Homemade Tomato Sauce and Meatballs with Curly Pasta

In my opinion, one of the biggest oversights in the realm of quick cooking meals is spaghetti and meatballs. Years ago, I used to think that Italian food needed hours to cook and, as a result, I simply didn't make very much Italian food. The truth is that this recipe is so easy and so fast and just so delicious that you and your kids will thank you for it. If you don't have time during the week, then try it on a Sunday evening. You will quickly realize that the quality of flavor far surpasses the extra time it takes to chop an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic. And, once the meatballs are in the sauce, you are nearly home free! If we can do it in 30 minutes, so can you!   It's so easy!

First, we mixed together all the ingredients for the meatballs. Here we are gating fresh Parmesan cheese on a microplane.

We chopped fresh parsley in a vegetable chopper! The kids loved this part. This is a Pampered Chef tool (but there are other brands out there) and is so great for kids because it allows them to safely chop vegetables...and it gives them permission to make a lot of noise!

Look at how excited the kids were to roll out their own meatballs!

In the interest of time, we sauteed them in a pan while we made the sauce in a different pot.

We chopped and sauteed onions...

...then we peeled and chopped garlic to add it to the sauce. The kids used a garlic peeler to remove the garlic skin -- this is another great tool for kids for working in the kitchen. 

Then we chopped more fresh parsley for the tomato sauce!

A note about pasta: So, before I made my way to brown rice (gluten free) pasta, my absolute favorite way to enjoy meatballs and spaghetti was with angel hair pasta. My slow transition from "straight up" angel hair to brown rice pasta was with this brand: Barilla. The Barilla Plus pasta is made with lentils, chickpeas, flaxseed, barley, oats and spelt. These ingredients give this pasta protein, fiber and omega 3. 

We had some happy eaters in class! Mrs. Dory even joined the Green Room to enjoy our delicious creation...and the Blue Room rated this food "Two thumbs up!" And, it was so exciting to see how much the kids loved this meal. Those who usually ask for plain pasta were encouraged to try the meatballs on a separate plate. Many of them asked for seconds and thirds (in some cases), but they also asked for the pasta, sauce and meatballs to be served in the same bowl.

Quote of the Day: "Mrs. Diana, you know what? I thought this was going to be really yucky, but its actually really yummy."

Homemade Tomato Sauce and Meatballs with Curly Pasta
(Recipe adapted from Barefoot Contessa)

Ingredients

For the meatballs:

1 container of meatloaf mix (contains pork, beef and veal)

1/2 cup seasoned Panko bread crumbs

2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1/2 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1 extra-large egg, beaten

Vegetable oil

Olive oil

For the sauce:

1 tablespoon good olive oil

1 tablespoon brown sugar

1 cup chopped yellow onion (1 onion)

1 1/2 teaspoons minced garlic

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar

1 (28-ounce) can crushed tomatoes, or plum tomatoes in puree, chopped

1 tablespoon chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

For serving:

1 box of spiral pasta, cooked according to package directions

Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Place the ground meat, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, salt, pepper, nutmeg, egg, and 1/4 cup warm water in a bowl. Combine very lightly with a fork. Using your hands, lightly form the mixture into 2-inch meatballs. You will have 14 to 16 meatballs.

Pour equal amounts of vegetable oil and olive oil into a large (12-inch) skillet to a depth of 1/4-inch. Heat the oil. Very carefully, in batches, place the meatballs in the oil and brown them well on all sides over medium-low heat, turning carefully with a spatula or a fork. This should take about 10 minutes for each batch. Don't crowd the meatballs. Remove the meatballs to a plate covered with paper towels. Discard the oil but don't clean the pan.

For the sauce, heat the olive oil in the same pan. Add the brown sugar until it is mostly dissolved. Then add the onion and sauté over medium heat until translucent, 5 to 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add the vinegar and cook on high heat, scraping up all the brown bits in the pan, until almost all the liquid evaporates, about 3 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, parsley, salt, and pepper.

Return the meatballs to the sauce, cover, and simmer on the lowest heat for 25 to 30 minutes, until the meatballs are cooked through. Serve hot on cooked curly pasta and pass the grated Parmesan!

President's Day Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

What a fun recipe to celebrate President's Day! First, to explain why we were cooking with cherries, I told the story of George Washington and the Cherry Tree.  Although I did not read this story word for word, this version served as inspiration. It is taken from the George Washington Inn and Estate website: 

When George was about six years old, he was made the wealthy master of a hatchet of which, like most little boys, he was extremely fond. He went about chopping everything that came his way. One day, as he wandered about the garden amusing himself by hacking his mother’s pea sticks, he found a beautiful, young English cherry tree, of which his father was most proud. He tried the edge of his hatchet on the trunk of the tree and barked it so that it died.

Some time after this, his father discovered what had happened to his favorite tree. He came into the house in great anger, and demanded to know who the mischievous person was who had cut away the bark. Nobody could tell him anything about it. Just then George, with his little hatchet, came into the room. “George,” said his father, “do you know who has killed my beautiful little cherry tree yonder in the garden? I would not have taken five guineas for it!”

