Happy Mother's Day

I wish you all a Happy Mother's Day, whether you're a mother or not. For this holiday all I ask is that someone else take over dinner. Cook it, order it or take me out for it. I'm easy. I just don't want to be in charge of it tonight. I have complete faith in my family's ability to handle it.

Have a wonderful day. I'm getting back into bed - here comes breakfast.

Warm Spinach Feta Salad

A dear friend made this for me years ago and I haven't gotten sick of it yet. It's good on it's own with crusty bread or as a first course or as an accompaniment to meat or fish.

Wash a bunch of spinach per person but don't dry it. Quickly wilt it in a pan without adding any liquid or fat. Transfer spinach to a shallow serving bowl with any liquid the spinach has given off. Crumble a generous amount of feta cheese over spinach while it's still hot. Dress with lemon juice, olive oil and chopped scallions. Toss and serve. Probably won't need salt.

Meatballs Parmigiana

The leftover meatballs are calling my name. If I layer them in a shallow baking dish and cover them with grated fresh mozzarella and heat them in the oven then we can all eat them the way we like. For me that'll be with crusty bread and a salad. My kids will want pasta and that's fine too.

Soy Sauce Chicken

Soy sauce chicken is a cut up chicken that gets thrown into a ziploc bag in the morning with 1/2 a cup of soy sauce, minced garlic, a sliced onion, grated ginger, scallions, a little sugar if you like. Give it a good shake and refridgerate until you're ready to cook it later that day, or the next day if you don't get around to it. Turn the bag over once in awhile if you're around. You can bake the chicken or braise it on the stove or grill it.

Serve with rice and a green vegetable.

Sausage and Potaotes

Fried or boiled cubed potatoes.

Sausage cooked as you like it. Italian sausage, kielbasa, linguica, whatever.

Toss together in a big bowl with handfuls of parsley, mustard, cider vinegar, olive oil, s&p.

Serve with a salad.

I guess this qualifies as the first potato salad of the season. It's good hot or room temperature or cold.

Pizza Night

We need a pizza night around here. How about you?

BTW the meatballs were fabulous. Light, moist and juicy and flavorful. No egg whatsoever. Maybe the eggs have been a mistake all these years. The ricotta did the trick. I also added quite a lot of minced parsley, which was the perfect touch.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

Not exactly light spring fare, I know, but a staple in my house. My kids reminded me that we haven't had meatballs in weeks. I always make a big batch so we have leftovers. My usual version involves a mix of beef, veal and pork with egg, tons of garlic, bread crumbs as well as stale bread torn into small pieces and soaked in milk, parmesan cheese. This is the way my father-in-law makes his and they are pretty hard to beat.

In honor of spring and of friends with egg allergies I'm going to try a version with just veal for a lighter meatball and use ricotta cheese in place of egg. I'll let you know. You probably have your own great meatball recipes, too. Also, I long ago gave up browning them on the stove before putting them in the tomato sauce. Too messy. I bake them in a 350 degree oven on a baking sheet for 20 minutes instead and the results are just as good.