Meatballs

I was going to blog during the boy's nap time today and then I fell asleep, sitting up.  I was paying bills one minute and the next I was startled awake by my own snoring.  I decided I should take nap and not blog. :)

Wednesday night I made spaghetti and meatballs.  This is yet again one of my favorite meals, it's also one of Jon's favorites.  While the boys don't eat the meatballs, they love the sauce and noodles.  Spaghetti night is a good dinner night in our house.

I used my Spaghetti Meat Sauce recipe, minus the meat, for the sauce.  This post is about the meatballs.  I use my Hawaiian Meatball recipe as a guideline.  I just tweek it to make it Italian.

Meatballs
Prep time 25 mins
Cook time 20 mins
Serves 6

Ingredients
2lbs ground beef
1 cup Italian bread crumbs
2/3 cup minced/chopped dried onion
2 eggs
2 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp garlic powder
1/2 cup milk

1. Mix all items together.  Let sit for at least 20 minutes, or make ahead of time, to help the flavors meld.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium high seat.  Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the skillet.
3. Form meatballs, using roughly 1 tablespoon of meat.
4. Add meatballs to the skillet and cook for approx 5 minutes, until browned. Turn meatballs and cook for another 5 minutes.  Repeat process until all the meatballs are cooked.  We like our meatballs on the crispy side. :)

Golden brown (well black) and delicious.

5. Serve over your choice of pasta and with your choice of sauce.  I highly recommend this sauce, minus the meat.  Sprinkle with Parmesan.

 

A Hawaiian delight!

I don't know how Hawaiian these really are but I don't care. They are delicious.

Here's the original recipe, below is my version. I use www.cooks.com for a lot of my recipe searches. It's a great website because it offers lots of recipes for the same dish, just with slight variations. From what I can tell it's a website where the average cook can post their recipe.

Hawaiian Meatballs
adapted from www.cooks.com

1 1/2 lb. ground beef
2/3 c. cracker crumbs
1/3 c. minced/chopped dried onion
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. ginger
1/4 c. milk
1 tbsp. shortening
2 tbsp. cornstarch
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 can pineapple tidbits (13 1/2 oz.)
1/3 c. vinegar
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1/3 c. green pepper, chopped

Drain pine1apple, reserving liquid.
Mix meat, crumbs, onion, egg, salt, ginger and milk. Shape mixture into balls, approx a tablespoon of meat per ball.
Melt shortening in large skillet over medium-high heat; brown and cook meatballs.
Remove meatballs and keep warm. I do this by preheating the oven to the lowest setting, 170 degrees on our oven, and putting the meatballs in the oven while the sauce cooks.
Pour fat from skillet.
Mix cornstarch and sugar, stir in pineapple syrup, vinegar, and soy sauce until smooth.
Pour into skillet; use medium heat, stirring constantly until thick and boiling. Cook 1 minute.
Add meatballs, tidbits and green pepper. Heat thoroughly.
Serve over hot cooked rice.


These are the best tasting meatballs I've ever made. The texture is prefect and the meatballs stay together and don't crumble apart as they cook. The next time I make spaghetti and meatballs I am going to use this basic meatball recipe, but leave out the ginger and add onion powder and garlic powder instead

And this is how I know Jon approves of a meal.