FoodMayhem

I’m still getting over the cold, or whatever I have, so I’m still doing lazy dishes. Thankfully, I had half a box of sausages in the fridge left-over, since it was a BJ’s box of meat, exactly 1 pound 13 ounces, so that’s what’s in the recipe. Don’t be alarmed by large amount of food this makes. It’s the perfect thing to have left-over, easily re-heatable in the microwave, or easily packed as a lunch.

Lazy Sausage Meatballs
~roughly 10 servings

• 1 recipe tomato sauce

• 1 medium eggplant, cut in small cubes
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pound 13 ounces hot Italian Sausages, casings removed
• 1 cup plain breadcrumbs
• 1 egg

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (375 degrees F with convection).
2. Make tomato sauce and just leave it simmering.
3. Cover an 9X13 pan with aluminum foil and toss eggplant with olive oil in the pan. Season with salt and roast for 20 minutes or until soft. Just set aside when done.
4. While the eggplant is roasting, mix sausage, bread crumbs, and egg together in a large bowl.
5. Form 1 inch balls with all of the meat mixture.
4. Heat a large pan and brown all sides of the meatballs without oil. The sausage meat should have enough oil to prevent sticking (but surprisingly, not much excess oil/liquid will come out). After browning the sides, the inside will not be cooked through.
5. Throw the meatballs in the tomato sauce and cook on low heat for at least 30 minutes, and up to 45 minutes.
6. When the meatballs are 15 minutes away from done, toss the eggplant into the sauce and stir. Cook on low heat for another 15 minutes.
7. Serve with any pasta shape you want.

I served Garlicky String Beans for veggie.

We also had some Bacon Topped Stuffed Mushrooms.

Cousin Karen brought over these giant Chocolate Chip Cookies from The City Bakery. They are quite good, with a nice bitterness to cut the sweet, very chewy, and uber buttery. One or two of them had a bit too much baking powder or soda, which both Lon and I could taste.