These days, it seems like you can’t open a magazine without seeing The Pioneer Woman‘s smiling face on its glossy pages. Ree Drummond’s journey over the past few years has been nothing short of awe-inspiring. A city girl turned country, she started blogging a few years ago about life on the ranch with her Marlboro Man and four punks. Flash forward to now, and she’s in magazine after magazines, including a recent issue of People Magazine Country, First magazine, Southern Living and now the “regular” People magazine. The woman is everywhere! And with good reason. With a loyal following flocking to her site daily, they are rewarded with gorgeous pictures, tales of family and good old fashioned home cooking. And lest I forget her brand spanking new cookbook, she’s definitely made it.
A recent issue of People magazine gave a top-notch review to Ree’s cookbook, and included her recipe for Comfort Meatballs. I ripped it out, knowing that meatballs are a perfectly kid-friendly item in our house, but to be quite honest, I have had a love/hate relationship with Ree’s recipes in the past. I’ve made a few of them before. They haven’t been bad, but they haven’t wowed me either. Just ok. Maybe it’s just me. They just lacked that final punch of flavor. Perhaps it’s just a question of adjusting the seasoning. Given how insanely popular she and her site continues to be, and those mouth-watering pictures certainly don’t hurt, I do keep going back for more. Even if I never had a hit-it-out-of-the-ballpark recipe from her site, the pictures of life at the ranch and Ree’s self-deprecating sense of humor would always bring me back.
Anyway, these meatballs. Oh these meatballs. The addition of oats as the binder was a new twist for me. Usually I use bread crumbs or bread as the binder. Sneaking in a little extra fiber into our diet was definitely a bonus. Trust me, although Nick will eat an Oatmeal Raisin Cookie with the best of them, he ain’t asking for a bowl of warm oatmeal any time soon, so getting some extra fiber into a savory dish is a good thing indeed.
I usually don’t toss my meatballs in flour first. I just roll and go. As the meatballs browned off in the pan and I transferred them to the baking dish, I had one. Quality control and all that. Oh man. Good. Tender. A touch moist. Interestingly enough, not packed with flavor. But it was the tenderness that got me. And the slightly crispy coating the flour gave the outside of the meatball. I had eight a few while I was making the rest of the batch. Madeline came in and asked for one. She came back for more. Smart kid. Maybe this recipe was the one to turn it around for me.
When it came to the sauce, I hesitated. It’s not a tomato sauce in the least with its cup of ketchup in it. I’m more of a traditionalist when it comes to meatballs. Plain or with sauce. I loved the meatballs so much that I hesitated to put something on top of it. Something that might not work. Or that I might not like. I should have trusted my instincts.
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