Spaghetti and Meatballs with Homemade Garlic Bread

   Hello all, today we are making a simple classic meal.  My wife and I worked on this together.  While I made delicious garlic spread to make garlic bread with, my wife mixed up the meatballs.  I used Philly cooking creme(savory garlic flavor), some softened butter and minced garlic.  I mixed it all together then placed it into the food processor to insure a thorough mix.  Then I took the mixture and placed it in a container with a lid and placed it into the fridge.  You want it to chill it for 2 to 3 hours to let the flavors marry and to let the spread set up a little, it will make it easier to spread evenly onto the bread.  I selected a fresh unsliced loaf of Italian bread which I will slice about 1 1/2 inches thick.

   While I was working on that my wife took 3/4 lbs of each ground chuck and ground pork.  She added about tablespoon each of parsley, oregano, basil, minced onions, and fresh ground Italian spices, 2 eggs and about 1-1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs.  She then mixed it all together using her hands.  Unlike when you make hamburgers you want to mix strongly.  With hamburgers you don't want to over work the meat to keep the moisture, but with meatballs you want to break up the ground texture of the meat.  We took the meatballs after formed and placed them into a baking dish, then put 1 inch of water in as well and covered it loosely with foil.  We placed the baking dish into a preheated 350 degree oven for 30 to 45 minutes.  By baking them in water you will render most of the fat out and keep moisture in the meatballs.  We then cooled the meatballs to go into the sauce later.

   You don't need to cool the meatballs before placing them into the sauce I did because I had to make the spread ahead of time, and this way we both had something to do.  If you don't have an oven you can do this in the microwave using a microwave safe baking dish and cover it with wax paper.  In the microwave you will cook them for 10 to 15 minutes on high.  Either way you go be sure to drain the meatballs thoroughly before placing them into the sauce.  In our case we will also have one more step before bringing the sauce together.  We like sauteed peppers and onions in our sauce, so before we begin heating the sauce we will saute diced onion and green pepper in a frying pan.