ALL DAY MEATBALLS

Hi, Tamy here filling in for Diana and I thought I’d bring you one of our favorites for this busy time of year. You know, when you just want to walk in the door and grab dinner without actually having to prepare it.
If you are anything like me, you have a drawer or a box full of recipes from newspapers, magazines, old maiden aunts, grandmothers, friends and every potluck you ever went to and said I have to have that recipe! Now while I usually keep the combination of spices and seasonings somewhat intact, I do make changes that make it more palatable to my family. So I always keep a list of likes, dislikes and allergies and am constantly altering recipes to fly by the seat of my pants.These recipes have been floating around so long in the box that I have no idea where they actually originated, but one looks like a page from an old, and I mean OLD magazine and the other is handwritten. I have them stapled together with a note to combine them together. I’m like that – whatever works for my family. I had a girlfriend in college who loved fashion but was on such a strict budget there wasn’t room for the things she eyed. I remember Julie borrowing a fancy designer dress from a Joann, a girlfriend of ours for an event and then later that night she took it apart, made a pattern and made her own dress before putting Joanns dress back together. To my knowledge Joann never knew. Now I can’t do that with recipes literally, but I do do it in my mind as I’m eating a particularly tasty tidbit. Some days I feel like an archaeologist unearthing pieces to make a whole from.

OLD FASHIONED ALL DAY MEATBALLS
2 pounds ground beef
3/4 cup quick cooking oats
1 cup whole milk
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup garlic salt
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 small Vidalia onion, chopped fine
2 eggs
3 tablespoons vinegar
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup raspberry jam
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 cup ketchup
  • In a large bowl combine the quick cooking oats, milk, eggs, onion and garlic salt.
  • Crumble the beef over top and then mix in well.
  • Shape into 1-2 inch balls.
  • Place in slow cooker.
  • Mix together the ketchup, vinegar, Worcestershire, raspberry jam and brown sugar.
  • Pour over meatballs.
  • Cover and cook on low for 6-7 hours or until the meat is no longer pink.
With this recipe I found two other old scraps of recipes (Chicken with Tarragon Sauce and Baked Tomatoes with Broccoli stuffing) that had been torn from old cook booklets, one was even handwritten it was so old. The Brussel Sprouts and carrots were my addition for texture and color. They begged me to put them together and make this dish:
serves 4.
Merut

That is genius! You’re like a food archaeologist, digging through the past and putting pieces together. These meatballs look deliciously gooey!