I don’t usually cook on Friday nights.

After a week of trying to keep Tobin from diving head-first off things while simultaneously enriching Miles’s life somehow, I’m usually pretty tired.  Also, Denny has a late lunch with his coworkers most Fridays, so he’s not hungry at usual dinner time.  We typically scrounge.

However, something went weird with my menu planning this week, and I ended up with a pound of ground beef that I didn’t want to freeze, because it doesn’t make as cohesive of meatballs once it’s been frozen and thawed.  I also had some tomato sauce, the very dregs of last year’s, thawed out, and I didn’t want to refreeze that.

So here we are.  Denny managed to choke it down since it’s his favorite.  I use pretty much the Cooks’ Illustrated recipe, though I typically make 1.5x the recipe, which is enough for two meals for us plus one lunch-sized helping of leftovers.

Here’s the recipe (slightly modified from Cooks’ Illustrated):

Spaghetti and Meatballs

2 large slices sourdough bread, crusts removed, torn into little pieces (you could use 3 slices white bread if that’s all you have)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1 lb lean ground beef
1/2 pound ground pork
1/3 cup freshly-ground parmesan cheese
1/4 cup (scant) finely minced parsley
several large cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 egg yolk
2 tsp kosher salt
pepper to taste
vegetable oil for frying (about 1 cup)
spaghetti
tomato sauce of your choice

Combine the bread and buttermilk and let sit until it’s very mushy, 10 minutes or so.  Smash it up into a paste.  Add garlic, cheese, parsley, egg yolk, salt, pepper, and mix.  Add meats and mix with your hands until just combined.  Don’t overwork it or they’ll be tough.  Form the mixture into balls about the size of ping pong balls.  I can generally get 24-25 meatballs out of one recipe.

Pour oil into a large frying pan, until it’s between 1/4 and 1/2 inch up the side of the pan.  Heat over medium heat for several minutes.  To test the oil, put the corner of a meatball in there.  If it sizzles, you’re set.  Add the meatballs and cook for about five minutes.  Regulate the heat as necessary to keep things sizzling but not smoking.  Flip the meatballs and cook about another five minutes, or until they have a nice crust on the outside and are no longer pink inside.

Remove the meatballs and set aside on a paper towel-lined plate.  Pour off most of the oil into a heat-safe container like an empty can.  Reserve the browned bits and about 1 tsp of oil.  Off the heat, pour in your tomato sauce.  Let it warm up over low heat and scrape up the browned bits.

Make your spaghetti.  When you have a few minutes left before the spaghetti is done, return the meatballs to the sauce to warm up.

After you drain your spaghetti, put a couple of big spoonfuls of sauce in with the noodles and stir it up.  Serve with meatballs and more sauce on top.

During a visit to the library, we met a mom and her two boys who were from Ireland (incidentally, it came up because Miles corrected her pronunciation of tomato).  During our conversation, Miles asked, “How did you get here?” and the mom explained that they took an airplane.  Later that night, we were telling Denny about the events of the day.

M:  Why did they take an airplane to the library?

Tobin wants to be where ever his brother is, especially if his brother is playing with the computer.  Miles is mostly very patient with him, but I know it has to be annoying when Tobin mashes the keys and messes up Miles’s games.  He has been doing that a lot today.

A: (rushing in to snatch him) Tobin, please leave your brother alone.

M:  Mom, he’s just a baby.