I made a double batch of meatballs today. They freeze great and Lulu has joined the meatball fan-wagon. Now, if we could just get Bean on board, we'd be set!

La Casa de Camarillo Meatballs

1 lb ground beef (80%/20%)
1 cup soft white bread crumbs
2 tbsp. finely chopped fresh flat or curly parsley
1-2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. dried oregano
Large pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground coriander
1/2 cup grated Parmesan-Reggiano cheese blend
2-3 tbsp. milk
all-purpose flour for dredging
olive oil

Mix all ingredients above, well, EXCEPT the flour and olive oil.

Shape mixture into meatballs. Roll in flour until all sides are coated.

Now, you can do one of two things:

1.  Pop the floured meatballs into freezer bags and freeze until you need them in the future.

2.  Or, you can cook them up for a meal!

To prepare, take thawed/fresh batch of meatballs, rolled in flour, and fry up all sides in olive oil in a large frying pan until browned. Add your favorite sauce, cover and cook until meatballs are done inside.

(I have a great sauce recipe, too, but I'm partial to the 3-Cheese sauce from Trader Joe's since it's so easy and so good.)

Serve with you favorite cooked pasta.

Also delicious the next day for leftovers, if there are any left for that matter...

I have a reputation for making pretty awesome homemade meatballs. Eddie was thrilled to see I made a double batch earlier this week after a long hiatus from making them, for no particularly good reason, other than life has been pretty busy for us this past year.

Lulu and Bean are at the age where they are both in cahoots over dinner time food drama. They've moved on from Kraft mac n' cheese, and now, their favorite dinner is Top Ramen noodles. Well, at least their meal options have gotten cheaper, faster and can be bought in large quantities at the grocery store.

Bean will only eat peas now, it seems. Lulu, won't touch any kind of green bean at our house. Even if she eats it at Grandma's house. The check-out guy at Trader Joe's asked what I was going to do with the multiple bags of frozen baby peas I purchased a week and a half ago. "Trying to get my girls to eat their vegetables." I quipped. "They won't touch green beans, but love peas, so, peas it is, then."

Knowing that Lulu and Bean are especially finicky eaters right now, I purposely cut one meatball in half and put it on each of their plates of spaghetti, with plenty of their favorite sauce and a heavy hand of grated parmasan cheese on top. When both came to the table, they immediately balked at having to eat their half of a meatball. Meanwhile, Eddie and I each had at least three meatballs on our plates of spaghetti and were enjoying every bite!

Lulu did a pretty good job eating all her food except for that half of meatball. She took a tiny no-than you bite (very tiny) and didn't want to eat anymore. I told her no thank you bites didn't count that night, since I'd hardly given her any meatball to eat as it was. There was plenty of sauce on her plate and she could quickly get it eaten and finished, if she really wanted to.

Nope, instead she wanted to negotiate. And whine. And the drama began with the intentional gagging before the meatball made any contact with her fork.

Eddie and I were done. Not only with our meatballs, but with her behavior.

"Lulu, your mom worked really hard on these and they are delicious. You are being very mean and rude to her by not eating. You're done [with dinner], go to your room, then, RIGHT NOW!"

She tried to apologize and backtrack, but Eddie wouldn't hear it. She ran running to her room, crying.

Bean looked at us and announced smugly, "Lulu is being stinky!"

"No, Bean" Eddie barked, "YOU are being stinky! Eat your food." Bean, instantly burst into tears. It was either because she was in trouble or because now she had to eat her meatball, too. I'm not too sure. She did begin to eat, however.

Eddie and I have a shared saying, that its not a good morning/day/night in our house unless everyone [Lulu and Bean] is crying and in tears, at the same time, together. This was definitely one of those nights.

Meanwhile, Lulu was crying and sobbing in her room. We were ignoring her, until she started crying out desperately from her room to me:

Lulu (crying and sobbing): "Mommy, I want that meatball! The foods WONDERFUL!! I love it, it's AMAZING...I WANT THAT MEATBALL!!!"

At this point, Eddie and I share a look at the table and try to keep from noticably laughing outloud. It's not everyday you hear someone yelling, "I WANT THAT MEATBALL!!!" from anther room while sobbing, to you.

Finally, we let her come out of her room and back to the dinner table. She sat down and and looked as though she was going to revert back to her default behavior. (The dramatic gagging. Had she learned nothing from her timeout in her room?!) But I shot her a look and she choked her food down.

