Spaghetti and Meatballs

It happens to all of us. We have busy days filled with countless things to do and then we realize that somehow dinner needs to be created - and fast. We reach into our brains and scan our list of easy and quick dinners. This happened to me yesterday. Amongst other things, I went to Shalom's first violin recital. I loved watching his smiley face as he gently played the violin. As soon as the recital was over we headed home and then I realized that I had to make dinner quickly.

Having taken out ground beef I decided we would be having mushroom barley soup, spaghetti and meatballs and broccoli for dinner. I got to work and dinner was ready in under an hour.

Spaghetti and meatballs are really easy to make, yet the first time I made them they were not so tasty. I realized that I better get some meatball advice. I decided to call my aunt Breindy.

While I attended high school in Montreal, I lived with my aunt and uncle, Breindy and Berel. Breindy always made delicious meatballs and I loved coming home to yummy hot meatballs after walking home from school in the freezing cold. Breindy told me over the phone how she makes her meatballs. I tried them and they were delicious. 

Of course over time I began to experiment with the meatball dish and here is the recipe the way I made them last night.

Classic Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

A couple of squirts of ketchup

garlic powder

3 cans Hunt's tomato sauce

Oregano

Before starting with the meatballs, set a pot of water to boil for your pasta.

In a pot,bring the tomato sauce to a boil with garlic powder and oregano. While it boils mix the ground beef with ketchup and garlic powder. Form into meatballs and drop into the boiling sauce. Bring sauce back to a boil and then lower the flame as the meatballs finish cooking. Meatballs cook pretty quickly which is a good thing. 

When I have more time on my hands I have all kinds of variations to this recipe. Sometimes I will put eggs and bread crumbs and even chopped onion into the meatball mixture. Other times I will first sauté an onion and fresh garlic in the pot before adding the tomato sauce. There are also times where I throw in some fresh basil. When I am in a hurry, I stick with this very simple recipe and it's a winner every time.