Hello Everyone!
Thanksgiving is just a few weeks away! I have a delicious recipe for sweet and sour meatballs that can be a fabulous addition to your Thanksgiving meal!

Prep Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Ingredients:
2 LBS of Ground Beef/Turkey
1 cup of Italian Breadcrumbs
1 Jar of Chili Sauce
1 Jar of Grape Jelly (can be sugar free)
*try to find Chili and Jelly jars that are comparable in size
1 egg
1 teaspoon of baking powder

Procedure:
Place the ground meat into a bowl with one cup of breadcrumbs and an egg. Mix thoroughly. Season mix with a few pinches of salt and pepper. Heat up a skillet on the stove to medium heat. Mold the meat mix into tiny size meatballs and cook them on the pan. You will probably have to do this in shifts since all of the meat won't fit at once. As each meatball finishes cooking, place them onto a plate lined with paper towel, to remove the grease.

*NOTE: the meatballs only have to cook until they are browned on the outside. you don't want to overcook them or they will lose the juicy flavor!

Meanwhile, pour the whole jar of jelly and whole jar of chilli sauce into a dutch oven. Then, fill both empty jars up with water and pour them into the mix as well. Turn the stove on high heat. Once the sauce starts to boil, add one teaspoon of baking powder, which will thicken the sauce. After that, turn the heat onto low, so the sauce it at a simmer. Place the cooked meatballs into the dutch oven with the sauce. Put the lid on the dutch oven and let the meatballs soak into the simmering sauce for about 30-40 minutes.

After that, serve and enjoy! One of my favorite recipes hope you enjoy it:)

This is great news, lyssbe!

My husband's family is Swedish, and his mother used to bring Swedish meatballs to our family Thanksgiving potlucks.

For the past 10 years or so, since she has been gone, no one has stepped up to continue this tradition. I didn't know much about her recipe, but I DID know that a jar of grape jelly was involved in the sauce.

So it looks like you have "filled on the blanks" for me and now I will be able to surprise everyone this Thanksgiving with my "official Swedish meatballs."

Do you have any other Swedish favorites in your cookbook?

Anne

Well Anne, I don't have much Swedish recipes in my personal cookbook - this happens to be my only one but it has been passed down for years in my family so I am glad to hear you can bring this tradition back to yours. Please let me know how the meatballs come out - hope they are delicious!

Thanks, lyssbe,

I just may have to give them a trial run, which I am sure Steve will love. Don't have any grape jelly, however, so it won't be today... Oh, I also don't have chili sauce, but I do have some fantastic peach salsa... Would that work - or do you recommend sticking exactly to the recipe? (I'm one of those people who is always modifying my recipes -- never seem to make the same recipe twice. It drives my daughter nuts. She's a "to the letter" kind of cook!

Anne

Anne, when making a special/specific recipe it's best to stick to the exact recipe. Just one small change can ruin the whole recipe. I make a lot of these type dishes and never change the original recipe, when I have it didn't work out very well!

Anne -
I wouldn't recommend using mango salsa - I think the combination of that and grape jelly might be a bit too sweet - the chili sauce gives the perfect contrast between the sweet and tangy flavors. That is great that you love to modify recipes - I would say try this one out first and let me know if you have any suggestions for alterations! Keep me updated!

Thanks for the advice lyssbe and Chatty,

I'll be heading to the grocery store soon, so will get the jelly and sauce and give this a try.

I love trying new recipes -- and I love modifying them. My latest attempt was with chocolate chip cookies. I used dark chocolate chips and walnuts, but also added a cup of dried cherries.

My husband doesn't like raisins in ANYTHING, but he's generally OK with substituting dried cranberries or dried cherries...

He liked the modification, called them "Black Forest Cookies." I shared a dozen with a friend who loves chocolate chip cookies and HE said the added cherries were "Little bites of bliss." LOL! (I told him he ought to be a food columnist!)

Your Black Forest Cookies sound divine! My husband doesn't like raisins either (he calls them "bugs"), but he'd go for the dried cherries. So would I.