Hurray for HOMEMADE Meatballs!

     My hungry troop of boys and part Italian husband are beyond excited that I was able to make and serve a beautiful HOMEMADE meatball tonight for dinner! I had the perfect opportunity to ask an executive Chef (Mike's cousin: Garrett) his recipie for a great meatball. Our extended family is up from Tennessee visiting and I was so pleased that Garrett took the time to hand write out the ingredients and give me some cooking tips! My Josiah has ALWAYS loved meatballs so when I told him that we were going to MAKE meatballs for dinner he was super happy and wanted to help! Mike always tells me of his memories as a child making meatballs and sauce with his mom and dad....so I figured this will be great to do with our children. I have attempted to "make" meatballs before BUT don't know what the "right" way was.....I don't like to follow cookbooks but rather tend to do my own thing by tasting and guessing by looks. I do follow the recipie when it comes to baking though..... Anyways, enjoy our tour of the MEATBALL!

Josiah helped me prep the ingredients....ground beef, Sweet Italian Sausage (we took out of the casing), eggs, oregano, basil, thyme, onion, carrot, crushed red pepper, salt & pepper, bread crumbs and garlic! It smelled amazing!!

I carmalized the yellow onions in olive oil and then let them cool before adding them to the bowl to be blended...

32 3inch meatballs ready to go into the fridge for an hour or so....

Next I browned up the exterior of the meatball in olive oil on medium heat.....

Then placed them on a baking sheet and into a preheated 350* oven until internal temp was 155*.

Mike's plate done up fancy for the photo....put a little fresh basil leaves on top with a dusting of Parmesean/Ramano Cheese!

"DRUMROLL PLEASE".......Our HUNGRY and definetly HAPPY recipients!

Zechariah ate everything...including his hands!

Cousin Ethan was over to enjoy dinner with us.....AND BOY DID HE! Love the sauce on his nose!

Cousin Brian wasn't so sure about the BIG to do with meatballs and all.......he did eat everything though.

Mike and Josiah obviosly enjoying the speghetti feast with garlic bread and sparkling red grape juice too!

My hearty-eater Mr.Elijah! This kiddo cannot get ENOUGH pasta! He had 2 bowls full!

GO Daddy! ( Josiah thought Mike was being silly!) Mike worked the night before so he had just gotten up for dinnertime and definetly still had the "sleepy" look going on too.

Anybody want one????

    

And Yes, Obadiah got to taste/lick some thin speghetti and sauce! He was watching me eat and would kick his legs frantically everytime I'd lift my fork to put towards my mouth...so I gave him a taste!

Thanks again Cousin Garrett for your Meatball recipie...its a keeper and we will never go back to frozen store bought meatballs again! Mike has already challenged me to start working on a homemade sauce and homemade pasta! He obviously thinks I have nothing else to do I guess....ha ha!