The New Black

Do YOU Dinner Club? If you don't, then you need to get with it people, it's the new black! It's a chi chi way of saying, 'Pot luck- here's the theme, bring something'...and it's SUPER FUN! :)

I made Albondigas for our first dinner club gathering. The theme was tapas! And i admit it, a lot of the tapas mentioned as suggestions seemed a little intimidating, so i went to look for something in the theme, but a little easier.

Albondigas (Meatballs in Garlic-Tomato Sauce)

Ok, so this recipe was a little more involved then i imagined, but it's exciting cooking for a crowd, so it made making 80 little meatballs fun!


I made this recipe exactly as stated. I used my old skool Cuisinart to finely chop the onions and green pepper and the texture came out perfect, not too big, not too small. I baked (instead of frying- naturally ;) the Albondigas at 375 for about 30 minutes, turning them every 10 minutes, and they came out perfectly crisp on the outside and moist on the inside.

It just so happened that my mom and my mother in law came over (i really WAS cooking for a crowd) as i was making the 2nd batch, and everyone agreed, they were delicious!

BUT and this is a very big, BUT, the sauce was lousy. I followed that part of the recipe to the letter, and was so disappointed with how it tasted. In fact, my camera went on strike and refused to take a nice photo of it, so all i have is a really crappy photo of how it turned out. here you go...

Yeah, so under all that tomato sauce are really nice meatballs. The ingredients took them to another place...Spain maybe?! lol.

UPDATE: After i wrote this last nite, i settled in for this week's episode of Top Chef. How obnoxious was the Supper Club featured...nice sashes, lol. And i loved some of the commentary, such as "You can get this at Denny's!" Must take a REALLY refined palette and a fancy sash to come up with a comment like that.

See people, i'm telling you, i've got my finger firmly on the pulse of what's hot, and that's Dinner Clubs! So pick a date, pick a theme and email some friends to get your dinner club started today! ;)