Comfort Dinner

One of the first things I ever made from the Pioneer Woman cookbook was her "Comfort Meatballs." On her site they are called BBQ Meatballs which is an equally apt name. The story goes that a friend of the family brought Ree these delicious meatballs after she had just come home with one of her babies. This story inspired me to make this dish for several of my friends to nourish their postpartum cravings. Our friends Filip and Juliane welcomed their third child this month, and in his honor I whipped up this recipe again. And if you are going to make one batch of balls, you might as well double the recipe. (Insert ball joke of your choice here.)

Pioneer Woman's recipe can be found here. One of the great things about this recipe is that it can easily be gluten free because she uses oats instead of breadcrumbs. If you are cooking for a GF family, just omit the step of dredging the meatballs in flour before frying them. You can skip it even if you aren't eating GF, they come out just fine. Also, these meatballs freeze really well. If I am giving a batch away, I just brown the meatballs, place in a tin foil tray and cover with sauce - no need to bake. Just tell the lucky recipient to thaw and bake at 350 for about 30 minutes. Finally, these meatballs are perfect with mashed potatoes. I have also had them over rice, quinoa and with cheese in a panini.