Belated Valentines

So Blaine and I finally got to head out for some Valentine adventures. I had been sick the week of and we decided to post pone the festivities. For the longest time I had wanted to go to Buca di Beppo and eat in the kitchen. If you haven't been to Buca then you would not understand this phenomenon. It's a little difficult to explain or try to convince you of how fun it would be to eat in the kitchen if you have never been. In that case, I'll start by urging you to give Buca di Beppo a try. Fun atmosphere and great food.

So, we headed out and had a great time! Here are some of the pictures from our adventure.


Left overs. So much food!


Our cook posed for us and chose to do so with one of their famous 1/2 pound meatballs.


Us at Buca di Beppo, in the kitchen.


Blaine in the car...


Me in the car...

We had so much fun!

If it's not one thing it's another...

And by that I mean it was another. Last week I was very sick and originally thought I had the flu. I didn't go to the doctor because they can't do a whole lot for it. Well 2 1/2 days in I was desperate and in the ER. It was another... another ailment that is. I had a kidney infection. To make matters worse, the medicine I was sent home with didn't work. That night was a nightmare. So the next day my general doctor checked me into the hospital she is located at to make sure I didn't have early stages of appendicitis. CAT scan says, "No." Still kidney infection, just not the right meds. One hospital overnight later, I was on my way back to health. Yikes! Crazy week! Valentines was spent still recovering. Booo. I'm still working on regaining my strength and making sure I'm all well.

Good news! Tomorrow I'm going on a much anticipated date with my wonderful husband! We are going to Buca di Beppo, and we have reservations in the kitchen. If you never been there, that's hard to explain. I can't wait! Yeah Buca!

Team Mountain

Meat-a-balls!

This is one of our favorites!

1 lb Ground Turkey (You can use beef if you wish)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
1 tsp garlic salt
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp black pepper (I prefer fresh cracked pepper)
1/2 box of frozen chopped spinach, thawed and drained
(Or you can cook down fresh spinach, about 1-1 1/2 cups)
Optional: You can also do these with sundried tomatos instead of spinach...mmmmm!

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Grease a baking sheet.

Dump it all together. (Make sure to break the egg yolk.) For my messy people, use your hands. Better yet, let your kids do it. As long as they don't eat it, it will be a lot of fun. For my clean people, I use my KitchenAid mixer.

Make sure all the ingredients are mixed. Then with your hands (sorry clean people) roll meatballs. 1"-2" meatballs work great, just try to get them uniform for cooking-time purposes. Place them on the baking sheet and bake for about 20-25 minutes. They will be brown and when you crack one open there shouldn't be any pink. (Ground turkey will be much lighter than beef.)

Here's the fun part! You can serve them so many different ways!

1)Classic: Over noodles of choice with either marinara sauce or cream sauce.
2)Sandwich Style: On subs with sauce poured over.
3)Do it ahead: You can freeze these after cooking and pull them out later on. You can place them frozen in the crockpot with a large can of Ragu (or other red sauce) and let them simmer in the sauce and heat up. If you are going to be gone all day, add a cup of water and cook on low.

Ta Da! Meat-a-balls!