Boy Food/Meatball Subs

I haven't figured out why the notion of a girl's night usually conjures up images of cute little PJs, homemade facials and pillow fights. Sorry for the bad news, but reality is far from that; most 'girls nights' I have are neither called that nor do they involve any of this allegedly girly behavior. Take the other night for example, a few of my friends and I got together to eat meatball subs, watch The Hurt Locker, burp and act totally ungirly. In my experience this is much more honest picture of reality; girl's nights are an opportunity to relax and be yourself and most importantly, a chance to enjoy somewhat sloppy, messy food without caring about the sauce on your chin or the crumbs on your lap.

In this vein, I can confirm that homemade meatball subs are the ideal messy food to indulge in with girlfriends and in our case the casual, homey food was the perfect complement to an intense and suspenseful movie. The idea for meatball subs actually came to me when I was in a Subway with two friends the other day; one of them told me that she had always wanted to try a meatball sub. I begged her to let me make them rather than letting her get one at Subway or any other commercial enterprise. I knew that my own version would be far superior in flavor and quality and I couldn't bear to let my friend scar her taste buds with a commercial version of this classic Italo-American dish.

I don't know about my friends, but these subs far exceeded my expectations and I think that a huge part of that is because I did not skimp on a single component. Hoagie rolls were turned into garlic bread before being smothered with huge meatballs and a rich butter and onion spiked tomato sauce.

Smiling/Baked Chicken Meatballs

Last night, at 7:30 pm I was at the supermarket hoping that I wouldn't have a botched dinner. At 9 pm after my first bite of these meatballs I was smiling like a goon, theses meatballs were anything but botched. Wholehearted, goonish smiles are one of my favorite things; seriously, if there is one thing I love more than good food, it’s smiles. They say that if you smile for long enough, no matter how low you are feeling, eventually the physical action of smiling will translate into smiley thoughts and eventually into a smiley state of being. So if it's food (that I made) that makes me smile so wide, it's kind of the best of win-win scenarios. Not only am I pleased with my work, but I also get a dinner out of it.

I am starting to worry that I am tooting my own horn a little too much these days, I keep raving about all this food I make and patting myself on the back.

Greek Life/Moussaka

I remember when I was applying to college, 'the list' was defined by finding schools that satisfied a few basic criteria. Big or small? Metropolitan or rural? And so on, until finally the most important question was asked, "Greek life?" From my perspective, eight years at a small all-girls school was the only taste of sorority life I ever needed. Other people saw the opportunity to pledge as a right of passage and a crucial part of a 'real' college experience. To be honest, I could care less about some pin that I will keep for the rest of my life until my daughter becomes a 'legacy' member of the same sorority as me. But hey, I am just being opinionated here, I know lovely and amazing women who are in sororities, so I shouldn't generalize.

If it's any comfort to all you sorority sisters and fraternity brothers out there, my love for Greek food most certainly makes up for my dislike of Greek life.