This was a hard question to answer, and for a moment George was staggered by it, but quickly recovering himself he cried: “I cannot tell a lie, father, you know I cannot tell a lie! I did cut it with my little hatchet.” The anger died out of his father’s face, and taking the boy tenderly in his arms, he said: “My son, that you should not be afraid to tell the truth is more to me than a thousand trees! Yes – though they were blossomed with silver and had leaves of the purest gold!”

After we talked about the virtues of leadership, we continued with baking cookies!

First, we mixed the butter and sugar together by stirring and stirring and stirring...which was actually really hard work! 

Once we added the flour, we used our very best tools -- our hands -- to incorporate the ingredients. Once we used our hands, then the butter, sugar and flour transformed from ingredients into dough.

We rolled the dough into balls...

...then pressed our thumbs into the center to make a well to hold the cherries!

Then, we filled the well with cherry pie filling. Each child made their own cookie! 

Look how beautiful the cookies looked before they went into the oven!

Quotes of the day!

• "I have exercise all throughout my body."
• "Is that sugar in that bowl?" "You know, you can use sugar on your skin to make it clean" "No, that's salt."
• "Sometimes when I cook with my mom, she tastes the batter to make sure if tastes good. Then, if she says it tastes okay, my sister and I are like wild dogs."
• Me: "How do you get stronger?" Child 1: "You grow taller and taller..." and Child 2: "...and you eat peas."
• Me: "Who knows the name of the President of the United States?" Class: silence. Teacher: "President...O...(providing partial prompt). Child: "Ocean."

President’s Day Cherry Thumbprint Cookies

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup softened Butter
1/2 cup Sugar
2 cups Flour
Cherry Pie Filling or other jam/pie filling

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 375.
Cream together butter and sugar.
Mix in the flour (The dough will look crumbly; use your hands to incorporate the ingredients).
Roll dough into round balls and place on an ungreased cookie sheet.
Make thumbprints in each dough ball and fill with cherry pie filling.
Bake for 15 mins until edges start to get lightly brown and the cookie sets.
Allow to cool on cookie sheet for 15 minutes.

Some changes or additions you might consider:

• You might want to mix 1 cup of powdered sugar with 1-2 teaspoons of milk to make a thick glaze. Place it in a ziploc bag and snip the corner to pipe it onto the cookies in perpendicular lines. You could also melt white chocolate chips in the microwave as another option for a drizzle.
• If you aren't crazy about using cherry pie filling, you can thicken frozen cherries with water, sugar and cornstarch. Or, you can look for those cherries in a water (brand: Oregon Fruit Pitted Red Tart Cherries) as an alternative. 

Corny Corn Cakes

This week, we made Corny Corn Cakes. The recipe comes from a great little cookbook by Mollie Katzen called "Salad People and More Real Recipes: A New Cookbook for Preschoolers and Up." Click on the hyperlink if you are interested in browsing a couple of pages. I love her cookbooks; they are filled with great recipes with fresh ingredients made in approachable ways. In addition, each recipe has a series of pictures that highlight each step of the cooking process. This is a great visual schedule for kids and perfect for non-readers! 

First, we mixed our wet ingredients, and prepared our dry ingredients...

Then, we added our wet ingredients to our dry ingredients.

Then, we had great fun mixing them together. 

The kids were offered the choice of syrup or honey to dip their corn fritter....and we garnished with fresh strawberries!

Conversations with the Kids:

So, one child was having so much fun mixing and stirring and cooking with me at the front of the classroom that she did not want to go back to her seat. To gently encourage her to return to her seat...I said:

Me: "Are you going to just stay up here forever?" 

Hilarious child: "YES!" 

Me: "Well, what about college?"

Hilarious child: "The other day, I heard someone on TV say 'don't judge me, I'm in college.'" 

One child was trying to enjoy his corn fritter, but kept picking out the tiny pieces of corn. In an effort to distract him from his task and possibly start a conversation about food he does like, I asked him a question.

Me: "So, tell me...what is your favorite food."

Hilarious Child: "Pancakes without corn."

Someone shared with me that she recently turned 5 years old. Playfully, I told her that I recently turned 5 also. 

Class: "Miss Diana, you're not 5!" "You're older than 5!"

Me: "Well, how old am I then?"

A very kind and loving student: "You're 16!"

Corny Corn Cakes

1/2 cup cornmeal

1/2 cup unbleached all-purpose flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 tbsp sugar

2 large eggs

1 cup buttermilk

1 tbs butter, melted

1/2 cup corn, fresh or frozen (I used frozen, since corn on the cob is not in season. And, I increased to 1 cup)

A little butter for the pan (I used coconut oil for sauteing.) 

Syrup, fresh fruit, or powdered sugar for serving (I also offered honey...and we garnished with strawberries.)

First, combine the dry ingredients in a large bowl.

Beat the eggs in a separate large bowl, then whisk in the buttermilk, melted butter & corn.

Pour the buttermilk mixture into the dry ingredients. Stir form the bottom of the bowl until the dry ingredients are all moistened.

Place a skillet over medium heat, and melt in a little butter. Use a 1/2 cup measure with a handle to scoop batter into the hot skillet.

Cook the pancake for about 5 minutes on the first side, or until really golden on the bottom. Then flip and cook on the second side, which will go a little faster; usually 2-3 minutes will do it, depending on the heat.

Serve right away, and eat with syrup, fresh fruit or powdered sugar.

Yield: Ten 4-inch pancakes.