Porcupine Meatball Night!

One of my favorite meals to make is meatballs. Mainly because you can change it up each time you make them. Coincidentally my first big dinner I learned to prepare with the help of my grandmother was porcupine meatballs. For those that don't know a porcupine meatball gets the name because you mix in rice to your meatballs when putting them together.

Last night I made porcupine meatballs. I wish I could share my recipe for them but over the years I have drastically enhanced my grandmother's recipe. I don't measure anything that goes into them I simply toss the flavors I'm looking to have for that particular meatball night. I'm never afraid to mix them up using different things each time. Last night was the first time I used milk in the mix. I saw a chef using buttermilk on the Food Network for a meatloaf so I thought I'd try milk for my meatballs. The other thing I did was bake them for half of their cooking time. You wouldn't believe how much oil came off those meatballs. Oils that we would normally be eating if I had prepared them completely in the electric skillet like I normally do. So huge tip when preparing meatballs put them in the oven for about 15 minutes then finish cooking them with whatever sauce you are preparing. I got quite creative last night! I was proud of myself. The thing I like about porcupine meatballs is the rice in them. So if you can make a plentiful veggie based sauce with them you have a complete meal. Your meat, your starch and your veggies all in one pot! A one pot meal as Rachael Ray would say!

I used tomato juice as my base because that's what my grandmother used. Then I put a can of diced tomatoes along with some wedged pieces of zucchini, 2 handfuls of peas, and plenty of half rings of onion with extra rice thrown in to the sauce to cook with the porcupine meatballs and tomato-based veggie sauce. It was excellent. My boyfriend went back for seconds! I will certainly use the same spices and preparation method in the future! Anybody getting hungry?...I am! It's dinner time here!