Just another crazy busy day- had to do a bunch of runs to the big city, made twenty lbs of meatballs and 4 gallons of sauce, then had a fraternity get together for two hours, and I am exhausted and Joelle’s bad knee hurts and is making her cranky. Before I get fifty questions, the meatball recipe (at least for today- it varies depending on what I can get access to and how much I am making):
10 lbs ground sirloin from the general store and I have him run it through twice so it is really fine.
5 lbs Frederico’s link hot italian sausage
5 lbs Frederico’s link sweet italian sausage
cut up a load of basil from the garden
same with flat leaf parsely
head of garlic
crushed red pepper
couple of eggs
couple cups of italian bread crumbs
bunch of italian seasoning
salt
pepper
You gotta just eyeball the bread crumbs after the first cups. I cook em on a rack at 425 until they have a good consistency and then put them on the sauce to simmer overnight.
The sauce was
two gallons of plum tomatoes
two gallons of whatever Frederico’s brand is sauce
Nothing serious with the sauce this time, just a tin of anchovies and a couple of diced onions cooked to a nice golden brown, salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, handful of basil, bring it to medium and stir it for a bit, then used my wand processor to break down some of the plum tomatoes, and then, like chili, just let it go for a while.
Gonna shred up some fresh mozz and have some italian rolls from fredericos, as well as some thin sliced smoked provolone.
Sorry I can not get more specific with the instructions but I mean y’all have taste buds just do the basics and taste a lot. This is also why I am one of the world’s worst fucking bakers on the planet I can fuck up canned croissants. Joelle, on the other hand, is a very good baker, because she actually takes time and does shit like measuring and I mean let’s be real who has the time for that and dirty all those spoons and measuring cups fuck that. Likewise, I get a touch fearful when she is around knives and open flame and in fact I think one of the first things I bought for her was a fire blanket for the house.
It was a lovely little fraternity event- 100 years of Alpha Sigma Phi, Beta Gamma chapter. Had a big bunch of alums return, including some I had not seen in years, and the best part was all the current brothers came down and mingled. It’s so funny seeing them all together, because when I was a brother there was only one black member of the fraternity- Joe Johnson, the guy who married me yesterday). Now, like 3/4 of the house is African American, and they are all cool as fuck. And they are so close because so many of them are athletes on teams, and they all are super supportive of each other and it honestly makes me so proud. Just a great group of kids.
I’m, of course, not in the picture because I somehow always miss them by accident and by choice if I know about it.
A while back on of the guys my age got a bunch of alum together and we started a scholarship fund and an endowment (ours just never had one while other houses on campus have multiple million dollar ones), but they slowly have built ours up to 80k and we were able to give out three $750.00 awards to several kids who all had great grades and wanted to pledge but couldn’t afford it. So it was all super cool and the young ones were just so supportive and really just got along like they had been together forever. They have their own sayings and shout them out to show support (they told all us older guys they yell “JUICE” because it means to give something “your passion and your flavor, and your all,” and it was super cool. Although I will say that my first thought was “Well, fuck I am old because of course they have no fucking idea who OJ Simpson is…” And if another one of those motherfuckers calls me sir again- god damnit you see me all the time you know my name I’m not some visiting alum you hauled brush for me and I made you dinner.
Tomorrow is another busy day- all the events and the football game and hauling shit for the tailgate and on and on. Maxwell is being a complete dick because he is not getting enough attention and it always feels like he low-key believes he is in a competition with Joelle. Also, some people gave us gifts anyway (we were like no gifts we don’t need more shit if you absolutely have to give money we can use that but don’t make me haul a bunch of fucking wine glasses cross country), so we have to open those tomorrow. We did get one awesome gift card to a place in La Jolla, CA, where we are going for five days over Thanksgiving (her friend has some sort of time share thing at some famous place on the beach). The restaurant is called George’s at the Cove, and it looks kinda cool. Fancy as fuck and when our friend Mary was showing us where it was I looked at it and said “oh that’s a rich people place,” so I am super stoked about that.
At any rate, I am tired and will check in tomorrow.
War for Ukraine Day 1,310: On Being Expeditionary
SpaceUnit
Don’t think I’ll ever need to make twenty pounds of meatballs and four gallons of sauce. Your recipe sounds awesome but will certainly require some math on my part.
And if anyone is bored the Florida State / Virginia game is fire.
different-church-lady
Is it the first anniversary that’s the meat anniversary?
aimai
You really know how to live, John Cole! I salute you and your honeymoon style.
suzanne
The way you describe the fraternity sounds so positive and uplifting. I went to Large Nonselective Party State U, so the Greek life was very gross….. simultaneously snobby and binge-drink-y, so I stayed far away from it. I’m glad it’s a better experience for others!
suzanne
@different-church-lady: The fifth anniversary is wood.
