Last weekend was the weekend that my dear cousin, Leah, was able to come and see Shane and I’s humble abode. I was so excited to show her around, take her for a walk and point out where we want this and that, and just when you would least expect it, winter set in again. Snow upon snow fell the entire time she was in, staying indoors almost the entire time is what happened instead of tours of the property. She braved the cold with Shane’s friend, Scott, to see The Mills, but beyond that, we held up inside. This turned our weekend into a board game and Pirates of the Caribbean marathon, and it was actually really fun and for the most part, relaxing.
Unfortunately for me, the build up to the weekend of hosting Leah, visiting the Carnegie museum for their Museum After Dark series, one of my favorite weekend activities by the way, and having a game night with lots of friends over, left me and my less than great immune system run down, and I was easy prey for a cold. So right after I got over one round of antibiotics for my lymph nodes before Leah came, Leah left, and as I was saying goodbye to her, I was saying hello to a cold. I began drinking hot tea, taking zinc, and eating cough drops with echinacea like it was my job. Alas, teaching is my job, so I had to push through the sore throat and continue to use my voice.
Tuesday I was lucky enough to have a night off of work, and I thought what would be better than some comfort food for dinner? I am not one to make a more noodle based Italian dish, but sometimes spaghetti hits the spot. I had one jar of homemade tomato sauce from someone, I am guessing a sister-in-law, and some noodles left over from another skillet dish I had made, and of course we had venison on hand; with all of this, I set to work creating some zesty meatballs for dinner.
I think an appropriate name for these meatballs would be “What Ever I had in My Cupboard Meatballs”, but they are spicy. So to keep things simple, these meatballs with a kick will be labeled just that. They came out so juicy and flavorful, I am glad we had extra, so we could enjoy them in a sandwich! For those of you who shy away from venison, recipes like this leave you wanting a second serving.
Meatballs with a Kick
Yields: About 30, Bake time: 15 minutes
- 2 lb ground venison
- 1/2 cup bread crumbs, I used garlic herb
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
- 2 eggs
- 4 garlic clove coarsely chopped
- 3 Tablespoons ketchup
- 1/2 Tablespoon red pepper flakes
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried basil
- 1 teaspoon Italian herb seasoning
Directions
- Preheat oven to 400 degrees
- Kneed together the ingredients until just mixed, don’t over work it or it won’t be as tender
- Roll into 1 inch meatballs and place on parchment paper evenly. Unlike a baked good, these won’t expand, so you can fit all of them on a large cookie tray
- Bake for 15 minutes
It honestly couldn’t get simpler, or tastier. If you aren’t a fan of the spice from the red pepper flakes, add less or none at all. There is definitely enough flavors from everything else that they can stand on their own with out the red pepper flakes. Clean up is a breeze with the parchment paper too.
Angler's Wife 