Albondiga Oops

I was looking for a meatball recipe and came across one called Albondigas. Little did I know that this is typically a component of a Spanish soup (or the name of the actual soup itself). In hindsight, they probably weren't the best entree to pair with 2 French side dishes, but they're still quite tasty. Kind of sweet from the ketchup and bell pepper, which didn't appeal to me as much as a typical meatball would, be I still enjoyed them.

For the side dishes I made a batch of bechamel and prepared Broccoli au Gratin, currently tied for the most fattening way of devouring vegetables with deep-fried. Sure is tasty though, I think I could eat an entire plate of brussel sprouts and okra au gratin if it were put in front of me. Very easy to make and very transferable to other recipes, from topping other vegetables or even pasta.

I downsized a recipe for Tomatoes Provencal to make a single tomato, but didn't cut back on the garlic. That definitely gave it a lot more kick than I was expecting, but I actually ate this. Normally I don't like tomatoes that haven't been somehow separated from their natural state (unless very firm and part of a salad) but the garlicky bread crumbs made it edible. I might even go so far as to say I actually enjoyed it, so maybe the garlic wasn't so bad after all. There's also some broiled, fresh bread on the side which I used to scoop up the tomato residue. Delicious.