Meat Balls Alone or with Spaghetti by Mary S.

Despite the vagueness in the recipe, this turned out pretty good. It was spicy and yummy over pasta.  I prefer a little difference spice mixture, which is why I think Mom liked it better than I did.

I used a little over a pound of beef, and I added a little water so the mixture would all stick together.  Another change I made was baking the meat balls in the oven instead of frying them.  I used a small cookie scoop to form the meat balls, then I dropped them onto a parchment lined cookie sheet and baked it for about 25 minutes at 400.  The meat balls were very small, so if you do medium or large ones, they would need to bake longer.

We were a little worried that the sauce would be bland, since there aren't any spices in the sauce.  But the spices cooked into the sauce from the meat balls while they simmered for 2 hours, so the sauce was very tasty by itself.  We served it over fancy pasta, instead of spaghetti noodles, so my littlest one wouldn't make as much mess.

Meatballs Alone or With Spaghetti by Mary Stankosky

1-2 lbs hamburger

salt & pepper to taste

1 small clove garlic, crushed

1 egg

1 pkg crackers (we used one stack of saltines)

2 Tbsp oregano

1 T parsley flakes

tomato sauce (we used a combination of homemade and store canned.  2 pints home bottled sauce with a little garlic and sugar added AND 2-8 oz cans tomato sauce.  There wasn't a lot of sauce for the pasta, so I would recommend at least 3 pints of sauce OR 6 cans tomato sauce.)

Bay leaves

Mix and roll balls the size of walnuts.  Fry in a little oil on all sides.  Put in bean pot and cover with tomato sauce and bay leaves.  Simmer all day or if fixing in sauce pan simmer on lowest heat 2-3 hours. (we simmered for about 2 hours).  Keep enough liquid over them to keep from sticking.  Stir once in a while.