The review of hits and misses from week #21’s new recipes all proved to be HITS!  I must be doing something right in the selection of new recipes to try.  I will admit that most of the meal planning included repeats and tried and true, but the new things that I did try proved to be successful.  As promised I am only hitting the highlights.

Tuesday was Family Day and a Cooking Class Day.  The 10 year old picked an Italian Menu for this week’s meal.  She decided to make spaghetti and meatballs.  I have several meatball recipes, but decided to try something new.  This recipe taught her several new skills and I didn’t have to worry about browning the meatballs on the freshly cleaned stove.  They were oven baked.

Italian Meatballs  Source allrecipes

I made several revisions to this recipe as we prepared it and the result was a HUGE THUMBS UP HIT!  Only one meatball was left!  I have included the original recipe, and will post my adaptation soon.

We also tried a very “fresh” tomato spaghetti.

Fresh Tomato Spaghetti  Source Martha Stewart

Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce

Under 30 Minutes Capture the pure taste of summer with this pasta. The secret: using raw tomatoes that have never seen the inside of a refrigerator. Recipe copyright 2012 by Eugenia Bone.

This spaghetti was indeed fresh and light, quite enjoyable for summer fare, and a terrific use for all of those summer tomatoes and basil.  We pulled the leftovers out for Happy Hour later in the week and the spaghetti proved to be equally enjoyable at room temperature.

The 10 year old choose a Lemon Crostini to prepare for the dessert.  I will say that her selection process is highly complicated.  She is attracted to everything sweet.

Italian Lemon Crostata – An Italian in my Kitchen

Lemon Crostata, a simple and easy Italian Dessert. Made with a flaky pie pastry and a delicious fresh lemon cream filling. This Italian Lemon Crostata is your perfect snack or dinner dessert recipe. I wish I could say this Italian Lemon Crostata was made from lemons from my own tree, but unfortunately the Italian and I have absolutely no luck growing lemons.

I am happy to report that everyone enjoyed this dessert.  That being said, I have decided that this family likes ALL desserts.  The lemon crostata was packed with tart lemon flavor with a shortbread type crust.  The crust was amazing and I may use it as a foundation for additional desserts.  That being said, there are so many desserts out there to try and to repeat, I don’t see this one as going into a “favorites” niche at this time.

The rest of the week we enjoyed a tried and true recipe (Sweet Italian Sausage Casserole) which I will need to include in a future post.  I have made this several times in the past months, resurrecting it from the family cookbook.  I had forgotten how tasty it is, and how many summer vegetables it utilizes, perfect for anyone with a garden!   The cook once, eat twice (or more) was definitely taken advantage of over the course of the week.  As plans changed and evolved, we did not have the opportunity to try my sister’s recipe for the Greek Turkey Burgers, nor did we prepare the Chicken Enchilada Casserole.  They will be moved ahead for a future trial.

On we go to week #22!!!