The recipe card pulled for this week was Oven Porcupines! When I saw it, I thought, well, it's meatballs. It turns out, they are a lot better than plain meatballs. This hamburger recipe comes from The Betty Crocker Recipe Card Library, 1971, Budget Casseroles.
As you know, mixing up a batch of meatballs can be a messy job. The teen is really getting used to digging in and getting her hands dirty.
I think she did a great job with these, look how uniform they are!
I like this Oven Porcupine recipe because the meatballs are substantial. Everyone really enjoyed the taste, as simple as the spices and ingredients are. Note: we added cheese to the recipe. We are big cheese eaters around here. The meatballs are flavorful enough, but the cheese really added an Italian flare to them.
The Sunday Supper Soup is a card my husband pulled when we were deciding what to cook for family night this week. He thought meatballs in soup would be an interesting combination. I have to admit I thought the same thing. The girls were not so enthusiastic. Sunday Supper Soup is from McCall's Great American Recipe Card Collection (1973), Sundays at Home.
The ingredients in this meatball soup are some you may have on hand. I just happened to have everything except for the beef broth. I should start keeping some. Thankfully I did not have to drive all the way to the grocery store, they had some at the convenience store.
The teen was not too excited about mixing and rolling up meatballs. This is not one of my favorite tasks either. She did get right into it and get it done. She learned trying to mix raw meat with a spoon is not how you go about making meatballs. Sometimes you just have to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty.
Another thing she learned was sometimes meatballs don't cooperate when you brown them. Gentle persuasion with tongs may be necessary. One broke during the browning process. We decided it's all going to the same place, what difference does it make if one or two break?
She learned a new term preparing this recipe: Paring. Paring is peeling. Peeling used to be done with a paring knife before peelers became popular. I'm sure there are a lot of cooks who still use paring knives for peeling. However, I had not used or seen this term since my Nana taught me how to cook.
The end result of this recipe was a delicious combination of meat, broth, and vegetables. We served our Sunday Supper Soup with pan fried garlic bread and a tossed salad. I'm not changing a thing on this recipe, it's perfect!
