Year End Inventory Begins:

THREE BATCHES OF MEATBALLS AND...



Spring Woods; 20 x 20; Acrylic on Premium Gallery Canvas.(The small pictures on the right are photos taken of Spring Woods as it progressed).

Art has always been an important part of my life, but it's not my whole life.


This is one of the things I've learned this year blogging. I am not willing to give nine to five to the craft--make it a full time job. A drawing a day, a photograph, a painting or five a year is about it.

The rest of my time, I like getting involved with whatever comes up--yesterday, cars,two days before, the management of the Detroit Lions, and in between a carrot cake recipe almost as good as A.J. Alexander's, (which equals I've heard from a very reliable source, Andre Black's, the Detroiter whose recipe won a $10,000 scholarship to Johnson and Wales College in South Carolina--a top notch school for the culinary arts).


I've been taking inventory for next week's blogs--The Best of 2010 sort of thing. So far, I've confirmed I'm a mixed bag. My interest in art is just part of the parcel that is me. At OMG-nearly-seventy, that's not a stunning revelation.

"Life is a banquet and most poor suckers are starving to death", is a line in Auntie Mame, a favorite movie. I absolutely believe it. I've always enjoyed sampling a little bit of all the goodies on the buffet table, but on Christmas Eve, I'll be passing by my heirloom meatballs.


In between final car talks and two sample meatball dinners, I made my third and I do hope final batch for the event. I promised the hostess, who may have off white carpeting given her response to my offering, I would drain off the sauce and serve it on the side, but I'm going to forget and hope her other guests aren't klutzes. The sauce is the best part of the dish,(I'll pick up fancy paper plates).

If you still need to come up with something fast, I recommend my long gone Aunt Ethel's Meatballs. They are terrific--no fry pan browning involved--just simmering in the sauce for an hour while you get dressed. Aunt Ethyl was as lazy a cook as me.

MEATBALLS: a pound plus of ground sirloin, lean; 3/4 cups of Matzoh meal or fine breadcrumbs or pulverized crackers; a Tbsp. of French's Classic yellow mustard--you don't have that, use Grey Poupon; 3 Tbsp. of ketchup--or a healthy squeeze from the bottle; 1 Tbsp. garlic powder; 1 Tbsp. of onion powder; and one egg. Mush it all together till thoroughly mixed--the more you handle the meat mixture, the better the mixture holds together whether you're making meatballs or meatloaf.

SAUCE: In a soup pot: Four cups of *Vernors Ginger Ale--or similar; 1 family size bottle of ketchup.

Roll the meatballs in your hands--not too large, just bite size--and drop them in the pot. When there's no more meat. Stop. Put the pot on the stove, bring it to a boil, turn the burner down to low and set the timer for an hour. Go get dressed.

When the timer rings. Turn it off. Mix 1 Tbsp. of cornstarch with 1/4 cup of ginger ale. Bring the meatballs to a boil again and stir in. Lower heat back down to low. Cook till thickened--five to ten minutes. That's it.

The recipe should serve four to six people pending upon the size of your meatball pinches. There's going to be twenty people at this party--but I'm just one of ten women bringing a dish--three batches does it, because a forth is absolutely out of the question. It's time to move on to Summer Woods, Sitting on the floor of the studio, in the first stage of development,waiting my attention.

HAPPY EATING EVERYONE. HAPPY PAINTING.

NOTES: Vernor's Ginger Ale is like Michigan's own Saunder's Hot Fudge. I'm sorry, but you can only get it here. The soda is very gingery with a bit of a bite and not sweet. You'll have to hunt in your corner of the world for something similar if you have any interest in this quick, really-looks-like-you-did-something-special-but-didn't dish.