in article , Nancy Young at
wrote on 12/21/03 10:07 AM:

Sheryl Rosen wrote:

in article , Nancy Young at

Doug Weller wrote:

I had it for the first time visiting a cousin in Pennsylvania. It's great
with grape jelly!

Do I have a recipe for meatballs for you!

(laugh) nancy

Made those last night.
MMMM good!!!
I'm telling you, Nancy, if you ate one, didn't know there was grape jelly,
you'd like them.

See, that's just it!!! I had them once at the department's grab bag/
Christmas food thing. I was piggy, I took two as I really like
meatballs. They were sitting there looking all yummy in a crockpot.
Well, I ate the first one, YUCK, there is something seriously not
good about this meatball.

Then, the fateful question, did you like the meatball? Self
preservation kicked in and I said, oh yeah, delicious. She said,
do you know what's in that (one of my least favorite questions after
I've just eaten something). What? Chili sauce and grape jelly.

Suddenly I could taste both flavors separately, yuck, but managed to
keep a straight face and expressing interested surprise. (laughing)

So I did try them without knowing what was in it, and I didn't like
them.

What if you made them with cranberry sauce instead of grape jelly?

To be fair, in general, I dislike fruit on meat. Some exceptions,
but not along the lines of grape jelly.

nancy

Ok. I'll buy that.
Maybe it's the spices in the chili sauce you don't like.
I never actually tasted chili sauce before, separate from the sauce that
forms. I did last night, and really tasted something I consider a "sweet"
spice....cinnamon? Ginger? I was thinking if there was anything I could else
I could use chili sauce for, ya know? It's not that I didn't like it, but it
seemed "misplaced". Not sure if I'd like chili sauce on fries or burgers,
for example, it's sweeter than ketchup. (in a different way). And when I
ate the meatballs, I realized the jelly and the juices from the meat temper
that spice flavor and I like it much better that way.

There is something else to consider about the meatball you had, Nancy,
because this happened to me. I usually make the meatballs at a potluck. One
time, at work, I did, and someone else did. Only I made my meatballs from
scratch, she used FROZEN STORE BOUGHT meatballs from BJ's or wherever. She
also used ketchup, not chili sauce. I did a side-by-side, and her sauce was
fine, not the same as mine, but it would have been passable, except the
MEATBALLs themselves were disgusting! First of all, they were seasoned
Italian style, and the flavors of oregano and basil just dont' go with the
flavors of the sweet and sour sauce. The other is that they were commercial
meatballs, loaded with bread and TVP as extenders to the meat. And lord only
knows what kind of meat they made with.

The meatballs were crap to start with, and they tasted like it. The sauce
only made it worse. And I wasn't the only one who felt that way. My
crockpot was empty at the end of the luncheon, hers, only about half were
gone. And when people took 1-2 of mine, 1-2 of hers, because they looked
almost the same and they didn't want hurt feelings, (my sauce was thicker
than hers), they didn't like hers, and didn't eat what was on their plates,
while going back for more of mine. Now, listen, its not that they were
MINE, it's that the ones I brought were homemade, not some crap from the
freezer. And when I bit into her meatballs, not knowing they were frozen
crap, my thought was 'These meatballs just ain't right!". I said "Oh,
Marie....you have to give me your recipe for these!" (Notice I didn't say I
liked them, but I had to know why they tasted like crap when she told me she
was bringing the same dish as me.) And then she told me "Go to BJ's, get the
biggest bag of meatballs you can find.....put them in the pot with the sauce
ingredients, and let it simmer....it's SO easy!" And I'm thinking "and so
awful!" I'll stick to homemade meatballs, thanks.

I was just kidding you, Nancy about trying them. Hey, you don't like them,
you don't. You are the only person I've ever "met" who doesn't, though.
Whenever I bring them to parties, they get scarfed up so fast, we fight over
the last one. Maybe there have been a couple of folks who don't care for
them, and I don't notice because the raves are louder? Could be.

I did try the hot artichoke dip at a party last week, the one baked with
mayonaise. I normally wouldn't eat somethign I know has mayo in it, but I
figured this is baked, maybe I won't realize I'm eating mayo. Well, the
texture wasn't all that mayonaise-y, but the flavor was there.....sort of
tangy, but not in a lemony way. Nope, didn't care for it, not one bit. And I
love artichoke hearts!

However, Jack's onion tart went over well!