Tuesday, September 26, 2006

Yes, The Presentation Went Well. Thanks for Asking.

So, by 9am, I was home and ready to play Betty Homemaker. I made my grandmother's famous meatballs (the ones my husband loves). Also I made a big huge pot of marinara. (What? Did you think I was going to clean? Do you know me??)

But, I can't give away my secrets, and give you the recipe. If I did, you'd never come over for dinner again. So, you just get some snapshots:

To hold the meatballs together:

Bread

The large bowl of meat and etc:

Ingredients

Matt begged me not to post this picture because he said it looked like an "alien fetus".

Because of this, I didn't post the next 2 pictures in the series. Partially because the reflective bowl really distorts the pictures. And partially because they looked like alien feti.

So, then, 12 steps later, I form the mixture into balls. (I can't tell you all of my secrets, can I? You can already see that I use 4 eggs. That's enough to get me disowned, and told never to come back to Calabria again.)

Formed Balls

Then, bake, at 350 for 30 minutes.

At this point, I talk to Matt on GChat. "Guess what I just put in the oven?" I ask him. "KITTENS?" he replies.

He's in big trouble. HUGE. I almost sent him to bed without any dinner, but. I knew that starving him wouldn't solve his issues. So....

Baked

Take them out, and freeze the 'balls that you're not going to eat in the next... 3 days or so. I like to wrap in tin foil, and then throw them all in a big ziploc bag. Keeps the freezer burn away. Which means I have a dozen meatballs ready to be defrosted and then continue with the following steps...

So, about 10 minutes before eating, put the meatballs under the broiler. Matt likes his tres crispy, so this last step was improvised. My great-grandmother always put her meatballs in the sauce, and simmered them in the marinara for at least 15 minutes. But... this is not the way of the Pink Shoe House.

So, I would have taken a picture of the broiled meatballs, or the full plate with rigatoni, marinara, and meatballs, but I was too busy eating. Sorry.

(Good thing #1 about making the meatballs: YUM. [Subsection under Good thing #1: Matt thinks: YUM, too.] Good thing #2: Blog fodder. Good thing #3: Freezer full of meatballs and extra marinara.)

10 comments:

Save Sheila said...

When are you having all your blog readers over for dinner???

Princess in Galoshes said...

Um. Seriously. I think my invite may have gotten lost in the mail? Call next, time, 'k?

Also: kittens = Very Bad Answer. I once had a dream about that. It still haunts me. -1 point for Matt. (Extra points for his Martha-Stewart-esque wife, minus the criminal record, though, for those amazing-looing meatballs.)

Jules said...

LOL!!Those are EGGS!! OMG, I totally thought they were 4 grapes! They look sort of like pale green grapes. I am not kidding. I was like "what is she doing putting GRAPES in meatballs"...NOW I get it. HA

Guwi said...

If I ask nicely, will you give me the recipe? I promise I will not tell relatives or anyone else that would be uber-mad at you for sharing. Think of it as...sharing the love. Because food is love. And meatballs? Also love.

It's just that every time I've tried to make italian meatballs they come out a bland, gooey, shapeless mess. I'm not a half-bad cook, either, and somehow meatball success eludes me. My mom used to make kickin' swedish meatballs. Might you be interested in a recipe trade?

I'll beg if I have to.

meno said...

You can tell us the recipe, we won't tell anyone else, we promise.

SarahReznor said...

well, i gotta say, the meatballs look yummy but the mixture does look like unborn alien. i'm pretty tired today but it took me like 30 seconds to realized the yellow stuff was eggs.... . . .

Kelly said...

Thanks for reminding me that I love meatballs. I have a great recipe too.... but it isn't a family one. Just some random cookbook.

Anonymous said...

I know it's only 10am and I've just had breakfast and I know the mixture doesn't look to appetising, but OMG the slight those cooked meatballs are making me hungry!

Anonymous said...

Those ARE the best meatballs ever. Your sister made them for Christmas or Easter or some holiday recently and brought them over to River Forest, and oh man... *drool*

v said...

First off, how are people having trouble identifying the eggs as eggs? Seriously people, they look like eggs. Those of you that misidentified them, I think you should import your eggs from now on.

And B, those meatballs look pretty damn good. How much fat are in a serving? I know marinara is far less fattening than the white sauce. What's it called again? Alfredo?

And iii, that bowl does look like something extra-terrestrial. Though let's face it, meatballs look alien. You could call them cooked alien gall bladders or something.