~ Meatballs Without Messy Hands {with recipe} ~

The last time I made meatballs I was not at all in the mood to get messy. When I make cookies I use our kitchen aid measuring spoons. These work great because they have a round bottom. To make the meatball, I simply scooped up some of my meat mixture making sure that it was very rounded on the top. Taking a standard teaspoon, scrap the spoon around the outside edge making a nice little ball inside the measuring spoon and then I plopped them into a hot cast iron skillet to brown.

Venison Meat Loaf/Meatballs with Liver 

(Don't let the liver part scare you, it's good, I promise. These can be made without the liver but will not be nearly as good or nutritious)

Meat Mixture:
2 pastured eggs
1 cup tomato sauce (I use spaghetti sauce that we can)
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 cup of dry sourdough bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp sea salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1 1/2 lb ground venison (you could use grass-fed beef, bear, elk...)
1/2 lb ground liver (I used pastured chicken livers this time, but have used venison liver in the past)

Glaze:
2 tbsp of maple syrup
2 tbsp of brown mustard
2 tbsp raw apple cider vinegar

Mix in a big bowl the first eight ingredients. Put them into a meat loaf pan or make into meatballs. My kids like their meatballs browned first, so into a hot cast iron skillet they go, then into the oven to finish cooking. Mix together the glaze and poor over meatloaf, cook at 350 degrees for 70 minutes.

When I make meatballs I double the glaze recipe. I always cover the meatballs when cooking so they don't dry out. If you try them, let me know what you think!