Homemade tomato sauce and meatballs

Something I love to do is walk around new grocery stores. I know this sounds weird but I love to see how they are set up and if they have more of a variety then other stores.  I recently found out about a huge whole foods that is roughly a 10 minute drive from our apt. So I talked John into taking me to check it out. Walking in it was the biggest whole foods I have ever seen, they had every type of produce imaginable cactus and aloe leaves and lotus root. What do you even do with those? When we walked past the meat section it was all fresh to pick, it was in a case and you could pick which pieces you wanted. I also like it because you could order any amount you wanted instead of being stuck buying a prepacked amount. This is about the time that I though John was going to have a heart attack, he spotted a case in the back that had dry aged steaks, he was in heaven. I have a feeling we'll be coming back to get one of those.

After spending way to much time in the store we finally headed home so I could make dinner. I was in the mood for some pasta and meatballs so I thought I'd make them from scratch. I found a recipe from one of my favorite website allrecipes.com. It has almost any type of food you want and you can search by ratings. Each recipe also has there own comments which is great because if you take the time to read a few you can adapt the recipe to what other people have found to be successful.

So here is what I used:

Meatballs 1 pound lean ground beef 1 cup fresh bread crumbs 1 tablespoon dried parsley 1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1 egg, beaten

Sauce: 3/4 cup chopped onion 5 cloves garlic, minced 1/4 cup olive oil 2 (28 ounce) cans whole peeled tomatoes 2 teaspoons salt 1 teaspoon white sugar 1 bay leaf 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste 3/4 teaspoon dried basil 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

In a large bowl, combine ground beef, bread crumbs, parsley, Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon black pepper, garlic powder and beaten egg. Mix well and form into 12 balls. Store, covered, in refrigerator until needed.
 
In a large saucepan over medium heat, saute onion and garlic in olive oil until onion is translucent. Stir in tomatoes, salt, sugar and bay leaf. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 90 minutes. Stir in tomato paste, basil, 1/2 teaspoon pepper and meatballs and simmer 30 minutes more. Serve.

Over all it was a good dish, there are a few mistakes I made.

1. I forgot to cover the meatballs when putting them in the fridge they dried out a little and were not as moist.
2. The sauce was also a bit to salty for my taste I only added 2t of salt as the recipe suggested. I am not sure if the canned tomatoes were to salty to beginning with (I usually use no salt added tomatoes). 

After dinner we have plans to watch our idiot brother, I usually like all movies that Paul Rudd is in so I'm excited to watch it.