Ask me how I know.
different-church-lady
@suzanne: HOW… DO… YOU… KNOW?
Kristine
Those meatballs sound really good. But yeah would definitely need to scale down down down.
stinger
I sometimes shout out, “Juice!” but it references — obviously — Balloon Juice.
TaMara
Way back in the day, when we did recipe exchange here on Fridays, we had a meatball night. It was pre-the website crash – so I didn’t bother to go back and find it. But here is a link to those same recipes – the meatballs are close to Cole’s, you can substitute his meat mixes he used.
Meatballs and Sauce Recipes and Instructions
Albatrossity
George’s At The Cove is indeed excellent. Smoked Chicken Black Bean Soup is world-famous. Seriously. We asked the waiter for the recipe and he had a printed copy in his pocket… We have probably made it at home 50-100 times since then!
princess leia
@SpaceUnit: No kidding!!!!
SpaceUnit
@princess leia:
Overtime!!
TaMara
@Albatrossity: Waves in your direction. Black bean soup is one of my favorites – would love a copy of that if you have a chance some time.
I have one from my honeymoon from a restaurant in Ouray – but the smoked chicken one sounds amazing.
Karen Gail
John cooks like I cooked for years when was canning meals; when power goes out and all one has is wood back up then just opening jars makes everything easier. I also did the same thing because there were times when didn’t feel like cooking but could make a meal by open jars and cooking pasta.
Jackie
@TaMara: Awww your photo was done by JefferyW. Didn’t bookmark that recipe at the time; rectified as of now!
BigJimSlade
Fan-fuckin-tastic! Aside from Joelle’s bad knee.
what a huge recipe of meatballs and sauce!
Lily
@TaMara: I wanted it too. From the source:
georgesatthecove.com/recipes-and-more/recipe-smoked-chicken-broccoli-and-black-bean-soup
Lily
@Lily: Same recipe idea but w/ an alternative to grilling the chicken (and slight changes) was put up by someone else:
Their other main change was to sub skim evaporated milk for the cream added at the end. And using all broccoli florettes (sp) inst of using the stems too.
RaflW
I made idle threats during the pandemic to do a blog called Ralf the Reckless Baker. I mean, I do measure – but in a hurry, and sifting and leveling? Pffft. If it calls for 4 cups of bread flour and 2 C of rye and I only have 1 C of rye, well, thats OK just add more white. Oh, the bag doesn’t say ‘bread flour’? It says all purpose? Oops. Bake on, my man.
My yeast is 5 years old (refrigerated at 42º or so) and so I do throw in an extra bit of it, feed it a touch of honey and wait a bit to make sure it still foams. It still foams! (less excitedly than in 2021, sure).
And so on.
But the same lazy impulses that make me a reckless but still tasty baker also make me a lazy internet user, so not blog. I will very occasionally post a photo on Bsky of my occasional bakes
eta: My one bake that isn’t reckless are spelt-potato burger buns. I follow a recipie that is published in grams, and I follow it to the single gram. Because spelt is not a flour to be toyed with! And because the recipe is still very easy. (I use white spelt for the bread flour, and whole spelt for the WW.) I haven’t tried the brioche-like variation, but now I’m thinking that’ll be a fall trial. Yum.
pieceofpeace
@Albatrossity: Would you share?
Cancel, already shared – thank you!
thruppence
I have a long planned D.C. vacation coming up, just in time for the government shutdown. I hope they don’t close the museums.
Karen Gail
@RaflW:
Over the years I have found that following a recipe when it comes to breads is a lost cause; the weather has a big impact on flour and yeast. But I do use recipes as guidelines and try to adjust to weather conditions and how my freshly ground flour reacts. Getting a flour mill and making flour just before mixing changes so much.
Jackie
@thruppence:
Sadly, I fear you’re going to be out of luck. :-(
Ohio Mom
@thruppence: Baltimore isn’t far away from DC and has a fabulous outsider art museum and a huge aquarium that is worth its huge admission price.
The DC area has lots of ethnic restaurants — Ohio Dad used to live in Arlington, around the corner from an Afghani place that I remember fondly, and the last time we visited, we tried a Filipino restaurant in Silver Spring.
You’ll find things to do, you will just have to do some googling. Try “off the beaten path DC” or “unusual things to do DC.”
Enjoy yourself, the museums will be there next time you visit.
TaMara
@Lily: Thank you!
