When my kids were little, like a lot of kids, they would ask for “basghetti”  for dinner all the time.  I would brown up some ground beef, onion, and garlic then season the meat mixture and add a couple of cans of tomatoes, then toss in cooked spaghetti noodles and call it a day.  As they got older, they would request it with meatballs. Being a good Irish girl, I wasn’t exactly an expert at Italian meatballs, so I would try to brown the ground beef orbs in a frying pan. Inevitably the result was a broken-up mess of over or undercooked meat that did not resemble balls of any sort. Finally, I got wise and decided to bake them instead, and voila, perfect meatballs! Over the years, I’ve perfected the recipe to its current state and my grown kids still ask for it by its name – ” can we have basghetti, please!” We have house guests this week, one of them is a darling 4 1/2-year-old named Zada.  Zada is the daughter of my long-time (24+ years) friend, Nancy, and more on Nancy and Zada in the days to come.
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