Tasty Tuesday!

So last week, two friends and I went to The Chopping Block and took the Mystic Pizza class. It was so much fun, and we ended up with a ton of food. Of course we were all so hungry by the time the food was ready that we managed to eat most of it. This weekend, I'm making the roasted garlic foccaccia, but last night I made meatballs.

Granted, these meatballs were originally supposed to be inside calzones, but I don't do meat with my cheese unless it's a hamburger, which I suppose technically makes it a cheeseburger. Whatever. Instead, I made them and had spaghetti and meatballs, which I knew the wee ones would chow on. And they did.

Little Miss proclaimed these The best meatballs ever, Mommy! right before she decided she didn't feel like eating anymore and told me she didn't like them. She was lying. They were good. Mister Man concurred saying Mommy, you make the best meatballs ever. Yeah, I've got them trained well. And I didn't even do the training!

Regardless, these meatballs totally rocked, although I forgot to buy the pork, so add that when you make them. And with Little Miss being dairy free, I didn't put the Parmesean in them, but I certainly doused the pasta with it and ate my saucy meatball with bites of Parm. And then ate my pasta with sauce and more cheese. Because I don't like meat mixing with my pasta. I've got food issues, I know.

I only have the after pictures of this because, well, my hands were meat filled. I forgot to take the meat out of the freezer, so I had to thaw it in the microwave, which meant I had to keep taking off the defrosted parts and putting them in another bowl so they wouldn't cook instead of just defrosting. And then in my mixing, I forgot to put in the salt and pepper. So Mister Man had to do that. And then I couldn't show you the precooked balls because this all took way longer than I thought since I had to walk the wee ones through each step very slowly. And my meat wasn't defrosted. So I had to cook them right away. And ok, so I just totally forgot until I'd served half the meatballs. Sue me. Actually, don't, but just deal with the lack of show you how pictures. It's meatballs, not rocket science today!



For more yummy stuff, check out this week's Tempt My Tummy Tuesday with Blessed With Grace!

Rockin' Meatballs

1 1/2 pounds ground chuck (that's hamburger meat for morons like me who didn't know what to look for at first)
1/2 pound ground pork
2 eggs
1 cup Panko flakes (which ended up all over the floor and stool since my hands were totally meat filled and I let Mister Man do this step 100% by himself)
1 c grated Parmesean (it's possible that when we made this the first time around we put in ummm slightly more than this. And it was good)
1 T sea salt (or ummm as much as Mister Man can grate by himself since my hands are still meat filled which means like a half teaspoon)
Black pepper to taste (and since this is easier to grind, we had more pepper than salt)
1/2 c chopped fresh parsley, basil or oregano (or cilantro since that's what I had, and it was pretty good)

Can you tell I'm slap happy writing this recipe? Mommy's tired.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Put all ingredients in a bowl. Remove all rings and jewelry. Very gently mix the ingredients together until you can no longer see the egg. Don't squish and overwork the meat, or you'll end up with dry meatballs. Shape into small ping pong sized balls. This makes about 24 meatballs, which is enough for two meals in our house. Fortunately, I like leftovers.

Place meatballs on a parchment or sil pat lined baking sheet. Bake about 15 or so minutes until nicely browned. And yes, you'll end up with some leaked out fat if you only use the ground beef. The pork and Parm fixes that mostly. It doesn't stick to the meatballs when you lift them up, I promise.



Enjoy!