*Recipe Week*, Day #2: May Williams Meatballs

Welcome to Day #2 of *Recipe Week*, perhaps a prelude to a New Recipe Blog called Aunt Julie's Apron Strings! Today's recipe is just right for the changing of the seasons, especially in the Upper Midwest, where nighttime temps are already in the 40s. We're gonna have a little story with this recipe, which comes from Your Very Own Veggie Mom.

When I was in kindergarten, we lived in an apartment house in suburban New York. Our next-door neighbors were an older couple named May and Ace Williams. My Dad was friends with Ace, and always talked about the beautiful photographs hanging in Mr. Williams' living room. I loved his wife, May, for another reason.

You see, both were very talented folks. Ace was a long-time photographer for National Geographic. He specialized in outdoor shots, especially in Alaska. He let me, a curious 5-year-old, look through the gigendous lenses attached to his cameras. He never seemed nervous that he was letting a kindergartener and her 2-year-old sister play with the beyond-expensive equipment.

May was a Talent in the Kitchen. She baked--oh, how she baked!--but her specialty was an interpretation of Swedish Meatballs, served over big, fat noodles. My Mom copied down the recipe, and forever after, this delish dish has been known in my family as May Williams Meatballs.

We moved away right before I started first grade. Mom and Dad kept in touch with the Williamses, until Geographic sent him overseas on another exotic assignment. It's been decades since last I played with Ace's cameras or scrounged a sweet sugar cookie or two from the ornately decorated plate on May's kitchen countertop. But I will, most of all, always remember her meatballs!

May Williams Meatballs

2 lbs. ground chuck

1/2 lb. lean ground pork

1 large onion, chopped fine, and sautéed in butter

2 beaten eggs

salt, pepper to taste

2 Tbs. parsley

1.5 cups Pepperidge Farm Bread Crumbs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

1 can Cream of Mushroom Soup

1 can Beef Broth

1 package Wide Egg Noodles

Mix together chuck, pork, onion, eggs, salt and pepper, parsley and bread crumbs 'til fully blended. Keep your hands wet while shaping small meatballs. Place the meatballs in a covered glass bowl overnight.

The next day, sauté the meatballs in hot oil; they should cook very fast, until they are light brown. Drain the meatballs. Place them in a greased casserole dish. Pour out the grease from the pan you used to sauté the meatballs. Return the pan to the stove, and turn the heat to medium. Mix together both cans of soup, undilluted, making sure to pick up the residue from the sautéd meatballs as you stir. When these ingredients are well-blended, pour over the meatballs.

Bake the meatballs, with the lid on the casserole, for one hour at 350 degrees. Serve over Wide Egg Noodles. Enjoy!