Adventures in Cooking, Part 1

Any of you who know me know I LOVE TO COOK. In fact, those who know me well know my DREAM JOB is to be editor of Bon Appetit magazine. *sigh. 

Someday. 

But in the meantime, it's a cacophony of  hits and misses. Sometimes hits. Sometimes misses.

Tonight I was inspired by both a Facebook post by Williams-Sonoma and an Applebees commercial. Yes, Applebees. Don't fault me; a cook can find inspiration anywhere.

So I set off to make Meatballs Stuffed With Mozzeralla in Marinara Sauce over Whole Wheat Pasta.

I'll be honest. This didn't strike me until about 6:30 p.m. And I'm so regimented that normally it would be unthinkable to dash to the closest grocery store - Brookshire's Rice Road - for dinner. I was all prepared to eat leftovers of an AMAZING pulled pork...but inspiration hit me. And you HAVE to go with inspiration.

Right?

I bought beautiful ground sirloin at the store. When I got home, I mixed it with prepared pesto and Worcestershire sauce. I formed the meatballs around glorious chunks of store bought (fresh, pulled, beautiful, glorious mozzarella would not have held up in the heat) mozzarella to make meatballs. Thinking that my delicate cheese-stuffed balls would not  hold up to the baking I normally do with my meatballs, I decided to brown them in olive oil then add my marinara sauce around it. 

But in my haste, I forgot the binding agents. Usually I add an egg and some panko breadcrumbs to my meatballs to hold them together. I forgot. 

As I browned the meatballs, they began to fall apart.

CRUD!! What to do now??

I decided to dial back the heat and simmer them in my magical marinara sauce (I don't usually toot my own horn but IT'S GOOD). 

Update to follow....