Day Sixty-Six - Beef Meatballs with Picante Glaze (4.9.14)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound lean ground beef
• 1/4 cup plain dry bread crumbs
• 1 egg, beaten
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 (16 ounce) jar Pace® Picante Sauce
• 1/3 cup grape jelly
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme leaves

Instructions:

1. Heat the oven to 375 degrees F. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Thoroughly mix the beef, bread crumbs, egg, garlic and 1/4 cup picante sauce in a large bowl. Shape the mixture firmly into 40 (1-inch) meatballs. Place the meatballs onto the baking sheet.
3. Bake for 15 minutes or until the meatballs are cooked through, turning them over once halfway through the bake time.
4. Heat the remaining picante sauce and jelly in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat to a boil. Reduce the heat to low. Cook for 15 minutes or until the mixture is reduced to 1 cup. Stir in the thyme, if desired. Add the meatballs to the skillet and cook until the meatballs are hot, stirring occasionally. Serve the meatballs on toothpicks.

Opinions:

Potter: The recipe we will be offering our opinions on will not be the recipe listed above. This is for two reasons: we only had strawberry jelly, and pace picante sauce is not the same thing as pace chunky salsa. Despite those two substitutions and the liberal use of a blender this turned out pretty tasty, not amazing mind you, just tasty. If you're looking for a spicy/sweet variation on the meatball give the real recipe a try, it'll be better than tasty.

Katie: I thought that these turned out well. As Potter states above, he had to make some substitutions that may have made the difference between how they turned out and making them amazing. All in all though, I would still suggest the way he made them as an okay alternative to the recipe above.