Meatball Casserole by Cora M.

Anything with meatball in the title gets my families attention, so when I let them decide what to make next, this was the unanimous choice.  The idea of wrapping ground beef around stuffing is a great one.  I did run into a few problems though.

The recipe just says to "prepare dressing, as for turkey" with 3-4 slices of bread.  I had a hard time cutting my grandma's recipe, that calls for 2 loaves of bread, down that much. (I cannot give you the recipe because I just dumped until it looked right)  Plus, I was completely out of sage!!  It is a spice I only use once or twice a year and I used it up last Thanksgiving.  Obviously, sage is essential to dressing, so I ended up calling my back door neighbor to borrow some, which was funny because she doesn't really like to cook and she thought is was awesome that she had a spice that I didn't.  Usually, she is the one calling me, because I'm the one that has random spices and kitchen tools.

So, I finally got both regular and gluten-free dressing made, and the stuffing wrapped up and the patties browned, and in the pan, when I realized that I forgot to make white sauce for the gluten-free pan.  Usually, I just make white sauce anytime a recipe calls for cream soup, but I went and bought some special to really test the recipe (I accidentally bought cream of mushroom instead of cream of chicken but I decided I didn't care).  I was running out of time, so I decided to try to make some in the microwave.  This was genius!  I just stirred the spices and cornstarch into the milk and put it in for 2 minutes, then I whisked it really hard to remove the lumps and put it back in for another minute and it was perfect.  I will definitely do that again!

As you can see, this recipe was kind of an ordeal.  I had to make 2 completely separate batches because the rest of us do not want to eat gluten-free stuffing, plus there are a lot of steps.  It also took longer to bake than the recipe said.  It was really good, but I'm not sure that it is worth the effort so I only gave it 3 stars.  Maybe with leftover stuffing from Thanksgiving or with stovetop stuffing, or if you didn't need gluten-free, it would be worth it.

Meatball Casserole by Cora M

3-4 slices bread

1 lb hamburger

1 can cream of Chicken Soup

1/2 c water

Use a dressing recipe to make the bread into Thanksgiving dressing.  Pat hamburger into 6 thin patties.  Spoon dressing into the center and wrap the hamburger around it.  Fry on all sides until browned, salt and pepper the sides as you brown them.  Place in a casserole dish.  Stir the soup and water together and pour over the top.  Bake, uncovered, on 350 for 30-40 minutes, the browner they are before you bake them, the less time they will take.  Serve with mashed potatoes (or rice)