EASY MEATBALLS

This recipe comes from my son-in law, Mark. He served them to us one day when we were visiting for a weekend in El Paso and they were so terrific that I just had to have the recipe. They work best if you do them in a crock pot, but just to make sure I did the last batch on the stove in a pan. You have to keep the fire low. After the pan started to warm up, my fire was on low the whole time they were cooking. Be careful how you stir them so that you don t break them up, and don t stir them too often. They won t stick unless the fire is set too high. Most importantly, cook them for at least 4 to 6 hours so that the flavors really meld and mix together. Besides being popular when you bring them to a potluck, they can be used as a side dish with anything, and the leftovers make really good sandwiches.

The kids fall in love them, so here it is. Enjoy.

Ingredients

1 bag Frozen meatballs, the large size (if you have time you could make your own)
1 12oz Jug of chili sauce, like Heinz
1 can Cranberry sauce, 16 ounce size, I like the whole kind, but jellied would work
1 cup Honey
1 cup Wine. Fruit juice would work, but the wine has a special flavor. (The alcohol cooks out and the honey makes a nice balance. If you use fruit juice, cut the honey by half.)

Directions

A crock pot really works great for this. After the first couple hours you can just about forget the crock pot.

Mix the chili sauce, cranberry sauce, wine (or fruit juice) and honey all together in the bottom of the crock pot. Add the meat balls to the pot. Fold all of the ingredients together and put on the lid.

Plug in the crock pot. Set it on high until the pot starts to bubble around the edges, and then turn the pot on low. The meat balls should cook for about 5 to 6 hours so that the flavors can blend together.

Stir carefully to turn the ingredients over a few times in the pot.

These go great with everything. We serve them for meat ball sandwiches, with pasta and all kinds of parties for hors d oeuvres, appetizers and everything in between.

Please send comments to comments@acaciart.com