Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Meatballs


I have gone to two different gatherings lately where I was asked to bring food. The first was my friend Cari's birthday! We had a surprise party for her... AND we pulled it off! She was definitely surprised! I had wanted to make Cranberry Meatballs... but for the life of me couldn't find which of my MANY cookbooks had the original recipe :( So I searched around on the internet and found a grape jelly meatball recipe that sounded interesting. I made it and was not disappointed! Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of these meatballs before my family inhaled what wasn't eaten at the party.... but here's the recipe anyway!

3 C chili sauce
2 C grape jelly
1 T dijon mustard

Mix all together and pour over precooked meatballs. Crock pot on high 4 hours

I just used frozen meatballs from Costco. This recipe adequately covered 5 lbs of meatballs. Had I had enough room in my crockpot for the whole 6 lb bag of meatballs, with room to stir, I would have used the whole bag. I heated the meatballs in the microwave for this occasion, since I was running behind on my party prep... but you could easily pour it over the frozen meatballs and cook on high for 4 hours to get them warmed through.

So my next occasion was our Quilt Guild service day. Every February, instead of our regular meeting, we do service projects. Today we sewed burp cloths and receiving blankets for the Women, Infants, Children organization, and pillowcases for The Quilts of Valor project. We sew for several hours, have a potluck lunch and sew some more! I was REALLY craving my Cranberry meatballs, and then the lightbulb went off! Since it has been a favorite recipe of mine for a while, I thought maybe I had put it in the Cookbook Emma's school put together a few years back as a fundraiser.... sure enough there it was! So easy... I couldn't believe I couldn't remember the ingredients! I mixed the sauce ingredients in a Ziplock bag, picked up some meatballs on the way to the Guild and threw it together in a flash when I got there.


Cranberry Meatballs
2 cans whole berry cranberry sauce
1 can tomato soup (undiluted)
1 T dijon mustard

Mix sauce ingredients and pour over precooked meatballs. Crockpot on high for 4 hours. Sauce adequately covers 4 lbs of meatballs.