Meatball Season!

As Fall has arrived and football season is underway, it's only appropriate that this be declared meatball season as well. Drizzly days with a chill in the air tend to coax me toward heartier foods that warm the kitchen and scent the air. Meatballs certainly fit that bill.

Last year my husband hosted a Cub Scout den meeting at our house. I had decided to make meatballs for dinner that night. I made a big batch so I could cook once and have enough for multiple meals, but, in my typical fashion, I had started too late to feed my family and cook all of the rest before the boys arrived with their dads. While the house smelled wonderful, the kitchen was a mess. I pulled the last meatballs out of the oven, put them on the stove to cool, and disappeared upstairs so I wouldn’t be clanging in the kitchen while they had their meeting in the next room.

When I came downstairs again near the end of the meeting I found the dads standing around the stove eating the meatballs with their fingers. It was an amusing sight and a great compliment.

These meatballs are fabulous for their versatility. They are great for meat-and-potatoes kinds of people, and since they’re a reasonable size, they can also be used as the meat portion of a lighter meal. You can choose to use leaner meats and load them up with vegetables in the mix, or stick with the more traditional beef/pork/veal combinations. And they can be served on their own or integrated into a sauce. Best of all, they freeze beautifully as individual meatballs so I can thaw what I need for a quick weeknight meal.

Ingredients:
3 pounds ground meat—any one (or, preferably, combination) of the following: sirloin, turkey, chicken, pork, or veal
1-1/2 cups finely chopped onions
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-1/2 cups fine dry bread crumbs (plain)
1-1/2 cups grated Parmesan cheese
3 large eggs, lightly beaten
¾ cup skim milk
3 tbsp fresh or 3 tsp dried parsley
3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
3 tbsp Dijon mustard
1-1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
Optional ingredients:
1 small bell pepper, finely chopped
1 pkg chopped spinach, cooked
½ cup carrots, finely shredded

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Spray muffin tins very lightly with canola oil.

Place the meat in a large bowl. Add the onions, garlic, bread crumbs and cheese (plus any optional ingredients, if using) and mix well with your hands. Add eggs and milk and integrate well with your hands. Add remaining ingredients and mix until all ingredients are well dispersed.

Scoop the meat mixture into the muffin tins (I use a #20 disher, which is about the size of an ice cream scoop). Bake for 30 minutes or until browned on top and meatballs are cooked through. Serve immediately, or allow to cool and freeze in a large freezer bag so you can grab as many as you want whenever you need them.
How to use them:
• Serve with barbecue sauce or ketchup for dipping, along with mashed potatoes and a veggie.
• Simmer in marinara sauce (roasted tomato sauce, anyone?) for 20 minutes and serve over pasta.
• Instead of making meatballs, form the mixture into loaves (either free-form on a parchment-lined baking sheet or in a loaf pan) and bake as a meatloaf.