Meat Balls

Who doesn't like homemade meat balls in slow simmered tomato sauce?

Meat Balls
1/2 lb ground pork
1/2 lb 80/20 ground beef
1/3-1/2 cup of seasoned bread crumbs
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese
1 large egg
Spice Mix: dried parsley, oregano, sun-dried tomato flakes, garlic granules, onion granules, red chile flakes, salt & pepper.

Mix all the ingredients by hand and form into balls.  I like to go for a little smaller than a golf ball.  Brown the  meat balls in a skillet over medium heat.  You'll need to turn them several times to get them browned all over.

As the meat balls finish drop them into a big pot of simmering tomato sauce.  De-glaze the pan with a little red wine and add the drippings to the tomato sauce for some extra flavor.

Simple Tomato Sauce:
One #10 (the large one) can of crushed tomatoes
One 8 oz can tomato sauce
1 medium onion finely diced
6 cloves garlic finely diced
1/2 cup good red wine
2 bay leaves
1 tablespoon of sugar
salt & pepper to taste

Heat up a little oil in a large sauce pan over medium heat.  Cook the onion until translucent.  Add in the garlic and cook until fragrant.  Add in all the other ingredients and simmer for at least 1 hour.  Pull the bay leaves out before serving.

These meat balls make excellent sandwiches too!

Asian Inspired Crock Pot Pork

I generally am not a fan of Asian food, but Mr. Man is and I thought I'd give it a go.  Pork shoulder was on sale at the market on Saturday which cooks up beautifully in a crock pot.

Asian Inspired Pork Shoulder
Ingredients:
One pork shoulder roast cut into 1 inch cubes
4 tablespoons Soy Sauce, 1 tablespoon Mirin, 1 tablespoon brown sugar, juice of 1 tangerine or 1/2 an orange, 1 spoonful of apricot jam, salt, pepper, 1 teaspoons chile powder, 1 teaspoon garlic granules, 1 teaspoon of onion granules and 1 teaspoon hot paprika

Mix the cubed pork shoulder with all other ingredients and place in a greased slow cooker crock.  Cook on low for 8-10 hrs.

Once the pork was done I put about 1 cup of the broth from the crock pot into a sauce pan and reduced to about 1/3 of it's volume.

Veggies:  Cauliflower, Broccoli, and Red Bell Pepper sauteed in a little vegetable oil  seasoned with diced garlic, red pepper flakes, salt & pepper.

I served the pork cubes over rice with the veggies on the side and then drizzled the reduced sauce over everything.