Overcompensation

Yeah... I was a bit lax/lazy in my cooking efforts last week. Didn't help that yesterday I was feeling a bit funky, so we just had McD's for dinner. I suck, sue me.

So, the plan for today was Major Cooking Fest. We've got some hot weather coming up this week and I know at least tomorrow is going to be stupid crazy at work, so I figured some time in the kitchen today would pay off big time later in the week.

Started out with some meatballs. Changed up my usual recipe a bit... I've seen enough Molto Mario meatball recipes where he's suggested using some bread moistened in milk to make them more tender, but it never stuck. Was watching America's Test Kitchen last week and they mentioned the technique when they were making some burgers, and I figured it was worth a try.

Holy moly. Did it ever.

A pound and a half of beef, a pound and a half of mild pork sausage, spices, an egg, and four slices of bread moistened with a couple tablespoons of milk and mashed to a paste. Bestest. Meatballs. EVER. So tender.

I browned them, threw them in the crockpot, and planned to go with a jar of Prego, and a jar of the Del Fratteneli (or whatever, it's late and I'm too lazy to go get the jar outta the trash to check spelling) sauce. But I could not believe it. I was actually out of Prego. I did have a jar of Muir Glen sauce, so that is what I used, along with the Del Whateverthehelli sauce . Somewhat heartburn inducing, but not as bad as the Muir Glen stuff straight up.

I also started some bacon in the oven to use for BLTs this week, since it looks like I'll have my first massive amount of tomatoes within the next couple days. Did one batch - start bacon in a cold oven set to 400 degrees and cook until desired doneness - and started a second batch (I had an open half-pound of bacon and an unopened pound, figured I'd just make it all). That is when the hubby called. He went to stop by his folks, and they were having problems with their internet connection. I turned off the oven, took out the bacon, and headed over.

A couple hours later we finally figured out the problem.... father in law didn't follow our advice of actually running the Microsoft updates that he should - they never did them with their dial-up connection, and they were STILL running SP1. D'oh. I did have to deal with a call to customer service to see if they had any suggestions, and ended up talking to THE WORST I.T. customer service person EVER. Like, this guy couldn't understand that I had even tried connecting the modem to another PC to see if worked with that one (it worked hunky-dory with my laptop, didn't work on the in-law's desktop). And he then tried to tell me that the router was the problem.... um, no. The router was not the problem. Was a router from Old Company, and one reason I ended up installing it was that it actually tests your internet connection, and if you're connected and log on, it will pretty much tell you if the problem is the modem (and several times when we tried to connect, it was saying there was no connection and there were problems with DHCP). But, in the end, they were up and running again and happy and very grateful.

Stopped on the way home... they are right by a Trader Joes, and wanted to get some more capers. I have much love for their capers, and I downright ruined a meal last week by using some sub-par (and twice the price, grumble) capers. At first, I grabbed two jars. Then I grabbed a third. Then picked up a loaf of Italian bread and a bottle of chianti that I planned to have with dinner (but I forgot about, D'OH!). Then went back for a fourth bottle of capers. Yeah, color me slightly paniced about not finding them at my last TJ's trip.

After dinner, boiled some rice noodles and mixed up some light coconut milk and curry paste to have a cold curry noodle salad for lunch tomorrow. Hopefully, with the hot weather, that should hit the spot. I wish I had some fresh lime to add, though.

And with that.... a weekend is done... and a hellish workweek lies ahead. Ain't ya jealous???