Sour Cream Pepper Meatballs.

It's January guys! 

And if you were to think that January is the time for resolving to lose weight and make healthy choices, you would be,

well,

very very WRONG.

Because today we're going to make one of the least healthy party appetizers I've ever encountered.

This recipe is from my mom, who used to make it to take to parties where you would bring an appetizer or a dessert and a wine that paired well with it and then everyone would sample all the wines and all the appetizers.

Mom never invited me to those parties. 

Probably something to do with me being underage.

But really if I had gone I would have sat in a corner eating all of these meatballs instead of drinking wine.

 Anyway here is how they work:

Step 1: mix together about half a cup of sour cream and some parmesan or romano cheese. Of course normal cheese that you have to actually grate would taste better but I'm lazy and I thought the powdery stuff would mix into meatballs nicely.

 Step 2: Accidentally take a picture of your countertop. This probably has more photographic merit than all the other pictures in this post because it was an accident. Let's pretend it was intended to showcase my vintage pyrex bowl.

Step 3: Add some salt, pepper, garlic powder and breadcrumbs. I used wheat germ instead of breadcrumbs because I'm lazy I am all about making healthy nutritious choices and wheat germ is good for you. I also added some powdered mustard.

 Step 4: Mix up. Glory in how unhealthy this already looks.

 Step 5: Put half your three-pound package of ground beef in the bowl and put the rest of it in little baggies to freeze. Marvel at your supreme homemaking skills of dividing into baggies and freezing which is exactly what bloggers who do freezer cooking do. Ignore the fact that they cook/season it first.

 Step 6: Ineffectively try to mix it with a spoon before deciding to use your hands. Then spend five minutes trying to get a nondisgusting picture of this part before giving up. (Don't worry, my hands were clean to mix it up, I'd been washing them like every three seconds this whole time because they had to be clean to use my camera.)
  

 Step 7: Spend approximately three months making the mixture into tiny meatballs. The recipe said 1-inch balls but I decided little ones would be cuter, plus if they're smaller you can eat more of them. (This is also my philosophy when I make cookies, routinely leading to getting six dozen cookies out of a recipe that is supposed to make four dozen. It's awesome.) Put the meatballs in the oven at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

 Step 8: Time to make the sauce! I'm mixing mine up in my crock pot because it's going in there later anyway. Put the other half of your tiny carton of sour cream in there....

 And then another tiny carton of sour cream. (Technically the recipe only calls for a cup of sour cream here but I decided since I made more, smaller meatballs they would have more surface area and need more sauce. This was a totally logical and sensible choice on my part. Spock would have done the same.)

 Step 7: Add a can of cream of mushroom soup. Become annoyed that although the recipe calls for a 10.75-ounce can of soup, your can of soup is only 10.5 ounces. Feel even more justified in adding excessive sour cream, as clearly it is now only making up for the lack of sufficient soup.

 Step 8: Throw in some more pepper and garlic powder, a little bit of sugar (I used brown, but whatever) and quite a bit of dill.

 Step 9: mix it up and turn the slow cooker on so it can start heating through while the meatballs finish baking.

 Step 10: Get the meatballs out of the oven and - this is important! - sample one to make sure they're done all the way through. They are? Excellent. Good thing you made sure. Also yes that is a puddle of grease in the upper right-hand corner which is why you are going to use a slotted spoon or spatula for the next step.

 Step 11: Transfer the meatballs with as little of the accompanying grease as possible (remember, this is a health blog) into the crock pot.

Step 12: Place the pan lid you have to use on your crock pot (because you broke the actual crock pot lid several months ago) on top and turn on high for a couple of hours or until you have to leave for your party. Everything's fully cooked at this point, it just needs to get nice and hot.

My mother tells me this pairs well with a Merlot but I've decided to give up on actually trying to pair it with a wine like an adult. Because when Kurt and I were out to breakfast this morning we found this:

Isn't it so adorable? We're going to put it in sprite or ginger ale to drink. I'm excited.

 This is why we bought it. Because there are cherries in the bottle.

Anyway, if anyone wants it, here is the actual original recipe from my mother who apparently bothers to measure her spices. Be like her. Not like me.

½ cup sour cream
2 tsp. grated Parmesan or Romano cheese
2 tsp. pepper
1 tsp. salt
½ tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. dry bread crumbs
1 ½ lb. ground beef

In a bowl, combine sour cream and Parmesan cheese. Add pepper, salt, garlic powder and bread crumbs. Crumble meat over mixture and mix well. Shape into 1-inch balls. Place in greased 10 x 15 inch baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes or until no longer pink. Transfer to a slow cooker.

Sauce:
1 cup sour cream
1 (10.75 oz.) can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
2 tsp. dill weed
½ tsp. sugar
½ tsp. pepper
¼ tsp. garlic powder

Combine sauce ingredients and pour over meatballs in slow cooker. Cover and cook on high for 2 hours or until heated through. Serve as an appetizer, or over noodles for a main course.