Spaghetti and Meatball Amore

In 1987 a TV special by the name of Frog aired. In my fuzzy brain, Fred Savage starred in what I thought was a full length movie involving frogs falling from the sky over a first kiss while "That's Amore" played in the background. Well, fortunately, someone threw the whole 50 minutes of it up on youtube, and I discovered I was wrong about everything except for the kiss and the song. Oh, there's frogs alright, but not falling from the sky, and there's definitely no Fred Savage. That's ok, I've got Little Monsters and Wizard to get my Fred Savage fix.  

Then, in 1991, when I was in 4th grade,our school performed a "Musical Olympics," in which pairs of students had to dress up in a country's traditional garb and sing the national anthem. Leave it to my father to convince me Italy's national anthem was "That's Amore," resulting in me to making a complete idiot of myself on the first day of rehearsal when I insisted I knew the whole song and broke into "When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie..." A rendition that ruined my social status and my classmates eardrums for years to come, but that's ok, 'cause I got to rock a pink shawl, some plastic flowers in my hair, and a kick ass floral apron.

That's about the extent of my history with the 1950's classic. Well, accept that insist on singing it every time I make spaghetti and meatballs (which isn't that often) but I did get a chance to make them last weekend, and what meatballs they were! So throw a red gingham table cloth on your kitchen table, stick some carnations in a vase, put on some accordion music, light some candles, and serve your sweetie a very Americanized vegan version of an Italian classic.

Spaghetti and Meatballs

J.P.’s Itsy Bitsy “Meatball” and Dumpling Soup

I don’t know Joshua Ploeg, but I wish I did. Fortunately, he’s got a cookbook and a couple of zines out, so I don’t have to know him to be able to try and cook like him. See, Ploeg is a traveling vegan chef, riding the Greyhound and Amtrak through this land dubbed amerika, cooking dinner parties, sharing his cooking wisdom, and generally stirring up mischief (don’t trust me? Grab a copy of The Traveling Chef and read it. If you are fluent in the language of kitchen and not a prude, you will die multiple times from laughter.) 

At any rate, he put out a little gem of a cookbook a few years ago entitled In Search of the Lost Taste. It’s a whole $8, so just STFU and get a copy. It has tastes I would never think to put together, but I’m glad he did. From sweet to savory, sometimes using local fresh ingredients, sometimes using tofutti cream cheese, and always using what’s on hand (although you might not have it on hand…) it’s one of the most diverse little cookbooks out there. Plus he cooks the way I do, which is to say “if you’ve got some extra XYZ, you should just go ahead and throw that in there…” Like I said, it’s a little gem.

I made the Itsy Bitsy “Meatball” and Dumpling Soup last night, and if anyone wants a bowl, come hit me up, 'cuz I’ve got a ton of leftovers. I’m not giving you the recipe–that’s just rude to disperse others recipes, especially when the chef in question sell his book for $8. But I will say this. I added smoked paprika to the dumplings, had an adventure whist making vegan faux meatballs, used 2 bunches of carrots (as opposed to 2), and should have thrown in some taters and kale. The only issue I had was the dumplings were a little chewy, but everything I have made in the last few weeks that has supposed to be light and fluffy just hasn’t worked out. Please do not bring up the word “gnocchi” in my presence right now; I need a few weeks to get over that epic fail before I tell you the story. Also, if anyone runs into Mr. Plague, please let him know my birthday is March 6th, and I would like nothing more to have him cook a dinner party for me in my tiny kitchen with no counter space and my ¾ sized stove. At least I have a large stock pot, a cast iron skillet, and some decent Henckels. Thanks! Oh, and here's his recipe for pumpkin pie!