Mmmmm....meatballs!

I made these on Monday, after having the flu I was famished! Like all recipes I use, it was a starting point - but I made a few adjustments based on what I had available in the house.

Mini Turkey Meatballs

Mini Turkey Meatballs
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis
Prep Time:
25 min
Inactive Prep Time:
hr min
Cook Time:
25 min
Level:
Easy
Serves:
42 mini meatballs

Ingredients
1 small onion, grated **grating an onion, never done it before...but so many less tears**
3 garlic cloves, minced **3 heavy tablespoons of jarred minced garlic**
1 large egg
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
3 tablespoons ketchup
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley leaves **I used dried here, a little less than a 1/4 cup**
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup grated Pecorino Romano
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper **to taste, we like a kick in everything so I used extra and some red pepper flakes**
1 pound ground dark turkey meat
3 tablespoons olive oil
26 ounces Simple Tomato Sauce, recipe follows, or store-bought marinara sauce **I used a jar of Berillo**
Directions
Add the onion, garlic, egg, bread crumbs, ketchup, parsley, Parmesan, Pecorino, salt and pepper to a large bowl and blend. Mix in the turkey. Shape the turkey mixture into 1 1/4-inch-diameter meatballs. Place on a large plate or baking sheet.
Heat the oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium-high heat. Add the meatballs and saute until browned on all sides, about 5 minutes. Turn off heat. Transfer the meatballs to a plate. Pour off any excess oil. Add the marinara sauce, about 3 cups. Return all the meatballs to the pan. Turn the heat to medium-low and simmer until the sauce thickens slightly and the flavors blend, 15 to 20 minutes. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper.
Transfer the meatball mixture to a serving bowl. Serve with toothpicks.

I didn't want mini-meatballs, I wanted bigger ones. I made them too big for sure, but they did stay nice and moist! I don't think I'd personally be able to get 42 balls out of this...my big ones made up 12! I think next time I'll simmer them in the crock-pot after browning them in the pan...any excuse to use the crock pot!

Hey Ya!

A musical interlude from the greatest rock n' roll band on earth...the Supersuckers! Rock, punk, country, alternative all mixed together for a whole lot of awesomeness! (Did I just make that word up?)

If you haven't heard of them, you should learn all you can. These guys have been rocking the world for many years now and don't show any signs of stopping! You can check out their site at:
http://supersuckers.com/ - they'll have current tour dates listed there!

Supersuckers do quite a few different covers also. But the one that always gets the crowd dancing is their version of Hey Ya by Outkast. If you can watch this and sit still, I'm shocked!

Win $1,000 at TheCuttlebugSpot.com!

The Cuttlebug Spot is having a contest - "The Journey to 1,000"!

They are trying to reach 1,000 followers by the end of July and need your help. To enter all you have to do is go to their site, sign up as follower and complete a few easy steps and you could win a $1,000 gift certificate to Custom Crops (http://www.customcrops.com/)! GO NOW and check it out at http://www.thecuttlebugspot.com/

Oh the damage I could do with $1000 at Custom Crops...***insert evil laugh here***

(Thanks to Steph for posting the contest on her blog)

Oops, did I start a blog?

I feel like I've been ignoring my lil' blog. Well, it's true - I have been! I guess after spending 5 days, 40 hours a week staring at my computer at work...well blogging, I'm just not that into you (lately).

But I'm back, and I promise to try and be better. Girl Scouts honor.

What have I been up to you ask? Just scrappin', went to see the Allman Brothers Band, reading some books, and watching some movies. June just flew right by me and I can't believe it's July already! Kevin's little brother's band, The Mapes wrapped up the month with a show at Carey Hart's Wasted Space inside the Hard Rock Hotel. It was awesome. And holy crap...Al Franken is now Senator Franken...and it only took 7 months to get there. So much has happened!

Some pics from the Allman Brothers Show - the quality kind of sucks, I took them with my Blackberry and used a drunk dancing photographer. But you get the feeling...we all had an amazing night!






Fireworks! This was a fun surprise!





And of course, I have done some fun scrapsketch creative team layouts for June! Steph has really done a ton of cool new stuff with the scrapsketch blog including adding challenges with monthly RAK's. Steph and the CT girls work really hard over there so be sure to check them out and leave some love!

(Please leave a comment if you are interested in specific products you see! Thanks!)

sketch 93



sketch 95
(I flipped this sketch counterclockwise)




sketch 103




sketch 105



I want to give a quick shout-out to Kara Henry's blog, Craft-tastical. Not only does the girl do amazing sewing projects (killer tutorial included), make fantastic baby quilts (step by step with weekly updates!), post super inspiring layouts once a week, but she ALSO posts free digital scrapping kit downloads! Seriously, they rock! I'll get the hang of it one day...and when I do I'll post some for ya'll to check out. But until then, go to Craft-tastical, check out Kara's rockin' blog, and leave her some love!

I've been a busy lil' scrapper lately, so be sure to check out my gallery over at
the fabulous Scrap-Diner site. You should also check out the forums, you'll find a fun group of super creative women to hang with! There are also 2 guest designers each month this summer for the Summer Concert Series - awesome challenges and really the prizes are amazing!

And finally - let me enable you...the store at Scrap-Diner is always stocked with the hippest paper crafting supplies one could ever desire! Shop shop shop, the shipping is quick - and be sure to check out the home page for the monthly special! Not to mention...you get candy with your order. Yup, I was immediately hooked.

New scrapsketch!

They have been posted over at scrapsketch. These new sketches are fantastic as always! I was given sketches 78 and 74 to work with. Here is what I came up with...

Sketch 78



Materials List (I will try to be as detailed as I can):
DCWV Cardstock
Fancy Pants PP
MM Tiny Alphas in Noteworthy
Prima flowers and bugs
Autumn Leaves stitch rub-ons
EK Success photo corner punch


Sketch 74



Materials List (I will try to be as detailed as I can):
American Crafts Snowflake Christmas PP
Rusty Pickle Mittens & Snowflakes PP
American Crafts Cardstock
American Crafts Thickers Roller Rink
American Crafts Thickers Subway
Wood White Glitter Snowflakes from CostPlus
EK Success Scalloped Scallop Border Punch
Fiskars Threading Water Border Punch