Venison Meatballs with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Being a Western Pennsylvania boy, R. grew up hunting deer with his dad. He still goes once a year in the fall as part of a family tradition.

The side effect of having a husband who hunts? You might suddenly end up with some 30 pounds of venison in your freezer! Having never cooked venison before, I suddenly find myself scouring the internet for all sorts of tips and recipes. We have various cuts of the meat, but ground venison is especially in abundance, and not being someone who cooks with ground meat regularly, I needed ideas! Meatballs seemed obvious and simple enough, so that's what I started with.

I found a pretty good venison meatball recipe online, and the meatballs were easy enough to make and tasted great, too! R. commented on how much he loved the sauce. I paired the meatballs with my special roasted garlic mashed potatoes (recipe below) and assorted veggies. Excellent!

Venison Meatballs with Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Venison Meatballs

Recipe courtesy of Taste of Home (get the recipe here).

Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Ingredients

• 1 large head garlic
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 2 pounds russet potatoes (about 3 large potatoes)
• 4 tablespoons butter, softened
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 oz cream cheese or Neufchatel cheese
• salt and pepper to taste
• crushed red peppers to taste (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Drizzle garlic with olive oil, then wrap in aluminum foil. Bake in preheated oven for 1 hour.
3. Peel potatoes if desired. (Otherwise, clean potatoes thoroughly with vegetable brush.) Chop potatoes. Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Drain. Stir in butter, salt, pepper, crushed red peppers (optional), sour cream, and cream cheese.
4. Remove the garlic from the oven, and cut in half. Squeeze the softened cloves into the potatoes. Blend potatoes with an electric mixer until desired consistency is achieved.