yummy yummy meatballs

I had a request to post the recipe for the meatballs that were pictured a few days ago. I happily obliged because these meatballs are so flipping delicious that I can hardly believe I made them myself. Here they are...



They are kind of an adaptation of a copycat recipe I found for Rao's meatballs. Rao's is an Italian restaurant in New York that is supposedly amazing - like you can't get a table there amazing. The good thing is there is now another location at Cesar's Palace in Vegas, which I have put on my list of places to go the next time we are in town.

I saw an episode of Giada's Weekend Getaways where she went to this restaurant. She had the meatballs, which they are known for, and they just looked so delicious that I had to make some of my own.

The copycat recipe is right here. My adaptation is as follows:

• 1lb ground beef
• 1 egg (1 egg per pound of meat)
• 1 cup shredded parmesan, romano, asiago cheese blend
• 1 1/2 Tbs parsley
• 1/2 small garlic clove (I use 1/2 tsp of Tastefully Simple Garlic Garlic [you can buy this from my sister, Gina])
• 1 cup lukewarm water
• 1 cup unseasoned breadcrumbs
• salt (preferably kosher or sea salt) and pepper to taste
• 1 cup olive oil
• 26 oz. jar of marinara sauce

1. Using your hands, combine beef, egg, cheese, parsley, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl

2. Blend bread crumbs into mixture

3. Slowly add water until the mixture is quite moist

4. shape into golf ball size balls

5. heat olive oil in large saute pan. When oil is hot, but not smoking, fry meatballs in batches. When bottom half of meatball is brown and slightly crisp, turn and cook top half. Remove from heat and drain on paper towels (If you want to bake these rather than frying in oil, preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place meatballs on a jelly roll type pan and bake for 15 mins.)

6. Lower cooked meatballs into simmering marinara sauce and cook for 15-30 mins. (I think the best is Prego Roasted Garlic and Herb, but that's just me)

7. Serve over pasta or on sub roll topped with mozzerella cheese

The best thing about these meatballs is that they freeze so well. I freeze them in small batches of 4. To reheat, I put about a half of a jar of sauce and the frozen meatballs in a covered sauce pan on medium heat for about 20 minutes (or until tender and heated through).

2.23.09

Don't mind me. Just being domestic around here. These were delicioso! Which style looks best? I'm not sure.

2.22.09

I headed down to State Street this morning to check out the big sale at Sportsworld. (this is the little grocery store across the street) Despite spending about 45 mins in that tiny store, I didn't get anything. I wanted a lot, but didn't really need anything. See how I well I am doing!

It was a great day...cold, but sunny and pleasant. Starbucks always makes things a little bit better too.

2.21.09

We got more snow today. I'm depressed. More depressed that we aren't going to Florida next week to escape this crap though. We let the opportunity to get a flight to Orlando for $60 pass us bye a few weeks ago. WE ARE IDIOTS!

On the picture taking front: Woah. It was bright out today and I realized some things with the camera because of it. The bright sun paired with the white snow made a lot of my pics turn out looking overexposed with a blue tint to them. I did some research about it when I got inside and I think I figured out the problem. I'll prob go back out tomorrow and test it out.

Dizzy's shower invitations

These might go down as the least amount of money I have ever spent on such a project. Here are the materials I used:

• 1 box Target wedding invitations ($6.24)


• 1 piece purple cardstock (free!)


• 1 piece green cardstock (free!)


• foam mounting (part of invitation box)


• glue stick ($1.59 - used like 1/10 of it)


• label paper (free? - still have a ton that I got for free a few years ago)
  

Ok, a few months ago while perusing the end isles at Target (where they have all the sales), I noticed multiple boxes of those DIY wedding invitation kits for cheeeeap. I'm talking $6.24 for 50 invites, 50 response cards, 50 invite envelopes, 50 response card envelopes, foam mounting and some label thingeys that you were supposed to attach to the invite. I bought 1 box that had sort of a non descript brown pattern on it, figuring I would use it for something...and I did!

Here is what I did:

printed the invite using brown ink that matched the brown pattern - fonts used: Dreamspeak and Miss Brooks.

Cut out rounded squares and asterisk on the Cricut out of purple and green cardstock that I got from Archiver's.

If you live near an Archiver's, get on their mailing list. They send out monthly newsletters with coupons for free cardstock - no purchase necessary. Oh yeah, and sorry, I didn't calculate the uber expensive Cricut into the price. Jon's mom has one, so I borrowed it. If you don't have access to a die cutter, I would get one of those fiscars hole punches in different shapes and sizes and come up with a cool design. I actually was considering the design below, in which I used the extra large Fiskars circle punch. The littler circle I cut with the Cricut, but you could just use a smaller circle hole punch.

glue asterisk to the rounded square

attach foam mounting to the invitation

attach graphic to foam mounting

done.

so easy. so cute. so inexpensive!


I did some creative math and figured these came to about 8 cents per invite (including the envelopes, not including postage). 8 cents! So in total, for 32 invitations, they cost about $2.00.

As for the envelopes...I will admit, they were not my best moment.

I spent a long time over at Two Peas in a Bucket and downloaded A TON of their free digikits. I got this graphic from the "Proud to be Digital" kit and I'm just really not sure why I picked it. There are lot of other ones that I downloaded that are much cuter. I tried to choose one that kind of coordinated with the invitation...and well...I just don't know.

