Meatballs....The Perfect Food For Any Occasion

Meatballs are so versatile.  They can be homey comfort food.  They can be fancy (i.e., served on a toothpick at a cocktail party). They can be Swedish.  They can be Italian.  You can make them from any type of meat (or even vegetarian).  You can add any seasoning you like.  You can follow a recipe.  Or you can just go with the flow and use what sounds good at the moment (that's more my style).


Two meals are on the menu this week with these meatballs: spaghetti and meatballs and meatball pizzas.  (Pictures of those will come with those meals - but for now, I'll focus on my make-ahead-meatballs)

As I mentioned, you can do whatever you want with a meatball.  The base: meat, breadcrumbs, and egg.

For these, I used Colosimo's skinless Italian sausage, ground beef (about three-quarters of a pound of each), salt and pepper, about a cup of breadcrumbs, two eggs, garlic powder, basil, oregano, and a handful of Parmesan cheese.

Mix it all up....getting my hands all slimy and gooey isn't my favorite part, but if you take the meat out of the refrigerator for a little bit to warm it up so it doesn't freeze your hands, it's a little bit better.  I usually forget that part until I'm in the middle of it with icy cold fingers.

Form meatballs and place them on a baking sheet.  If you want all of the grease to drain out, you can put it on a wire rack on the baking sheet. 

Bake at 350 for 20-30 minutes depending on how big you made your meatballs.  And then enjoy!  I'm already looking forward to spaghetti and pizza this week.

Dough Twice Tonight....Homemade Pizza on the Grill

The finished product.....Pretty delicious if I do say so myself....though I had to pick the pepperoni off my pieces

 Not so long ago, I went to Africa (and it was amazing and I want to go back--just saying).  On our way, we spent the night in New Jersey where I learned just how good grilled pizza can be.  It was the first time I'd ever had it and it's really good.  Crispy crust on the bottom, yet still a little chewy....perfect texture in my book....and for those of you who know me, texture is a big deal.

I tried pizza on the grill a few weeks ago and it was really good--however, I bought the dough from the pizza place by my house and they charged almost as much as a whole pizza would cost for the dough alone.  (And for the extra couple dollars, I should probably just have them make my pizza.)  So I have been keeping my eye out for pizza dough recipes.  And then my cousin happens to post about his homemade pizza so I borrowed his recipe tonight.  (I'll share it if he says it's okay -- but it's pretty standard: flour, salt, yeast, water, sugar, olive oil)

After I finished my apple dumplings, I started on the pizza dough.  It was pretty easy (my hands got a good workout from kneading the dough) and turned out great.

The ingredients

Half of the dough rising

The assembled pizza (sauce, cheese, minced shallot, red pepper, Italian sausage, and pepperoni) before putting it on the grill

Transfer the pizza onto the pizza stone that had been heating on the grill

After a few minutes on the pizza stone, pull it off and put it on the grate and cook for a few more minutes until it's finished to your liking