And that was our Tuesday night dinner time theater.

We fully expect Lulu to someday in the future, be nominated for and win many an Academy Award for best dramatic performance. Hopefully, Eddie and I (and my meatball recipe!), will be honorable mentions in her acceptance speech.

Lulu loves to check out these cupcake cook books from the library. It was a long weekend, due to President's Day, so I told her we could make one of the recipes in her book. Lulu wanted to do "Shark Attack" which is cupcakes with sharks made out of Twinkies, people in inner tubs from donuts and the like but I veto'd it. Too many types of candy and ingredients to pull off for our first go at this. I settled on Spaghetti and Meatballs, since all we needed were cake mix, vanilla frosting, white chocolate, strawberry preserves and Ferrero Rocher candies.

Here are the cupcakes after we cut the tops off of them (I put too much batter in each cup before baking in Agatha). The cupcakes need to be flat to pull off the intended effect. Below, the crumb coat of frosting...

Voila! Lulu made two batches and we saved a third batch for Bean to decorate. Lulu gave away each batch she'd decorated to neighbors. Lucky them! Would you refuse a plate of super cute cupcakes if they were delivered to your door? Exactly!

The finishing touch, grated "Parmasan cheese" (white chocolate)!

These are the cupcakes Bean decorate for us to eat for dessert last night. The secret to this looking realistic is making sure one "meatball" is on the plate and the rest are on the "pasta".

Bean, hamming it up for the camera, of course! These cupcakes were really delicious, too. Pretty easy to make, all things considered, and fun to create! Also, those Ferrero Rocher candies really do look like meatballs, it's incredible.

Oh my goodness, I can't believe this one is already twelve years old. Where have I/we been?

The morning started with a trek up the street to get pastries from our favorite neighborhood bakery, Bake Shop:

Then, we had Lulu's favorite dinner, spaghetti & meatballs. It was serendipitous, as Eddie got back from a business trip to San Diego after lunch today after being gone since Monday. Spaghetti & meatballs is one of his favorite dinners to come home from a business trip too...

We did a simple dessert tonight as tomorrow we'll celebrate with dinner and a spectacular dessert from Papa Haydns with my mom and brother. Tonight, was a scoop of ice cream and a slice from a huge Reeses Peanut Butter Egg. Then, it was time to open presents. We gave Lulu a teen kitchen knife skills class at Sur La Table in a week. Now, she'll finally be able to make her famous Taco Bowls from start-to-finish. She asked for nothing but books this year for her birthday, and you can see, she pretty much was thrilled with what she received from Grandma Mary, Bumpa and Tia Maryann. Also, it looks like she's wearing lipstick in the photos below, but she's not. It's just a weird thing my phone camera seems to do with the girls on occasion...

This next book is "Chinese Cinderella" by Adeline Yen Mah didn't show up well. Lulu may not look particularly thrilled in the photo, but rest assured, I just snapped at the wrong moment. She was SO HAPPY to get her own copy of this. She had to read it for school in her Lit Group and had me read it. I had my mom read it (it's a quick read and really, really good) and now Eddie is going to take it on his next long trip.

Lulu really wanted to make dinner for us and pulled this stuffed pasta shell recipe out of her cookbook. I got her all the ingredients she needed and she got to work getting it all cooked and put together.

A pretty simple and fool-proof recipe, cook jumbo pasta shells according to the directions and drain when cooked. Line the shells up in a large baking dish. Fill each shell with a cooked meatball. Top with spaghetti sauce and finally, put a layer of shredded mozzarella cheese over that. Bake in the oven until cheese is melted and meatballs are heated through.

Bon Appetite!

Lulu is officially, a teenager!

We totally celebrated her birthday in style...

I decorated the dining room while she was at school. I even made her a birthday tiara out of sparkly pipe cleaners!

I picked her up after school to go and get her Boccone Dolce "cake" from Papa Hydns (now, officially all three Camarillo girls favorite dessert!) and then I made her favorite, spaghetti & meatballs. Grandma Louise and Uncle Jeff joined us for dinner and festivities.

This decadent confection is basically a Pavlova dessert: thick, chewy and crunchy layers of meringue layered with fresh whipped cream and fresh fruit (bananas, strawberries, raspberries & blueberries) then drizzled with chocolate. YUM!!! The dessert itself is, no kidding, 8 inches high...

