After a long hot summer, Fall is alllllmost here, which means I can start cooking again. We’ve long been burnt out on sandwiches and are ready to start putting wholesome, hearty meals back on the table.
We’re fortunate to have a variety of meats in the deep freeze to keep food from being too mundane & monotonous, but even then, sometimes we get stumped. When people ask, “How do you eat a whole hog?, “That’s a lot of meat…”, the answer is quite simple. “One bite at a time.”
Not one to waste anything, especially food, we just figure out through trial and error what we like & don’t like. There’s a saying from the men in the Elston family that goes something like, “If you’re cooking this for me, you don’t have to cook it again.” I’ll admit I’ve cooked some really good things, and have heard this saying myself a time or two.
Raising pigs, we’ve had them processed and cut every which way over the last 6 years, but one thing that we will always make sure we get is ground pork. It is incredibly versatile. Speaking of processing pigs – we’ve still got feeder pigs available in halves & whole for processing in December – February. Call/Text Chris at 254-434-3631 to get on the list for one.
Today, I’m sharing my very basic recipe aka guideline for Pork Meatballs. It never fails. If you want to be fancy, you can add all kinds of herbs & seasonings to give it more pizzazz. But this is so easy that even our kids can make them.
Life has been stupid busy lately. So to maintain some sense of routine & tradition, as if to set the pace for the week to come, last night we sat down to a home cooked meal of BBQ’d Meatballs, Homemade Mac & Cheese, and Honey Balsamic Brussel Sprouts. The meatballs were the easiest part of making dinner. We went to bed with full bellies & a leftovers for today.
This recipe will easily make 20 meatballs, so halve it if you don’t need that many, or simply freeze the extras & warm them back up later for a quick meal. There are a million different meatball recipes out there, and even more ways you can (literally) sauce them up to add variety to your plate & to help with meal planning. A side of rice, steamed broccoli & some sweet & sour sauce can turn it into a quick asian style meal, or pile them on your favorite sub-style bread with marinara, mozzarella, and parmesan for a meatball sub.
So that’s how you eat a whole hog. One delicious meal at a time.
I’ll be sharing more recipes specific to pork as we’re cooking them up in our kitchen, in the smoker, or out on the Blackstone. Speaking of cooking, we’re cooking up a little bit of life skills in the kitchen with a side of Culinary Arts for our homeschool electives. I’ll dish more on this on the next post, hopefully inspiring new-ish fellow homeschool parents to take the reins and build something from scratch, to show your kiddos their unique creativity & skills, as well as modeling to them what that might look like as a parent. I’m excited to literally eat my way through this project & watch them grow in the process.
If you try the meatballs, be sure to report back & tell me what you think or how you sauced them up!
-Randi
Elston Farms 