Rao's Meatballs And New Grass Planting

A few weeks ago, Bev made a semi version of Rao’s meatballs and we enjoyed them so she decided to make a batch following the recipe with two ingredient changes as shown in the doubled recipe below.  She used the recipe from Food Network and made 52 two-ounce balls rather than the six ounces ones called for in the recipe.

Rao's Meatballs – Adapted from Food Network

Ingredients:

3 pound lean ground beef (she used no veal)

1 pound ground pork

4 large eggs (3 jumbo)

1½ cup grated Pecorino Romano cheese

3 tablespoons chopped fresh Italian parsley

2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced

Kosher salt and pepper to taste

3 cups plain bread crumbs (she used Italian breadcrumbs)

3 cups lukewarm water

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F.

Combine beef and pork in a large bowl.

Add eggs, cheese, parsley, garlic and salt & pepper to taste. Using your hands, blend ingredients together.

Blend breadcrumbs into meat mixture.

Slowly add water, 1 cup at a time, at a time until the mixture is quite moist.

Shape meat mixture into 2oz. balls.

Bake in the oven to an internal temp of 150F.

The Verdict:

They were tasty and I think the 2oz size is just right for serving with pasta or for making meatball sandwiches (coming in the future) but we both thought they were too dry and needed more water or less bread crumbs.  We still want to try some Rao's Frozen Meatballs from the store but for making at home, we have other recipes that we like much better such as Roz’s from her La Bella Vita blog that we made back in January.

We had a partial box of pasta that Bev cooked for Pat and her but I just had a couple of meatballs.

Grass Planting

I’ve had a devil of a time getting grass to grow in a couple of places in my lawn and finally decided I had sour and compacted soil.  So, I ran my aerator over it three times and limed it heavily then rather than using grass seed and straw, we seeded it then put down seed mats which also contained seed plus fertilizer and the mat as mulch.  We installed it where there almost no grass.  The mats are expensive so I sure hope this works - I'll let you know later.  This is a view when first put down then after a rain.

Photos can be slightly enlarged by clicking on them and the blue words are links.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

10/10/26 event date