Lulu got pretty much everything she wanted (books ruled the gift list in 2018, whereas 2019 was all about clothes.) Some great photos below!

This is a shirt she wanted, made by a YouTuber she likes and follows. The chickens gave it to her for her birthday, BTW.

Two pairs of pink earbuds from Bean (Lulu blows through earbuds like they are going out of style, so the dollar store is a great place to replenish her stock).

A sleep eye mask in her trademark Leopard from Bean, too. Now, hopefully there will be minimal yelling at bedtime when Bean wants to read in bed and Lulu wants to sleep.

Fun socks from Uncle Jeff!

Lulu really, really wanted this for her birthday. She had an identical one (but in a smaller size) when she was younger. It's of a Girl Scout going through a forest, pulling a wagon of Girl Scout Cookies and Ninja Squirrels getting ready to take her out.

Lulu, Bean and I enjoyed the rest of the cake on Saturday morning for breakfast. Boccone Dolce is truly the breakfast of champions, especially when paired with Tia Maria spiked coffee.

Way back many moons ago, around 1994...1995, I got a most wonderful and memorable birthday present from a dear friend while I was at work. My birthday had fallen on a Saturday and because I owned a business with someone at the time, Saturday mornings found us working from 10 am to 2 pm. This dear friend (Anti-Auntie Hobbs) showed up at our office bearing a basket. Wrapped inside a vintage linen towel were homemade blueberry muffins and the little muffin book the recipe came out of.

The best part? The muffins were still warm from the oven!

Hands down, one of the best gifts I've ever received. The sweetest, simplest, kindest. As you can see, I still remember everything very clearly, even though it's been nearly 22 odd years.  I still have the vintage linen towel. I still have the little muffin book. Interestingly, the blueberry muffin recipe in the book is simply called "The Best Blueberry Muffins." Still accurate today as it was over 22 years ago.

Since the moment I received that wonderful birthday gift, I've been making those very same muffins throughout the years because, they simply ARE the best I've ever tasted. I think a lot of it is how moist they are inside and then the delicious and unexpected nutmeg sugar topping.

Follow the recipe to the LETTER, and then decide for yourself. I'm confident you'll be smitten!

(Note: You must use butter, no margarine allowed!)

The Best Blueberry Muffin's Ever

1/2 cup (one cube) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. baking powder
1/4-1/2 tsp. salt
2 1/2 cups fresh blueberries (mash 1/2 cup in small bowl)
1/2 cup milk (we use whole milk)
1 tbsp. sugar
1/4-1/2 tsp. fresh ground nutmeg
muffin/cupcake paper liners


Heat oven to 375 F. Line muffin pan with cupcake/muffin paper liners. (These pretties I picked up at Michael's Craft Store in the dollar bins about six years ago.)



Butter softening next to Agatha...



Mash 1/2 cup of blueberries in a small bowl. Set aside.




In a medium bowl combine softened butter and sugar until creamy.



Beat until pale and fluffy.  Beat in eggs. You can do so one at a time, or both at the same time...Add vanilla, salt and baking powder, mix well.



Mix mashed berries into batter.

Fold in half the flour (1 cup) and half the milk (1/4 cup) into the batter.

Note: Folding does not mean 'mixing/blending well' - It means you gently incorporate the ingredients using a 'folding' motion as you stir.




Add the remaining flour and milk. Fold in the remaining 2 cups of whole, fresh blueberries.



In a small bowl, mix the 1 tbsp. granulated sugar with 1/4 freshly grated nutmeg.

Note: I highly encourage you to invest in a nutmeg grinder. You can pick one up online or at Williams-Sonoma for about $30 and it's something you'll have forever. There is nothing quite like freshly ground nutmeg for your recipes. Many of the recipes we make at La Casa de Camarillo utilize freshly ground nutmeg including these muffins, our famous meatballs, the pumpkin risotto to name a few. You'll never want jarred ground nutmeg ever again!





Fill your muffin cups with batter and sprinkle with nutmeg-sugar.





Bake for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center of the muffins comes out clean.





Cool and enjoy warm or at room temperature (if they last that long for the latter!). These are delicious on their own or with bit of unsalted butter.



The recipe claims it makes 12 muffins but I tend to get about 18 out of a batch of batter. (Two have already been devoured thanks to myself and Lulu!)

Below, the vintage linen towel my original birthday muffins were wrapped in!