Meatballs

Whatcha Making Wednesday: Comfort Meatballs

For some reason I took a small hiatus from cooking much while Kelly was home on vacation this past month.  One would think I might cook more since he was home more; not true this time though.  We've had a lot going on in our home life with various family members and each situation took a huge toll on this pregnant mama.  Emotionally and physically.  I finally felt up to getting my hands dirty in the kitchen again last week so I made Pioneer Woman's Comfort Meatballs.  I've paged past this recipe in her first cookbook many a time, but never had I been interested until now. I had my doubts about how satisfying the meatballs would be because as you will read in a moment, the ingredient list is fairly simple.  However, PW did not let us down this time. 

Meatball Ingredients
(I changed the original amounts listed in the cookbook because I wanted to use two pounds of ground beef instead of 1 1/2)
-2 pounds ground beef
-1 cup quick oats
-1 1/3 cups milk
-4 T very finely minced onion
-2 teaspoons salt
-Plenty of ground black pepper

4 T canola oil
1/2 cup flour

Sauce
-1 1/3 cup ketchup
-2 1/2 T sugar
-4 T distilled white vinegar
-2 1/3 T Worcestershire sauce
-4 to 6 T minced onion

1. Combine ground beef and oats.  Pour in milk, diced onion, salt and pepper.  Stir to combine - or use your hands like I did! And unless you want to eat super dense, tough meatballs you'll want to use a gentle hand.  Roll the meat mixture into tablespoon size balls and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes - or as long as you need to feed your baby, change diapers, and put out any other "fires" among your children.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Heat the canola oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.  (I like using a dutch oven type pot because it helps contain the oil splatters better and makes for a quicker clean up.) Dredge the meatballs in flour and then brown them in batches until light brown.  Place browned meatballs in a baking dish such as a 9x13 baking pan or a rimmed baking sheet.

3.  Stir together the sauce ingredients and spoon the sauce evenly over the meatballs.  Bake for 30-45 minutes or until bubbly and hot.

PW's last step told me to feed this to ravenous nursing mothers because this is the same recipe for meatballs that she craved when she was nursing her children.  So...all my friends who live close enough to make me dinner, don't forget I'm about to have a baby in 2 1/2 weeks!