my little experiment with meatballs....

[Marine]

Okay,

 

1) ground beef, lots of it

2) green olives, stuffed with jalepenos and garlic

3) generous amounts of chopped onion, and various and sundry seasonings. Basically whatever I thought sounded good in the seasonings cupboard. Mrs. Dash, Old Bay, Garlic, lemon and pepper..

4) generous amounts of Worcestershire sauce, dumped liberally all over the meat.

 

So I just dumped the meat into a bowl, dumped all the other stuff (minus the olives) on top and then mixed it all up by hand until everything was well blended. No measuring devices were used, just eyeball guessing...

 

Then I dumped in some more Worcestershire sauce for good measure.

 

Mixed it up again.

 

Took out about half a handful of meat, put an olive in the middle, and then rolled it between my palms until it was nice and round with the olive in the middle.

 

Placed them side by side in the Pyrex pan until I ran out of meat.

 

Then I smothered them in Backhills BBQ sauce, Hot, (made here locally in Idaho), then covered them with shredded cheese.

 

Then I covered the pan with foil and baked them for 35 minutes at 350. That was purely a guess on my part for the time and temp, the only meatball recipes I could find told me to fry them.

 

So 35 minutes later..... Wish I had a camara...

 

MMMMMMMM.......

 

Good stuff.

 

It could use some improvement, but for just making it up off the top of my head on a whim, it came out pretty good. If I had any fresh vegies on hand, would have been better. Or even some fruit, like oranges or pineapple. Drape that over the meatball and let it soak....

 

 

[Marine]

Now that I've eaten about half of them...

 

they are a little dry. Maybe less heat and a little less time. They are well cooked.

 

Some of you who cook more often than me feel free to give some input to improve on this.

[HSmom]

Next time you make them, check them at 20 minutes. Pull one out of the middle, put it on a plate, slice it in half and look for pink. If you can't find any, they're done.

 

And leave out the olives!

 

[Marine]

no way! those olives were damm good!

 

Heck, I bought them for the meatballs and then ate half the jar before I got around to making the meatballs.

 

Tassos All Natural Greek Olives, double stuffed jalapeno and garlic super mammoth green olives.

 

Dang good....

 

[HSmom]

 

 

 

I very nearly didn't marry my dh because he once cooked me dinner: meatloaf liberally laced with chopped olives. Couldn't even pick 'em out!

[Marine]

I assume you don't like olives?

[HSmom]

Howdja guess?

 

Actually other than the olives, your meatballs sound good. Worchestershire sauce is good in many applications.

 

[Marine]

I put W.Sauce on anything meat....

 

Love the stuff.

[Cat]

Other possibilities to have in the center...

 

pearl onions - cooked or uncooked

 

button mushrooms

 

jalepenos - seeded or not, cheese-stuffed or not

 

chunks of cheese

 

 

 

 

 

[Suz]

I would pass on the olives. Wonder if you could make a double batch and freeze some? Would the olives turn funky?

[Snowmom]

 

I so agree on the olives. I don't even buy them unless it is a Holiday and I know someone will be here who like them.

 

How about adding a bit of tomato juice to the meatballs. That might keep them a bit more moist.

 

I think you are right, usually meatballs are browned. I know I do that then put them in the oven covered with tomato juice. I also put potatos in with them. They are sliced like a french fried potato.

 

[ArmyOfFive4God]

Olives= BLECK! We have one all-olive eater in this house & one that'll only eat black olives. Either way BLECKBLECKBLECK!!!

[Marine]

Wow... didn't know olives were so unliked around here.

 

Today I took 4 of them for snack at break. Even better next day.

 

I like the idea of jalapeno's stuffed with cream cheese in the middle... that sounds darn good.

 

I thought about after I had them all made and in the oven, but I could have blended in a bunch of shredded cheese into the meat, instead of just putting it on top.

 

Tomato juice.... hmmmmm.... Have to try that.

[Leah]

My folks would like those with black olives instead of green ones in them. I buy black olives by the case, because they'll grab a can to eat for a snack. The green ones stay around for a while.

[tate]

I am also not a fan of olives. Yuck. But, my mom swears by grape jelly to keep meatballs from getting too dry. Of course, this is also the woman who puts Corn flakes in her meatloaf.

[rootdiggr]

Oooohhh. Grape jelly on meatballs rocks!

[Darlene]

Well, I'm with Marine...I LOVE olives...and they're very healthy for you too. My mouth is watering just thinking about olives....

 

Anyway, when I make my meatballs, I put some breadcrumbs in them (about 1 handful/lb of meat) and an egg (1 egg/lb of meat) and then whatever spices and such that you want. That will help your meatballs to maintain moisture, while still holding them together.

 

That's what makes cooking fun...getting creative and trying new things. It either works, or doesn't. And don't tell me that you girls haven't made something that sounded YUCKY that actually was delicious!

[Jewlzm]

I dont get the problem with the olives.. that sounds delicious Marine. Im taking notes.

 

My mom always made meatballs and meatloaf with grape jelly. Im kinda fond of a grape jelly mustard combo myself

[Cat]

A tablespoon or so of grape jelly is the "secret ingredient" in my Pot Roast and in many people's spaghetti sauce.

 

 

 

 

[Darlene]

That reminds me of the sauce I make with Heinz chili sauce and grape jelly. Sounds bleck but it's a great cocktail meatball.

[HSmom]

I have a chicken marinade recipe that calls for grape jelly - well, actually, it calls for raspberry jelly, but I use grape, cuz that's what I have on hand.