As you know, I was wrapped up in the National Security Summit with many of the Usual Suspects down at the Harold Washington Convention Center in downtown DC. I am already preparing to be late to the plenary session this morning. I don’t think anyone will notice.

The Director of National Intelligence had some great remarks, and the session with Tish Long, former Director of the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency was a romp up and down memory lane. I was exhausted by the time we got to the networking social hour in the late afternoon, and I braced myself for the prospect of going home, seeing the glittering blue water of the pool and not being able to actually get in it. Sign. At least the heavens had the good grace to provide a thunderstorm and sheets of rain to console me.

So, having the time, I made meatballs to go with the original marina sauce and authentic fettuccini I bought at the Italian Store last week. It wasn’t for last night, it was to freeze awaiting the first real spaghetti-and-meatballs night of the Fall. But now all I have to do is take them out of the freezer and let them thaw and simmer with the marinara sauce and boil up the noodles until they are al dente.

I did the basic prep work: I rummaged around in the freezer and found some bulk hot Italian sausage and some mild ground pork, mixed them together with two eggs, a half cup of dehydrated minced onions to soak up the fat, spiced it with crushed black peppers, adobo and threw in the last of the breadcrumbs from the fancy salad croutons that had been lurking at the back of the pantry.

Then I ignored the news that murmured in the background from the living room and watched as the National Security Meatballs browned to perfection. With noodles and marinara, they are going to be magnificent!

Ingredients:
1 pound ground hot Italian Sausage
1 pound ground lean pork
2 eggs
Extra-virgin Olive Oil for browning
Half cup minced dehydrated onions
Adobo, pepper, salt and hot sauce to taste

Directions:
Mash everything together in a bowl with the fingers. It is really cool. Wash hands a couple times while touching everything in the kitchen. Form two-inch diameter meatballs and drop into a hot cast-iron skillet and brown on all sides until the balls are resilient but fully cooked. Drain and put into a plastic container and place in freezer. Then, freshen the drink and go sit down in the living room and see whatever other idiocy happened while we were talking about National Security.

Copyright 2016 Vic Socotra
www.vicsocotra.com