. We buy it at the farmers' market so it needs to be cleaned well. A short-cut for this recipe would be to start with the bagged ready-to-eat spinach at the supermarket.
Moving on to the next ingredient, we peel the garlic cloves and slice them as thin as we can with our sharp knife.
We heat a large pot with the oil over medium-low heat and add the sliced garlic. With a wooden spoon, we spread the garlic into one layer. We cook for a few minutes, slowly infusing the garlic into the oil.
When the garlic is sizzling, we stir and add the spinach a handful at a time. As the spinach is added to the pot, we toss it with tongs, and then add more spinach. When all the spinach is cooking, we continue to toss it as it wilts. In just a few minutes, all the spinach is wilted.
We season the spinach with salt and pepper and serve.
- Caputo's Italian Bread, Fresh from Brooklyn
We went up to New York to visit Nanny and Gramps yesterday. We try to make it up there at least twice a year. This was our spring visit. We really enjoy our visits with them—and we have them down to a science (we think).
We make a day trip, which is somewhat difficult given the distance between Baltimore and Brooklyn. But spending a night or two would put them out too much (they are in their late eighties after all). We leave at 5 in the morning and stop at a Cracker Barrel so that Robin can wow the family with her skills at the triangle golf game. We also have breakfast.
We arrive around 10. After spending some time catching up, we have a little lunch. Yesterday, there would be no pizza because Nanny was tired of pizza, having had it three days in row. Lucky for us, we had to "settle" for cold cuts on Caputo's bread.
After lunch, we played some more—inside and out. For some reason the kids find the back yard the absolute perfect place for playing heads-or-tails—they flips coins! Then we head up to Carroll Park to play on the playground for a bit. Afterwards, we get cookies and pastries, then head back for some more time with Nanny and Gramps.
We spend five or six hours visiting, which is enough time to allow the great-grandparents to enjoy their great-grand-children, but not enough time (hopefully) to wear them out too much.
The drive there and back has gotten much easier in recent years thanks to the DVD player in the mini-van and the EZ Pass for the tolls. The kids watched "Aloha, Scooby Doo" (recorded by Myth the night before) five times.
The baby would have done fantastic on the drive back if our son had not gotten terribly excited about a Target along the turnpike. The baby was soundly asleep until that point. She screamed for the next ten minutes. Darn Target and their quality merchandise at low, low prices. Happily, that was the high stress point of the entire trip.
After we got home, and the kids were in bed, Robin and Chris had Edo Sushi. After a trip to and from Brooklyn, Edo Sushi is perfect. Trust us.
To begin today right, we went to the farmers' market. As fortune would have it, the grills were finally there. The kids were terribly excited about getting their first hot dogs of the season. Almost as excited as Chris was about the sausage sandwich.
In the afternoon, our daughter had lacrosse. She played mid-field and attack and had a great time. In the afternoon the kids played dress up and made play-doh volcanos, complete with vinegar, baking soda, and food coloring. It was a terrible mess, but they enjoyed themselves so much. And after all that, we had a wonderful dinner.
Our daughter read "Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs" to her class on Friday. We thought it only fitting to have meatballs tonight. The Italian bread from Caputo's was also a factor in the decision for meatballs. We had thought to serve the meatballs on the bread as meatball subs, but decided serving them over the pasta would work better for the kids. And it did.
Luke went to bed telling Robin that he likes green (spinach) "every day". Robin left the room raising her fists in the air triumphantly.
And well she should.