Pictured above from right to left: Katy, Dawn, Julia, and Alyssa Magagnotti

I am sharing a famous meatball recipe from my friend Dawn Magagnotti. Her youngest daughter, Julia, was just in grade school when I first met here.  Julia would come over to our house for a little while and hang out with me and play with my son, Preston, when she was younger. Preston was an only child at the time, and he adored her. She was very good at entertaining him, which I always appreciated.

Well, Julia grew up, and the other day Julia had an open house to celebrate graduating from high school. In preparation for the open house Dawn, along with Julia and her two sisters, set out to make many batches of Dawn’s famous meatballs. They served the meatballs in a crockpot with marinara sauce. There were buns next to the crockpot so you could make meatball sandwiches with them. They were very yummy.

As they were making the meatballs, Dawn took a picture (shown above) and a little video clip (below) and shared it on Facebook. To get an idea of what it looked like with all three daughters working together in her kitchen, check out this sweet little 15 second video:

I loved the idea and asked if I could share it on our blog, and she said yes and even gave me her secret recipe! Here is what I love about what Dawn was doing:

1. She was making memories.

Creating the tradition of three sisters working together to make meatballs. I love that the two oldest sisters are helping their younger sister prepare for her very important day together. This will be a great memory for Julia.

2. She shares the workload in the kitchen and teaches her daughters how to cook.

Dawn does not do all the work. She includes her daughters in on the fun. Even moms with younger children can get their kids involved in the kitchen. With younger kids, it’s easier to start with recipes that create repetition, like making meatballs, dipping chicken in breading, or mixing together several ingredients in a bowl. Dawn has been good about teaching her daughters how to cook.

3. You can make TONS of meatballs at one time, saving time later.

The nice thing about meatballs is that you can double, triple, or quadruple the recipe and freeze some for later. Then you can use the meatballs for several different recipes, making it very practical and efficient to make a big batch all at one time. Dawn used her meatballs to make meatball sandwiches at the open house, and they were great. Of course, you can serve meatballs in your spaghetti sauce and pour it over spaghetti noodles, and I am sure your family would LOVE it too.  If you are looking for extra recipes you can make that use meatballs, I have included some recipes from the Real Simple website at the end of this post.

Okay, now on to Mama Mag’s famous meatball recipe:

Mama Mags Meatballs

1 lb. ground chuck
1 lb. zesty hot Italian sausage (Bob Evans)
*special note from Dawn: “This recipe has a nice spicy kick, but you can substitute Italian sausage instead of Zesty Italian sausage.”
1 small onion chopped
¾ cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs
2 eggs
2 Tbsp. horseradish
1 ½ tsp. salt
¾ cup Parmesan cheese

Mix thoroughly and form into balls the size of walnuts. Roast in 400 degree oven until done. Put in sauce of your choice. I use Prego.

 THANK YOU, DAWN, FOR SHARING YOUR RECIPE!

For details on how to freeze, store, defrost, and cook meatballs you can go here.

 More recipes that use meatballs…

Here are a few other recipes from Real Simple you might like to make with your meatballs, to change things up:

Cheesy Baked Meatballs                  Meatball Pizza With Pesto                    Red Curry Meatballs

Meatballs With                             Lemony Meatball and                 Barbecue Meatball Sliders
Apricot Couscous                                 Escarole Soup

Glazed meatballs              Meatballs With Fennel and Polenta          Meatball Banh Mi