Comfort Food

   Everybody has that go-to meal that puts them in a happy place. I have a meal that reminds me of childhood, of my Mom and my Granny. I insist that my Mom make it every time I visit. This last time, I asked her to make a double batch because I planned on eating it for days and at every meal.

Porcupine meatballs.

It's not made out of porcupine but if you want to pretend it's some exotic food then go for it. You can tell your friends that you wrestled a porcupine and with ungloved hand, plucked the quills and made a native American head dress out of them....donated it to the needy. Or you can just tell them it's hamburger and rice! Be boring. I don't care!

This is an easy meal to make. I serve mine with mashed potatoes and home made bread. And by home made I mean the frozen stuff that you literally place in a greased pan, covered with plastic wrap and let thaw and rise all day. Super easy and makes the house smell so good! My Mom always made home made bread from scratch but I'm not that good and making bread is a lot like math to me, I don't get it.

I serve this with mashed potatoes and broccoli or you could always make extra rice to pour your gravy over.

So, this is what you'll need to make this exotic comfort food.

1 lb. of Hamburger
1/2 cup uncooked rice (not minute rice!!)
1 tbl spoon minced onion (I love it)
1 tsp salt (I add a pinch more)
1/4 tsp. pepper (I eyeball it)
1 can cream of chicken soup
1 cup water

*Note: I don't add the full amount of rice to the meat mixture. Add a 1/4 of it with the soup and water.


Ok. Let the fun begin!

First, Mix the hamburger, rice, minced onion, salt and pepper in a large bowl.

Now, begin shaping your meat mixture into meatballs. Mom makes them big enough or small enough, depending on how you look at it, to fit in the palm of her hand.

Brown the meatballs in your pan. I used my big Paula Dean Skillet.

While you're browning your.....meatballs, go ahead and mix the soup with the cup of water. I'll admit, I used Cream of onion tonight plus a can of cream of chicken because I doubled the recipe. Pour your soup mixture over the meatballs and bring to a boil. NO need to drain the fat! Unless you want to but I didn't. I dropped the heat and let things simmer for an hour. You're using long grain rice. That stuff takes some time to cook!

You could also cook this in the crock pot. I haven't tried it in the slow cooker but I'm sure it would be as equally tasty. I have teenage boys and a grown man to feed. So, like I said, I doubled the recipe. BUT!!!! instead of adding all of the rice to my meat mixture I left out a 1/4 cup and mixed it in with my rice. My Mom says it will help the meatballs stay together. And it worked out. The meatballs were solid and very very good. It was as if I was at my Moms house....only with a lot less books.