Tuesday, July 26, 2011

From Wilma's Recipe Archives -- Porcupine Meatballs

Greetings, porcupines! Never fear, no porcupines were harmed in the making of these meatballs. Porcupine meat is far too difficult to get what with those quills and all. (apologies to Patty, the Snug Bug who does the best critter greetings ever... I just couldn't resist!)


Well, there is clearly a reason it will take me a year and a half to go through all these recipes, as it has been a couple of weeks since I tackled another one. And there are a couple of things you will start to notice about her main dish recipes. One is ample use of canned soup. I think she may have gotten some of her best recipes from the Campbell's soup labels!


To make these meatballs:
1 lb ground beef, lean (I used 1.25 lbs as that was the smallest pack at my grocery, definitely a pet peeve of mine)
1/3 cup rice (used Texmati)
1 tsp salt
Dash of pepper
1/4 small green pepper, chopped
1/4 small onion, chopped
1 egg


Mix together. Shape balls. Brown and add 1 can of tomato soup, 3/4 can water.


Cook for 1-1/2 hours, slowly.


All ready to be mixed up, which I did by hand. I made the meatballs about 1-1/2 inches diameter.

Many of Grandma's recipes have minimal cooking instructions, and I've typed this one exactly as written. I tried to make it just to these instructions, but I ended up only cooking it for about an hour, and did have to add more water. She doesn't mention it, but it should be covered. The long cooking time does make meatballs particularly tender.

I chopped my green pepper and onion with a Pampered Chef chopper.

I love this tool because it gets things really minced, and I hate big pieces of stuff in my meatballs. Plus, Roland hates green peppers, so this is a good way to disguise them.



Since the rice was in the meatballs, I was a little perplexed as to what to serve with them, but I just made more rice and then opened a can of green beans. Kyle prefers the canned ones, and once he's back in school it will be back to fresh! Roland said they were really good, and he didn't even notice the peppers.

Tonight we're going to have the leftovers with spaghetti.

2 comments:

  1. You're making me hungry (and I just ate!) I've done something similar, but I rolled the meatballs in the rice before cooking. This sounds so much easier!

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  2. I think this is typical of how our mothers/grandmothers wrote their recipes. My mother's recipes were similar.

    I too, have a pet peeve with the stores packaging in amounts you don't want. Consequently I shop at the Butcher shop most of the time where I can buy what I want.

    Anyway,the meatballs sure do look good. I might just have to try them.

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