Carlo Graziani
Sounds almost like classic Italian “polpette” (“meatballs”). The only ingredient missing, ubiquitous in the Italian version, is grated parmigiano cheese. In huge amounts. Like, for the crazy 10lb recipe that you just gave (holy shit, how do you even do that many at a time, and where do you find the time to shape them all?) at least 3 lb of parmigiano.
A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan)
@Karen Gail: I haven’t made bread in several decades, but I do remember bring bemused originally at recipes which called for 2 – 4 cups of flour, before I realized what you referenced about weather affecting the dough. I also remember how important it was to be shown what the dough should be like. A printed recipe just wasn’t enough.
NotMax
Sirloin? Ka-ching.
That should cover the general store owner’s boat payments for the rest of the year.
:)
Phylllis
@thruppence: DC by Foot offers really great tours.
piratedan
I always thought that the Mint was kind of an awesome tour too
prostratedragon
He should play “Crossroad Blues” for the kid.
prostratedragon
NotMax
@prostratedragon
“Proof that women have no business being in the pilot seat.”
//
Interesting Name Goes Here
@prostratedragon: At this rate, we’re going to find out that not only do aliens exist, but we made first contact before scaring them off by electing Reagan.
NotMax
@Interesting Name Goes Here
“People deserve to learn it wasn’t polio but a botched transgender operation that put FDR into a wheelchair.”
//
prostratedragon
@NotMax:
@Interesting Name Goes Here:
Some of the comments are wonderful.
🤡’s post thingy begins,
Whereone someone said,
Karen Gail
@A woman from anywhere (formerly Mohagan):
I was “blessed” with being taught to make bread by older women, who taught what the dough was suppose to feel like. Also learned to feed yeast so that small amount could be fed and then added to dough. No one told me at beginning of my sour dough beginning that it was best slow rested in cool area; I was finally clued in by someone in San Francisco Bay area that told me that the bread they baked was started a day earlier.
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon:
Don’t care. Tell us more about how the Epsteincalator tried to murder you, you orange idiot!
prostratedragon
L-l-lor-duh! Another generation:
mrmoshpotato
@prostratedragon: The entire family is trash from root to leaf.
eclare
@mrmoshpotato:
Yeah. You’d have hoped the kids would say no, this is gross, but they have leaned in.
Baud
@different-church-lady:
With the price of beef these days, it’s cheaper to get divorced.
Baud
@prostratedragon:
At this rate, maybe we’ll get universal health care as a distraction from the Epstein files.
Or thermonuclear war.
Baud
Clown show
Geminid
Things are looking up in Iraqi Kurdistan. From Mintel News, reposted by Levent Kemal.:
The shutdown cost the Kurdish Regional Government and Iraq’s central an estimated $16 bilion in badly needed revenues. Now the KRG will be able to fully fund itself, and the revenues will also support economic development in the four northern Iraqi provinces it governs.
Things are looking down in neighboring Iran, though. From Reuters:
France, Germany and the UK had invoked the “snap-back” provisions for UN sanctions on Iran for its nuclear program. They’d been suspended when the JCPOA was signed in 2015. Russia and China sponsored a Security Council resolution to delay the sanctions for six months, but it failed on a 4 to 9 vote with 2 abstentions.
The sanctions came back at midnight GMT. They will impact Iranian exports and imports, and I think they include removal of Iran from the SWIFT financial settlements system.
Gloria DryGarden
Late last night my pandora with ads played an ad looking for workers to come work for ICE, to help go after the worst of the worst.
omfg
prostratedragon
@eclare:
Epigony recapitulates genealogy, or something. At least, here.
oldster
“Nothing serious with the sauce this time, just a tin of anchovies…..”
You monster. Taking all of that good food, and then rendering it unfit for human consumption.
prostratedragon
@Baud:
While I’m uneasy about the latter, we’ll get a definitive reinvestigation of the disappearance of Judge Crater before we get the former.
Betty
@Gloria DryGarden: Yes! How many more school superintendents are out there lurking and hiding from ICE? Go get’em, boyz!
Ohio Mom
@oldster: Nah, one will taste the anchovies, they will melt and add a subtle umami flavor.
I always add an inch of anchovy paste to the olive oil when I’m sautéing broccoli, makes it much more tasty — well, tasty for broccoli, a vegetable I remain ambivalent about.
lowtechcyclist
But do they say it with tears in their eyes? ;-)
lowtechcyclist
@oldster:
“No anchovies? You’ve got the wrong man. I spell my name – Danger.”
(I can’t stand anchovies either, but they always remind me of Firesign Theatre’s “Nick Danger, Third Eye.”)
Professor Bigfoot
@Albatrossity: Would it be uncouth to ask for a copy of that recipe?
