Monday, Monday...

I was not ready to start the new week! But, it was not an option, so I got cleaned up and went to work.

Its supposed to rain, off and on for the next three days, but at lunch, it was still dry. So, I spend a good 15 minutes hand-watering all the container gardens. Then I made a sandwich of the oatnut bread, some cheese slices, horseradish sauce and two slices of thick bologna. I ate that with two Pepperocini.

Back home after 5:00 PM, I started a load of laundry. Due to the lack of rain, I also put out the square sprinkler on the raised bed garden and turned it on. I let it run for about 30 minutes.

Back inside, I started working on dinner. I cut a Vidalia onion into 1/4 dice and sweated it over medium-high heat in olive oil. I cooked it about seven minutes (you want them to be very soft and aromatic, but no color). Then I added two diced garlic cloves and a pinch of red pepper and saut�ed that fro another two minutes. I turned off the heat and set the pan aside to cool.

Meanwhile, in my small stock pot, I put bacon grease on to melt (you are supposed to use pancetta, which I don't have. Now, I would have substituted good old bacon, but I couldn't find any of that, either!) To that I added another large Vidalia onion, again 1/4-inch diced. I cooked them for another seven minutes and then added four diced garlic cloves.

The recipe calls for canned San Marzano plum tomatoes, but all I have are regular Hunts whole canned tomatoes, so I opened four 28-ounce cans and put them into my largest bowl. The recipe also calls for running the tomatoes through a food mill, but I like my tomato sauce chunky, so I just squished them with my hands.

They went into the stock pot with lots of salt, black pepper, some oregano, basil and thyme. I left that to simmer for three hours (I should have made this on a weekend!)

Then I took one pound of ground chuck, one pound of ground pork and one pound of ground veal. I split each package in two and half went into a baggie (and then the freezer) for meat loaf mix. The other half went into that now rinsed big bowl.

To that I added two large eggs; one cup of grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, 1/4 cup finely chopped flat leaf parsley, one cup breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup water. I squished that together for a bit, and then added the cooled onion and garlic mixture. I squished that some more.

I wiped out the saute pan and added more olive oil. I put it on medium high heat and preheated the oven to 350 degrees F.

I shaped the meat into balls, slightly larger than a golf ball. Then I browned them on all sides. As each one was finished, I put it on a half sheet tray I'd lightly oiled (yeah, more olive oil!)

When they were all brown, I put them in the oven for 15 minutes. When they were done, I took them out. Using tongs, I placed each meatball into the tomato sauce (everybody into the pool!)

About 9:30 PM (and now starving) I made a single serving of spaghetti, drained it and topped it with two meatballs and some sauce. Excellent! I put the rest of them into the fridge for the night. I'll put them in freezer containers tomorrow.

The only downside is I have a huge mess in the kitchen and had bad dreams all night (probably from eating so late).