I am sorry there has been a delay since my last post -
how many different ways can you say E X H A U S T E D!
Anyone out there with school aged kids know the phenomina - it is as if they fire off the starting gun at the beginning of May and us Mom's are running an endurance sprint to the end of the school year.
Piano recital,
Guitar recital,
Two class parties,
Field Days,
Awards Assembly,
Band Concert,
Volunteer Appreciation Chapel, and
Did I mention I am going tent camping with the Gluten Free Kid's entire 6th grade class at Mt St Helens!!
And it is Spring in the rest of the nation and you are all probably getting in the mood for salads and grilled fish. How about some homemade raspberry sorbet?
We had two hot and glorious days of summer in Seattle this last weekend - I mean glorious days, and there is nowhere more beautiful than Seattle in the sun.
But we are back to the drizzly gray spring that has hung over our heads for most of this year, so we are still eating comfort food (and drinking lots of coffee).
So instead of a wonderful salad recipe (they will be coming soon as I love salad), I have homemade
Better Than Your Mom's Spaghetti and Meatballs.
Yes - better than your Mom’s meatballs and spaghetti. (Actually I never remember eating homemade meatballs as a kid, but the title sounded catchy!)
The kids in our family out-number the adults, so the recipes posted here are designed with kids in mind. However, these meatballs are so good that adults will not be able to turn them down. No compromising for the kids on this meal – these are the kind you get at a good ( family oriented) restaurant.
Yes –they are time consuming. Anytime you put the words homemade and meatballs together, you are in for a couple of hours which makes absolutely no sense given how busy we currently are, but I love to cook so a couple of hours in my kitchen with the right music (
Madeleine Peyroux is good for meatballs) and I am feeling calmed down again.I made
Chebe bread sticks while things were cooking. We ended up with two dinners and two lunches for me (I am the leftover queen when it comes to lunch) out of this recipe.
For the Meatballs
1 pound sausage (we love Beelers breakfast sausage) or for a milder meatball use ½ pound veal and ½ pound pork
1 pound ground beef
1 cup bread crumbs (make your own by taking stale bread and whirling it in the food processor or use Ener-G crackers or Hol-Grain Brown Rice Bread Crumbs)
1 t parsley flakes (or 2 T chopped fresh)
½ cup grated Parmesan cheese (use Vegan Grated Topping for CF)
2 t kosher salt
½ t pepper
¼ t ground nutmeg
1 egg beaten
½ cup warm water
Vegetable oil
Olive oil
For the Sauce
1 T good olive oil
1 chopped yellow onion
1 ½ t minced garlic
½ cup red wine such as Chianti
1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes
½ t parsley flakes (or 1 T chopped fresh)
1 ½ t kosher salt
½ t pepper
Of course, 1 ½ pounds GF spaghetti
Mix the ground meats, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg and ½ cup warm water in a bowl.
With your hands, lightly form 2-inch meatballs. Yields 14 – 16 meatballs.
Pour equal amounts of vegetable and olive oil in a large skillet to ¼ inch depth. Heat the oil. Brown the meatballs on medium-low heat in batches (it took me 3 batches). Carefully turn them to brown all sides – tongs work well for this. It takes about 10 minutes for each batch.
Remove the meatballs to a plate and discard the oil, but do not clean the pan.
For the sauce, heat olive oil in the same pan. Add the onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent, 5 – 10 minutes.
Add the garlic and cook for one more minute.
Add the wine and cook on high heat, scraping up the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates – about 3 minutes.
Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt and pepper. At this point I set aside a little of the sauce for the vegetarian in the family.
Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover and simmer on low for about 30 minutes, until meatballs are cooked through.
Serve over cooked spaghetti with grated Parmesan cheese,
Caesar salad and bread sticks.As usual, all of the recipes are indexed on my website at
Gluten Free Mom.com