Oh, the heck with it, I’ll be uncouth— could you PLEASE share that recipe with we who are unlikely to ever sup at Georges!?
Professor Bigfoot
@RaflW: Baking— well, ATTEMPTING to bake— made me really appreciate metric recipes using weights, rather than cups and spoons ‘n’ such.
It makes EVERYTHING so much more straightforward, it really does.
oldster
@Ohio Mom:
I’m glad it works for you and the people you feed. Maybe I’m a supertaster or something in this regard, but three atoms of fishium in a kilogram of broccoli will still render it inedible to me.
But again — if it works for you, then ignore my whining. Nobody likes picky eaters, and they are no more lovable at seventy-five than at seven.
Juju
@oldster: I hate it when people do that. I have a fish and shellfish allergy and when people put anchovies in something that they are not typically in, at the very least it becomes an uncomfortable night for me, and has a real possibility of sending me to the emergency room. I had some ice cream once that someone put oyster sauce in. Fortunately I noticed it before I swallowed anything, and it didn’t hurt me, but who does that? I was told it was all about the umami. 🙄
Paul in KY
@suzanne: I was at UK back in late 70s and early 80s. Frat life was completely segregated. Rush was a completely unregulated bacchanal of booze. Example: ATO had ‘Little Kings Night’. At entrance to frat they had a refrigerated semi trailer and they would hand you an 8 pack of little kings and ‘get drunk MFer!!!’. That was sorta tame compared to some. Don’t ask me about Sigma Nu Purple Passion Night.
So glad to see some multi-ethnic frats! Back then I had more in common with the Qs and KASes and other black frat members than the white, rich (generally jerks) members.
Paul in KY
@eclare: They are Trumps. It is in their genes, in their marrow (which they will sell you some of if the price is right).
Denali5
@Baud:
I am afraid war is the more likely scenario. It will probably be a smaller country like Venezuela that we maybe can defeat. It won’t cost too many lives – but maybe will take the life of the son of someone you know, like the Iraq war did with me.
Parfigliano
@Paul in KY: Trumps will sell you some other persons marrow.
Paul in KY
@Parfigliano: And pass it off as their own! Crooks all the way down.
Carlo Graziani
@Ohio Mom: Basis for another classic Italian dish, pasta con broccoli. First you parboil the broccoli, then you saute them to a pan with olive oil, gsrlic, hot pepper and anchovies, while cooking pasta shells in the broccoli-parboiling water. Before draining the pasta, reserve some of the water. Combine pasta with sauteed broccoli in a bowl, add a good amount of grated parnigiano, and mix, adding a little of the reserved water to give the sauce a bit of movement. Fast, and delicious.
Kayla Rudbek
@Professor Bigfoot:
@RaflW:
baking is a thing of precision, much like analytical chemistry
Glidwrith
@Professor Bigfoot: Lily at #17 posted a link to the recipe.
oldster
@Juju:
Wow — that allergy sounds like a serious medical condition.
Me? I just have an aversion to the taste.
But unannounced oyster sauce is not only a problem for people with allergies, it is also unfair to people with religious prohibitions.
Juju
@oldster: It is a serious medical condition. I come from a family of seafood lovers. It never sat well with me. My family always made fun of me because I was a whiner and I just didn’t like seafood, and my father was a physician. When I reached the level of histamines that caused a reaction, I was 31. That was one of the worst experiences in my life. I wasn’t sure if I was afraid to die, or I wanted to die. The experience happened at the beach in February and there were no medical facilities anywhere near. By the time I got home, with my sister, I had made it through the dangerous part. My sister still has nightmares about the part where I could barely breathe. My dad checked me out ant told me to stay away from shellfish, and later on I discovered it also included ocean dwelling fish. I can’t eat tuna and a bunch of other fish. I don’t even want to look at freshwater fish. I can’t have fries that have been cooked in the same oil that fish has been fried in, and I hate to watch red lobster commercials. Just seeing that claw come out of the shell is enough to make me cringe.
oldster
@Juju:
Scary indeed!
People have figured out that you cannot throw peanuts into dishes without warning; let’s hope they’ll figure that out about seafood, too.
Albatrossity
@Professor Bigfoot: Uncouth? On this blog? My pearls doth need clutched!
Anyhoo, I see that the recipe is posted at comment 17 above. And later comments have some modifications that others have tried. I do the original recipe pretty much, but most of the time it is with grilled spatchcocked chicken leftovers rather than smoked. Both are good, one is convenient since I grill chicken quite regularly!
dnfree
@Ohio Mom: Way late to this thread, but as a vegetarian I’d prefer to be told if someone put any meat or fish in a food that I thought didn’t have meat, like broccoli!