Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs

The title for this blog post is PERFECT (thanks, Jerry George) because of all the cloudy/rainy weather this weekend, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs being one of my favorite movies, and because I made spaghetti and meatballs this past Friday. Spaghetti and meatballs is the epitome of classic Italian food and is a dish that every cook should know how to make. So for those reasons, I was very excited to complete it! I started by making the meat mixture to form the meatballs. Giada's recipe called for ground turkey instead of ground beef. I liked this change because I prefer the lighter, leaner taste of the turkey. I mixed ground turkey, lightly beaten eggs, breadcrumbs, parsley, milk, salt, and pepper. I was sure that the recipe needed more so I grated onion and garlic into the mixture. After combining all the ingredients, I formed bite-sized balls that would then be cooked in a skillet. The meatballs we're very fragile, so when I cooked them they flattened out a bit and became more like small meat-cylinders. Despite that, I browned them all and then added marinara sauce into the skillet of meatballs. Once all the flavors mended together, I removed the meatballs from the marinara, tossed cooked spaghetti into that marinara, and replaced the meatballs. The end result was a huge success!! The meatballs tasted delicious, and I'm glad I made the onion & garlic additions. Lately, I think I've been getting better with knowing when to add extra ingredients and when not to. Knowing how different flavors interact with each other is a skill that I hope to improve as I complete each recipe.

Time spent: 2 hours and 10 mins