Tag Archives: delicious

No one’s perfect.

Not. even. me.

Cooking can be tricky, and even the easiest dishes can make their way onto a plate too spicy, maybe a tad (or WAY) too salty and sometimes seasoned with what you thought was basil but turned out to be mint.

Rewind about 12 years, when Sweetie and The Kitchen was 16-year-old Maggie and her Mom’s Kitchen.  Specifically the freezer.  Where my Mom would store individually portioned Tupperware containers of green chile chicken enchiladas, meatloafs, green chile stew and for the sake of this story, lasagna.

Who needs an apron when you've got this early 90's style?

Let me start by saying that while my Mother was no Suzy Homemaker, she did keep a home.  A good one too.  My sister, cousins and I like to joke around about how my Mom never had food in the house, but the truth is, she just didn’t keep cookies, chips, processed frozen dinners and other quick snacks, in all their hydrogenated glory, around.

There was food.  But it was usually food that involved preparing, and to a 16-year-old, well that was just far too much effort.  I have 10 friends I needed to call, talking to each one for no less than 30 minutes each, to discuss really important world events and stuff like, say, how to use my new pager to say I love u (17 31707 1).

But luckily for me there was those pre-packaged leftovers in the freezer.   My Mom exchanged her apron for a briefcase years ago but many weekends you could still find her in the kitchen making food for the week.  Meals that would be portioned, secured in small Tupperwares and frozen.

One summer I grabbed one of those to-go Tupperwares from the freezer and stuck it in my lunch pack before heading off to my summer job as a lifeguard.

A few hours later, after sitting out in the hot blazing sun, watching kids splash around the Beach Waterpark, I went into the break room popped my lunch in the microwave… looking forward to the delicious cheesy saucy lasagna I had seen my Mom preparing that weekend.

I took a bite and realized something didn’t quite taste right… there was a spice… that didn’t quite belong.  What was it?  Mind you, at 16 my favorite restaurant was Chile’s, so let’s just say my palate was pretty undeveloped.

It kind of tasted like gum… not Bubblegum or Icebreakers… but like Trident.  The Trident flavor my Grandma Martha Ann always had on hand… was it… mint?

It was.

And truth be told, I don’t even know if it actually tasted bad or if my vanilla-self just decided to think it was gross because in my opinion mint did not belong in lasagna.

In any event my poor Mother has had to hear about the time she “put mint in lasagna” for 12 long years.   She apparently had intended to use basil from her herb garden, but grabbed the mint instead.

Either way, for me, the joke about the famous mint lasagna, is over.

It ended a week and a half ago when I put, take a wild guess…

Yup.

I put mint in meatballs. On purpose.

And…

It. Was. Delicious.

Actually, let me clarify.

They were AMAZING.

I found the recipe in a food blog I find myself copying more and more lately… Can You Stay for Dinner?

While the writer boasts about how delectable these little precious balls of meat are… it wasn’t necessarily her rave reviews or even the blog’s title (“My Favorite Meatballs”) that caught my eye.

It was one specific ingredient.

2 1/2 teaspoons of dried mint.

I had to make them.

My New Favorite Meatballs & Red Sauce
Adapted from Can You Stay For Dinner?

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