Monday nights are usually my nights to make a nice dinner. Whether it be a roast and mashed potatoes, chicken carbonara, or some kind of Italian meal, it’s the day where I work on laundry all day, get some chores done, and focus on that Monday night dinner to start a new school and workweek.

This Monday was homemade meatballs, homemade cheesy bread, fresh salad, and rigatoni. I had no darn spaghetti. Nothing is more provoking than having a spaghetti and meatball night and not having the spaghetti! I swore I had a box. I would have bet money I did! But those darn house-elves must be at it again…

As we sat there eating the rigatoni, my son said he was bummed there was no spaghetti. Not because he is such a huge fan of it, but because it reminds him of his G.G. Perry.

Let me go back a bit here. You all know how much time I spent with my Grammy “Margaret” Perry. I just loved spending time with her, and when I was with her, she dedicated all her time to me — walking to the Dollar Store in Southside, playing games all day, building me a fort out of blankets, and even letting me pick out what I wanted for dinner. I always picked spaghetti and meatballs!

At dinner, we would always have spaghetti races. Gram would make sure the pieces were the same size; then we would pucker our lips and get ready to race. Pap would say, “Ready, set, GO!” I have always eaten my spaghetti with butter and shake parm. Gram had sauce on hers. I swear that butter always helped me because I would jump out of my chair and yell, “I won, Grammy!!” Even as I got older and still spent the night at my grandparents even through high school, we would still do spaghetti races! She got a kick out of it as much as I did. I then got married right out of high school and four years later had my son Tyler. My son then started doing the spaghetti races with us! G.G. and he would just laugh and giggle, and Tyler always had to do it more than once. On Monday night, Ty said how much he missed the spaghetti races with G.G. I said, “I know, buddy, me too.”

Rigatoni is boring. There are no races. The only fun thing is my daughter was sticking them on her fingers until her dad said, “Kenzy, use a fork, please!” Spaghetti night will always have a special place in my heart. There is nothing like homemade meatballs with a plate of delicious pasta. It just goes together like a Monday night and a nice meal.

Homemade Meatballs
Ingredients:
• 1 lb. Ground Beef
• 1 clove garlic
• 1/2 cup parmesan
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp. Parsley
• 1 tsp. Salt and pepper
• 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
Directions”

Fry in oil until browned, then bake with tomato sauce covered over meatballs at 350 for an hour and half stirring every 30 minutes.