So Far, So Good, But It's Only Tuesday

Following through on the Shoestring Budget Plan, last night was chicken fried rice and the leftover mussels from Saturday night. Tonight, since Jackson had to be whisked to taekwondo for testing at 7:30, we did spaghetti. I had meatballs in the freezer for Jackson and the already cooked Italian sausage for those who prefer spicier fare, so all I had to do was boil water, heat the sauce and dinner was ready. A nice glass of Fetzer cabernet sauvignon (a/k/a House Wine) rounded out the meal for me, and we were off to taekwondo, where Jackson did his moves, broke a board, and moved on to the next level. He's getting really close to being a black belt!

As for the meatballs, I use my mother's basic recipe and jazz it up a bit. Take 1 lb. ground meat (the leaner the better -- I usually get ground sirloin) and put it in a bowl with 1 egg, a healthy amount (1 cup maybe?) of Italian style bread crumbs (Mom used to shred stale bread but that's WAY too much trouble and I like the extra seasoning kick you get with the Italian style bread crumbs), salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. I'm proud to say that I've been doing this long enough that I can just throw things in without measuring, which may give some of you a total conniption, but play around with it until you get a mixture that you like and before you know it, you'll be throwing it around too.

Mix it all up with your hands -- this is the fun part and makes me feel like a kid with Playdoh again -- and form the mixture into 12 or 14 meatballs. Find a frying pan that will hold all of the meatballs and pour olive oil in it (enough to cover the bottom of the pan nicely but not enough to drown the meatballs -- this is not a deep frying exercise). Heat the olive oil and put the meatballs in when the oil gets hot. Brown them on at least two sides on high heat, and then cover the frying pan, turn the heat to medium, and putter around the kitchen or have a drink of wine for a few minutes. If you're making spaghetti at the same time, that's a good time to turn on the pot of water and heat it up.

After about 5-10 minutes, lift the lid and cut one of the meatballs to see if it's cooked. No need to cook them dry since you're going to dump them in sauce and heat them up all over again anyway -- and nobody likes a tough meatball -- so just make sure they're not raw in the middle, and you're done!

Meatballs may not be elegant, but they are quite handy to have in the freezer when you have to make a fast meal of spaghetti or meatball sandwiches.

Tomorrow I have jury duty so if I get home early I'll tackle the chicken and might even make the quiche. Still can't figure out what I want to do with that chicken . . .