I've got a lot more ideas swimming around in my head for the actual shower. More to come...

2.20.09

I just realized my dates were off by 1 day when I posted the strawberry cookie picture. I didn't post one for Friday! Here it is. Not very exciting...probably why forgot to post it.

2.19.09

This is one of my favorite dinners - my homemade meatballs are so delicious! (I have to remember to post the recipe) I changed things up a little and put our salads in our cute little dessert bowls instead of on the plate or in a real salad bowl. Not going to lie - it made eating salad a little more fun.

We ate this delcious meal while catching up on Lost from yesterday. It was a very enjoyable hour in my world.

2.18.09

I have about 6 different tubes of mascara that claim to do different things - lengthen, volumize, thicken. I'm not real sure I see a huge different between any of them. I thought the expensive stuff, Diorshow, was the bomb at first...but I'm starting to think that the drugstore stuff is just as good. To test this theory, I've been wearing different mascaras and taking a side profile picture so I can see them side by side and make an educated decision. This one is Maybelline Colossal Volum' Express in Glam Black.

2.17.09

Dizzy's shower invitations...the finished product.

2.16.09

Dizzy's shower invitations...in progress.

2.15.09

Meghan got me these slippers for Christmas and they are awe-some. They are called Muk Luks, they are lined with fleece, have a hard-ish sole and cinch cord around the ankle so as not to become too slouchy. AND they are made in Milwaukee (woop woop). looove them!

2.14.09

These shoes are too nice, too pretty and too expensive to throw in the closet with all the other cheap shoes that I get on the clearance rack at DSW. So instead, they go on display on the bookshelf in our bedroom. :)

2.13.09

This is inside Jon's car on Friday night. What upsets me is that we actually went out on Friday night, so I could have gotten a picture with other people besides Jon and I. Eventhough I think this is a cool pic, I don't think it's a very good representation of this day. I need to be better about whipping out the camera and not feeling like a weirdo.

2.12.09

These Sharpie highlighters are pretty much the shining stars among all of my other office supplies. I love that they come in their own little carrying case and that there are 10 colors to choose from on any given day. Well, now 9 colors...one of them ran out of ink. hmmph.

for your enjoyment

This is hilarious.

2.11.09

my new toy. I think my 365 pics will still have a good mix of point and shoot pics represented. Unfortch, I'm just not going to be able to lug this thing around with me all over the place.

2.10.09

This is gross, but awesome at the same time. I hate looking at it and can't imagine if someone pushed me into that mess (who would do that though? What made me even think it?)...but I am loving the warm spell.

2.9.09

We went to Best Buy Monday night and played with the Macs. I'm still not convinced I'd want to get one though...

2.8.09

I met Meghan at the mall on Sunday and got a little tempted to buy this sweatshirt at H&M. I love the cowl neck! They didn't have any good colors in my size though, so I left empty handed...and I'm not buying stuff for myself. However, my birthday is coming up. I wear a size 8. And I liked the brown or white. (hint hint)

2.7.09

On Saturday I went dress shopping with Diz and her mom in the Chicago burbs. This is NOT the dress she chose. She wasn't really going for the flower child look.

2.6.09

Gina at Mom and Dad's after a night of partying, Tastefully Simple style.

2.5.09

This is the picture that comes up on my phone when Jon calls. I love it so much.

2.4.09

This is where I park my car at work every day. Cool, hey?

2.3.09

Look at how cute these are! I tested them out because I am thinking of making them for Dizzy's shower next month...and well, we like desserts in our house.

I definitely do not like the plain ones with the m&m on top. The flags might be a little overkill too. I think I like the white one with the red sprinkles best. Oh, and they were yummmmmy. Like, really yummy. I found the recipe on the Bakerella blog here.

2.2.09

This is out my work window again. I took this at the end of the day (around 4:45). I also took this one at the end of the day on January 5th. Look at how much lighter it is! Pretty exciting :)

2.1.09

This is Missy...or Slippers...or Slips. But for real, her name is Slippers. She is my in-laws' cat. She happens to be one of 3 pets they have and she is probably my favorite. She is a lot like the cat I had growing up, which is why I have a soft spot for her.

One day this year, I'll introduce Pugsly...which is you guessed it, a pug.

1.31.09

You should have seen the before picture. Not pretty.

1.30.09

friday night + electric blanket + laptop + cozy couch = awesome town

1.29.09

The company I work for is based in Arizona. They are obviously pumped about the Cardinals being in the Super Bowl and sent out an email on Wednesday saying that on Thursday and Friday everyone could wear jeans and their favorite team's apparel (since they couldnt enforce everyone to wear Cardinals gear). Since I have only 1, very old, ill fitting Packers shirt, this is what I put together in support of the Pack.

1.28.09

On this day, I noticed that my favorite work boots have a crack in the sole. (tear) Here is why they are awesome:

-They are tall - tall boots don't fit over my calf most of the time, but these fit!
-The tall-ness also lends itself well to keeping me warm in the cold months
-They have a wedge heel which makes them WAY more comfortable than boots with a regular heel
-I got them about 2 years ago for $16 (marked down from over $100)

I found a product called Shoe Goo that might be able to fix this though. I'm crossing my fingers.

1.27.09

In the dressing room at the Gap. Look how excited I am to be shopping. Someone help this girl.

1.26.09

*salt*