I'm Gonna Write About Meatballs

Once upon a time, there was a little boy named Sonic.  He was only two years old, and there was a whole world known as the First Floor that was his to explore.  Afternoons were the best time to explore this world, and rather than sit down and eat lunch, little Sonic would run around the First Floor, play with occasional toys, run around again.  Afternoon was not a time to sit down.

However, despite Sonic's intent to run around the First Floor, his mother knew he had to have his lunch.  But she could never get him to stay still.  Instead, she would follow him around, with a meatball at the end of a fork.  She'd cry out in Tagalog, "Subo! Subo!" which in English translated into "Mouthful! Mouthful!", but in Mom-speak was the command, "Eat!  Eat!"  

And so, Sonic would stop running, bite the meatball off the fork, then continue running again.  It took a half-hour for him to have a full lunch, but it was always satisfying.  

The End

Actually, this is only the beginning.  You see, last Saturday, I made meatballs from an old family recipe.  Not our family recipe (do we have one?), but a very good family recipe.  It contained all the traditional meatball ingredients , along with a few secret ingredients not pictured, which I'm not at liberty to divulge. ;-)  

Traditional Meatball Ingredients:

1 pound ground beef

Eggs & Bread Crumbs (for every egg, 1 ounce of bread crumbs)

Grated Cheese

Spices (pinches and dashes that suit your taste)

Hot dog buns for sandwiches

There are so many family recipes out there, it's hard to pick just one to talk about.  "Throwdown with Bobby Flay" had a pretty good one by Grandma Maronis, and eHow Food's Spicy Beef & Spinach Meatballs sound delicious as well.  And hopefully one day I can make Lamb Meatballs without having Sandwich cry over them.

The best thing about meatballs, in my opinion, is the spices that add flavor.  I'm very generous when it comes to adding the spices; I like when the flavors are overpowering, even if they shouldn't be.  I'm partial to paprika and likely would use it in every dish if I could (paprika chocolate?  Hmm...).  In addition, I've often added crushed garlic versus garlic powder, which not only gives a stronger scent to the meatballs, but also makes the meatball taste much better.

Strangely, even though people traditionally use tomato sauce in their meatball sandwiches, I always like just the meatballs with the bread.  It allows me to fully taste the meatball, and it's a lot cleaner too.  And when you add some Veggie Straws to your plate, it can almost pass for French Fries!

The title of this WhipsOfDole stemmed from a text message I sent to Shortcake a few days ago.  She wanted to know if I had picked an idea to write about for the blog, and simply texted back to her, "I'm gonna write about meatballs."  Taken out of context, the line seems really odd, but still funny.  And rather than just say "Meatballs Recipe," this seemed like a more fun way to title this article.

-Sonic