Cranberry Balsamic Meatballs – The Verdict

The Cranberry Balsamic Meatballs are totally amazing! I did make a couple of changes and I’ll tell you about those at the end. 

The propane guy drove up just as I was about to serve lunch. We have the best propane guy! I really like him. Another reason to stay in Texas, right? Anyway, he asked Vince what he was doing home and Vince said he was home for lunch and then conversation went something like . . you come home for lunch EVERY day? Yes. Does she cook every day? Yes.

I went in the house and got two bowls and put a meatball and sauce in each bowl and brought it out for Vince and John to try. It was unanimous . . I can stick around and be the chief cook!  🙂

Cranberry Balsamic Meatballs

They were so good. In fact, I think I may heat up a couple for dinner tonight.

Here are the changes I made:

• I added to jalapeno peppers, seeded and cut into fairly large chunks. After the first 5 minutes in the cooker, I removed the chunks because I tasted it and it was a bit spicy. After adding the meatballs and cooking it longer, it wasn’t too spicy at all but I did taste the heat a bit.
• I browned the meatballs in a little oil before adding to the sauce.
• I used Pomegranate Balsamic because we have dozens of bottles of various balsamics. I think it would be fine with any flavor. I used probably 3 T. of balsamic.
• Because I was mixing up the meatball mixture at 11 p.m. last night and because I never was one for details, I added chopped rosemary to the meat. Then I saw that it was supposed to be in the sauce so I added more. In my opinion, you can’t get too much rosemary. In Vince’s opinion, having a plant in the yard is too much rosemary. He didn’t complain about the rosemary. I think the flavor blended so well with the cranberries and balsamic that he actually liked it.
• When I got ready to thicken the sauce, there just wasn’t that much sauce. Two pounds of meat (1 pound ground turkey and 1 pound sausage) and because I can drink any kind of gravy with any meal, I needed more juice so I added a small can of pineapple juice, then added the cornstarch to thicken it up.

While eating, I asked Vince “Do  you REALLY like this?” The look on his face . . he REALLY liked it! And as you might imagine, with just two of us, this made enough for three meals, with leftovers for snacking.