On top of Spaghetti

If Thatboy had his druthers, the television would be permanently tuned to Fuel TV which features sports like snowboarding, skateboarding, and surfing. In fact, most times when I come home to him watching tv, that's what he's tuned in to. As for me, I don't especially swoon over getting to watch these activities live, let alone in the comfort of my own home. We've arranged a happy truce where whoever is on the couch can watch what they want, meaning while I'm in the kitchen Thatboy picks the show, while he's working on his pictures, I pick.

But when we're both on the couch, we try to find a show both of us will watch. Usually this means no Food Network with the exception of three shows - whatever pastry/sugar/cake challenge we can find, Next Food Network Star, or Throwdown with Bobby Flay. There is nothing Thatboy and I like better than rooting against Bobby Flay. Not that we have anything against him personally, and we're both fond of his restaurants, and Sweetcakes and I SWOONED when we got the chance to see him on our trip to NYC in December. But there's just something so arrogant about challenging people that you can do something better than them. I mean, most of the people he challenges aren't jetsetting from one of their restaurants to another across the country, they're hard working, dedicated, working class people who have really struggled to perfect a recipe and gain a loyal following. And you Mr. Flay, waltz right in like god's gift to the spatula?

On a recent episode we watched Bobby challenge Mike Maroni, the godfather of meatballs. Flay began with a meat mixture of pork, sirloin, and veal (what is this meatloaf?) while Maroni stuck with a nice fatty ground chuck for his meatballs. Flay quickly realized that his sirloin caused the meatballs to be too dry. Thatboy and I cheered when Maroni's meatballs took the prize over Flay's. THAT'S how it should be - the credit, awards, accolades should be lauded on these hometown heroes. After all, don't we root, root, root for the home team?

If there's one thing I learned from the episode - it's that you GOTTA have fat in your meatballs to keep them nice and moist. So I decided to add a little fat to my turkey meatballs. Now, I LOVE ground turkey in place of ground beef, but I know a lot of people have issues with how dry the finished product is. So I added some ground beef into my turkey meatball recipe and ended up with rave reviews. I served them over whole wheat spaghetti, which I know opens a whole 'nother can of worms, but we can discuss that later.


Mixed Meat-Balls

• 1/2 lb ground turkey
• 1/2 lb ground beef
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup parsley
• 1 onion, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt
• pepper
• 2 Tbsp olive oil
• 28 oz crushed tomatoes

1. Combine ground turkey, ground beef, egg, bread crumbs, parsley, 1/2 minced onion, 1 1/2 cloves minced garlic, salt and pepper and form into golf balls.
2. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in large nonstick skillet and cook meatballs over medium heat until well browned.
3. Heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in saucepan and cook 1/2 minced onion, 1 1/2 cloves minced garlic over medium heat until translucent.
4. Add tomatoes to onion and garlic and bring to a simmer. Add meatballs into the sauce and cook 15-20 minutes.