Never enough Sunday

I didn't get up until after 7:00 AM on Sunday, which makes sense after last night's late night TV watching. I made a pot of coffee and posted the Blog.

It's sunny again (no snow or snowbows, though, lol) but also cold again (17 degrees right now with a projected high of only 27 degrees) and windy again. I had hoped to get outside and start picking up branches sometime this weekend, but it doesn't look like that will happen.

I washed up the skillet from the fried rice (stir fry is nice that way, not too many pots and pans).

I glanced out the living room picture window and, with the sun streaming in, saw just how dirty it was! You could see Caley's paw prints where she had touched the glass. So, I folded the carpet back, pulled the coffee/display table out, got some Windex and a roll of paper towels and got to work. It's too cold to do the outside, but at least I can clean up the inside!

I was too embarrassed to take a photo of how dirty the white paper towels were! I washed it twice, just to make sure I got it all. Then I did all the glass tops in the living room. I gave Lu a call, but just got their voicemail.

I moved all the kitchen chairs, the rolling cart and the waste basket into the living room. Then I swept and washed the downstairs bath and the kitchen floors. The bath mats from both bath rooms went into the washer.

I took a break to let the floors dry and watched a TV show. By the time they were dry, I was hungry. So, I warmed up Michelle's soup, the "Farmer's Leek." In addition to her leeks and diced potatoes, she also had cabbage and those Polish Kluski egg noodles in it. Very good, hearty winter soup!! I ate it with another thick slice of bread and unashamedly sopped up the remaining broth with it!

I got a call from my friend and we caught each other up on what little news there was (once you say, in Michigan everything sucks, what more is there to say?) Then I moved everything back into the kitchen and started to work on the office and my bedroom (yes, I know I swept the bedroom yesterday, but I did not dust mop, nor clean the glass surfaces).

Man, that wind is wicked! I damn near froze my cojones off shaking the dust mop on the front porch. But, I got everything but the upstairs bath done by 2:30 PM.

I decided the upstairs bath can wait. So, I started on my tomato sauce for the meatballs. Now, I could tell you what the recipe called for, or I could tell you what I did. I think I'll go with my version.

So, I cut up a large (and I mean a LARGE - maybe the Mother of All Onions) Spanish onion into a 1/4 inch dice. The recipe called for two onions, BTW, and for pancetta (Italian bacon that's not smoked, Mom) but I don't have any and don't feel like thawing and using bacon. So, I used olive oil and two tablespoons of bacon grease (I always save it) in my medium stock pot, instead. When it was melted, I added the diced onion, seasoned with salt. When the onion was translucent, but not brown, I added four large cloves of garlic, crushed and minced, and 1/2 pound of white button mushrooms, chopped. I added some red pepper flakes (maybe 1/2 teaspoon), dried oregano, dried basil and dried thyme (not really measuring, but about one teaspoon of each).

Now the recipe call for running canned tomatoes through a food mill (which I have) but I personally like my sauce to be a bit chunky. So, I opened four 28-ounce cans of whole plum tomatoes into my largest bowl and squished them with my hands. They went into the pot along with maybe 1/2 can of straight water. I tasted it, seasoned it with kosher salt and fresh ground pepper. I stirred it up, tasted it again and added a bit more salt (tomatoes need a LOT of salt). I brought that to a boil and then turned it down to a slow simmer. That will simmer for the next four hours or so.

While I am thinking about it, I have noticed that most American and French chefs taste their dishes with a spoon and then adjust the seasoning accordingly. However, Japanese chefs seem to always use a very small bowl. Now, it's probably because I don't have a refined enough palate, but I find using a small custard dish to check the taste works better for me than just a spoon.

Then, I turned my attention to the meatballs. I cut up another Spanish onion into a 1/4 inch dice, coated a skillet with olive oil and added the onions. I seasoned them with kosher salt and cooked them about six minutes (the onions should be very soft and aromatic, but have NO color). I added two crushed and then diced cloves of garlic and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I saut�ed them another two minutes and turned off the heat to let them cool.

Oh, I took out the two pork chops that will be my Sunday dinner to let them come up to room temperature.

So, in my same big bowl (that I washed after the tomato squishing) I added 1/2 pound of ground sirloin, 1/2 pound of ground pork and 1/2 pound of ground veal. I took a moment to finely chop 1/4 cup of Italian, flat-leaf parsley. That went into the bowl, along with two large eggs, a cup of grated parmesan cheese and a cup of bread crumbs. Lastly, I added the now-cooled onions and garlic mixture. I squished it all together and added about 1/4 cup of water. You want the mixture to be quite wet, BTW.

Now, here's something I think is quite brilliant! To test the seasoning, she advocated making a mini-hamburger, cooking it and taste-testing it. So, I did (after all, you can't taste-test raw meat). It was good, but I think it needs more salt which is funny as this Chef, Anne Burrell, salts the hell out of everything. Here's a direct quote from the recipe: "The mixture should taste really good. If it doesn't it is probably missing salt. Add more. Add more anyway." So, I did...

I preheated the oven up to 350 degrees F. Meanwhile I was shaping the meatballs into about a golf ball size (I still think I made my last ones too big). I took my skillet and added more olive oil and browned the meatballs. As I pulled them off the heat, I put them on a half-sheet tray.

When I had all of them browned, I put the tray in the preheated oven for 15 minutes to finish them. I took them out and put each one into the tomato sauce and turned the heat off the burner.

It was almost 7:30 PM, so I got out a head of cauliflower, cored it and broke it into florets. I was just about to turn on the burner when the phone rang. It was another friend, so we chatted for a while. When I got off the phone, my Sunday night shows already started and I still needed to put the meatballs and tomato sauce in freezer containers. So, I gave up on making the chops tonight, put them back in the fridge and just started cooking the cauliflower.

I filled up five quart-sized freezer containers with the meatballs and sauce. Once I labeled and dated them they went into the freezer. I ate the cauliflower with butter and salt watching the taped version of my first show. I decided not to try and stay up for the second one and went to bed about 9:30 PM.