How to Make a Meatball

I love meatballs!  I regularly sing that song to my kids, you know, On top of spaghetti, all covered with cheese, I lost my poor meatball....  you know the rest!

This video was supposed to be a walkthrough on how to make meatballs, but evidently I am too dumb to manage such a seemingly simple task, so it is more of a "talk-through"

How to Cook Pasta

Yesterday, we learned how to boil water.  Tonight, we will make spaghetti noodles.

First things first. Flip the back of your package of spaghetti over. You will find instructions for cooking.  Many times this will come in the form of a chart. Find the cooking time to cook the noodles to "al dente" or very firm. It doesn't matter if you like your noodles to be mushy.  Don't cook them to mushy, they will get mushier in the sauce. 
First, find a decent sized pot - at least 3 quarts.  Fill it 3/4 up with water.  Add a teaspoon or so of salt.  Boil the water.

When the water is boiling very fast, dump in the noodles.  IMMEDIATELY stir them with a fork, until they are all in the water.  When the water comes back to a boil, turn on the timer to the cooking time the package says.  Remember, you are cooking to the "al dente" stage.   Every few minutes, stir the pasta.  When your timer goes off, get a fork and taste a noodle.  If you can chew it and it is firm, without any hard spots, it is done.  Turn your timer off and take the pan off the heat. 

Grab a colander - a bowl with holes all over it.  Put it in the sink.  Pour your pasta into the colandar, water and all.  The water will drain away and you will be left with a colandar full of steaming hot pasta.

If you were not going to pour sauce on it, you could pour the pasta into a bowl, add butter and parmesan cheese, and voila - yummy time!

Tomorrow we will talk about the sauce.

How to Boil Water

Now that Anna has shown you all how to "Dump the Frump" I would like to show you all that preparing a meal doesn't have to be hard :) This post is the first of several. By the end of the week, you will know how to make spaghetti and meatballs, from scratch!

I hear all the time about how people "can't cook".  They seem to have a mental block where all things food, save for eating, is concerned.  Boiling water is a challenge.  During a conversation with a cooking challenged friend, I asked how this could be possible.  It seems so simple to me, this idea of cooking, how in the world can it be so complicated for others?  The discussion enlightened me, and I offered lessons to her. So, if you are cooking challenged, here is the first lesson.

Pay attention. 

Seriously,  that is the first order of business.  We have to pay attention to our recipes, our stoves, our ingredients and the time.  My daughter wants to be a good cook.  She has made multiple attempts at this, and it seems that she is chasing an impossible dream.  Her main problem? She doesn't pay attention and will therefore lose steps and/or forget ingredients.

Here is your first pratical lesson; boiling water.
1. Put a pan of water on the stove, over a burner.
2. Turn the burner knob to high, put a lid on the pot.
3. Wait; when the water starts bubbling a little, this is a simmer, not a boil.  When it is bubbling and rolling and generally looks very active, this is a rolling boil.  It is ready for whatever you need to boil.  If you wonder if it is boiling - it probably isn't.

If you are prone to distraction, then set a timer in 5 minute intervals to remind yourself to check on the water. :)