Date Night

You finally got her to go out with you so you want to go a little above and beyond and really do something to impress her. Instead of taking her on the same kind of date every other guy has already done, clean your place up and have her over for dinner.

Spaghetti and meatballs
This one takes 2-4 hours so start it early.

for the meatballs you will need:
1 lb Italian sausage
1 lb meatloaf and meatball mix (you'll find it with the ground beef in the same type of package. it has a combination of ground chuck, ground veal and ground pork all ground together)
1 1/4 club olive oil
4 cloves of garlic(finely chopped)
2 large eggs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/4 cup dried Italian bread crumbs (regular dried bread crumbs is fine, I just like this because it's already seasoned)

Put about 2 tablespoons of the oil in a small pan and add the garlic. Saute until soft, about 1-2 minutes
Whisk the eggs and parsley together in a large bowl (I mean a real big bowl, remember you're going to have to mix everything else in it too) Then add the garlic, meat and cheese. Mix together well and slowly add the bread crumbs about 1 tablespoon at a time until it just holds together. Season with a little salt and pepper, cover and sit in the fridge for 30 minutes. While this is sitting in the fridge you can start on the sauce. For that you will need:
1/4 c olive oil
1 (14.5 oz) can stewed tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
1 (6 oz) can tomato paste
4-5 cloves garlic (smash the garlic before chopping real fine
1 large onion, chopped
mushrooms (however many you like, if you even like them)
1 green pepper (don't have to use it all, again it just depends on how much you like green peppers)
1 tablespoon basil
1 tablespoon oregano
1 teaspoon of Mrs. Dash Italian Medley (You can never go wrong with Mrs. Dash)
parsley (for garnish, it looks good)

Put the oil in a large pot and heat on medium/high heat. Add the chopped garlic and onion and saute for a couple minutes until the onion is soft and transparent. Stir in the tomato paste and cook for about 30 seconds. Now you'll add the stewed tomatoes and diced tomatoes. You can either add the chopped mushrooms now or saute them for a couple minutes first. Now bring this to a boil and reduce to medium heat and cook for 30 minutes. During this 3o minutes take the meatball mix out of the fridge and make into 1 1/2 inch balls. Put the remaining cup of oil in a large pan and heat at high heat. Add the meatballs and cook until golden brown on all sides, don't worry about them cooking all the way through at this point. Now add the meatballs, basil, oregano, Mrs. Dash and chopped green pepper into the sauce and reduce heat to medium/low and cover. Let simmer anywhere from 1-3 hours stirring occasionally. The longer it simmers the more the flavors will come together.

I want to encourage you to add any of your own spices and ingredients to these recipes that you like. It's always cool to come up with your own recipes.

Now here's something that will make a nice appetizer. It's real simple to make, just a little time consuming. I like to do it while the spaghetti is simmering.

Stuffed Mushrooms
1/4 -1/2 cup olive oil
1 package stuffing mushrooms
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 cups Italian bread crumbs
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Italian Medley

Wash the mushrooms well then with a knife, carve around the mushroom stems and pop the stems out. Save the stems. Carve the mushroom caps out with a spoon to hallow them out. Now chop the mushroom stems up real fine and mix together the bread crumbs, garlic, stems, Parmesan and Mrs. Dash. Add a little bit of oil at a time mixing it in until you get a crumbly mixture. Don't add too much oil, you don't want a paste. Preheat the oven to 350. With a spoon, fill the the mushroom caps with the bread crumb mixture and place them on a baking sheet. Bake at 350 for about 15-30 minutes. Every recipe I've ever read for these say 15 minutes but they've never been done in 15 minutes for me. Just keep an eye on them and when the bread crumb mixture in the mushrooms turns a golden brown they're done.

When it's dinner time, start off with a salad. You usually can't go wrong with a Caesar salad. Go ahead and buy one of those pre made bags. You're going to be busy enough as it is with dinner so you don't need to be worrying about making a salad. After the salad serve the stuffed mushrooms. Before coming out with the mushrooms put some garlic bread in the oven and it should be done just in time to serve. Good luck!