Meatballs

I have a piano student whose parents pay for her lessons with hamburger. ("Interesting trades considered.") They have a cattle ranch, see. One of the many ways I use all that ground beef is by making (and freezing) meatballs every few weeks. We use the same meatballs for three different recipes and they taste great in each dish. The pictured recipe is from Our Best Bites (the first cookbook) "Sweet and Sour Meatballs." I also use the Swedish Meatballs gravy from the Our Best Bites Seasons cookbook for one of our three meatball dishes.

1 lb. extra lean ground beef

1 lb. regular pork sausage (I use Jimmy Dean)

4 T. minced onion

1/2 tsp. pepper

2 tsp. kosher salt

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 c. fine, dry bread crumbs

Dash of Worcestershire sauce

Put all ingredients in a mixing bowl, then mix with your hands. (Do it, Katy!! DO IT.) Line a cookie tray with tin foil that has been crumpled up a little, then smoothed out again. Roll meatballs (or scoop them with a mini scooper) and place on the lined cookie tray.

Adjust the top rack in your oven to the highest level (mine is really close to the top, so I do the second highest level). Put the meatballs on the adjusted rack, then turn the oven to broil. Broil for 11 minutes. We don't use our broiler very often - if you're the same, just know that every minute counts when you're broiling. One minute too long can ruin your meatballs.

Add broiled meatballs to your sauce (sweet and sour sauce, spaghetti sauce, cream gravy for mashed potatoes) and simmer for about 10 minutes. Done! 

This recipe makes approximately 50 meatballs. We need between 15 and 18 meatballs per meal for our family of five. (That family includes one person who thinks meatballs are YUCKY, btw.) So, this ends up being three meals for us. It only takes about an hour for the meatballs to thaw. 

Get the scoop. The process goes much quicker.