Six Peeps

June 21, 2007

Me and my Boy / How to make a good meat-a-ball!

Jenny has been out of town these last few days, which meant that I have packed up my work and have been working from home, vs. the studio so that I could also take care of little G. I HATE working from home, I am always so much more pruductive when I have an actual “work environment to go to”. It’s harder to wake up early for some reason when I don’t feel like there’s anywhere I have to go, and consequently I stay up until like 2-3 AM to make up for my less-than-productive days, so I am so pumped to get back on my routing of actually “going to work”.

There has been an up side to it all though, I have spent all day with my boy G, and he is such a great dog. You’d never guess he’s just 9 months old. He is so low-maintenance, and we have had fun, jogging every day this week, running errands together, etc. He always has to be right next to me, wherever I go, and I think that’s nice. Here we are yesterday. Oh, thanks for the hat I am wearing is from one of my peeps, a patroller from mt. hood! Love that hat!

My dog’s name is Gary - that’s right, he has a human name. The most common reaction I get when I tell strangers his name, is, “Hey my dad’s name is Gary!”. Apparently there are a lot of human dads named Gary.

And now, because I know this has so much to do with my dog, I am going to show you how to make a good meat-a-ball with rigatone (I have been getting requests by my peeps).

1. You are going to need some fresh garlic, onion, parsley

2. Chop the onion (for the meatballs, I chopped it really fine, for the sauce a little less-fine) Really chop up that garlic and parsley

3. In a bowl, mix up some ground beef, and a little ground lamb (if you feel like getting frisky), add onion, garlic, parsley, two eggs, some breadcrumbs. Wash your hands, then hand-mix.

4. Roll up some meat-a-balls! about an inch and a half in diameter! Bake at 350 degrees for about 10 minutes or until they appear to be cooked. Cut one open if you have to. I don’t mnd if they are not totally cooked, because I will throw them in the sauce while the sauce is still cooking and it adds to the flavor that way.

And for the sauce:
Don’t use all your onion, garlic, and parsley because you need some for the sauce!

1. On medium high heat (closer to medium), get a sauce pan heated up, add olive oil.
2. Sautee some garlic and parsley (don’t burn the garlic, you will hate yourself for that, trust me!) If the oil is crazy hot, then forget it. It’ needs to just barely simmer so that the good flavors come out without burning the garlic.
3. Pour and mix in a big can of tomato sauce, some red wine (a few good splashes), tiny can of tomato paste, tiny can with water, sweet basil (chopped and fresh), the rest of your onion, some salt (about a tablespoon-ish), some sugar (about the same), and I almost always now toss in some italian sausage, RAW. Oh relax, it will cook in the sauce and you will thank me for that tip. I learned it from my dad (see below).

Let it simmer up at low heat.

Cook up your pasta, al dente, please. No one likes overcooked pasta. And then just mix it all together and Viola’! (did I spell that right? no, I think it’s “WALLA!”). Look how fancy, I garnished it with some leftover parsley.

So there you have it, Nonnie’s famous meat-a-ball. Nonnie says, “don tell nobody about this or I break-a you neck!”.
Here’s nonnie herself (from last year)

Other Nonnie-isms that I love:
“Don say no to drug!”
“Are you a-superman, or a-stupida-man?”

June 21, 2007 |