Sweet and Sour Meatballs for a Crowd

Today's recipe is one I used for my daughter's wedding, and a number of times for our Labor Day party when we were using the Luau theme. You can't go wrong with Sweet and Sour Meatballs. Unless of course, there's an abundance of bees, because those little stinkers LOVE pineapple! Our 1st Annual Davis Labor Day Party was almost a disaster because of the invasion of bees. What's worse is that the next day, we pulled leftovers out of the fridge, and discovered bees had burrowed down into them, and were coming out to investigate! I have an admittedly unreasonable fear of bees, so it was kind of a nightmare come true.

I don't have a picture currently, because I took the last of the meatballs to the Christmas Cookie Exchange. ;o) So here's a picture of the wedding party, who is obviously thrilled, because they are finally going to get to eat meatballs! 

This recipe is insanely easy. You can make it difficult if you want to, by making your own meatballs. If you want to do that, I suggest the Meatball Evolution recipe.  That said, I find meatballs to be a pain in the tuckus to make! They just don't last long enough for the amount of work they take. I only make them if I need them for someone who can't do all the fillers in store-bought meatballs. So, unless you need a specific menu, buy the frozen ones, and throw this sauce over them in the crock pot. 

Leni's Notes:

~This more than filled our 18 quart roaster. This will do the roaster REALLY full, pluse a crock pot or two. Or better yet, get two roasters, and fill them both about half way so you have room to stir.

~If you're not having a wedding reception for 200 people, maybe cut the recipe down a bit. ;o)

~If you want to make a meal of this rather than appetizers, serve with rice or egg noodles. Wonderful. 

~If you have extras, they freeze really well, which makes for a quick dinner on busy nights.

~Not that it effects the flavor, but if you have a variety of bell peppers, the red, orange and green look beautiful on the plate.
~When I originally made this, it had soy sauce in it. (I used Bragg's Liquid Amino Acids.) It adds a nice fullness and cuts the sweetness, but as so many have trouble with MSG and soy, I just decided to leave it out.

Ingredients:

2 cups cornstarch

8 cups brown sugar

16 (15 ounce) can pineapple chunks, juice reserved

5 & 1/3 cup vinegar

6 chunked and seeded bell peppers
(Optional - 1 Cup soy sauce)

Instructions:

~Place meatballs, drained pineapple and chunks of green pepper into the roaster pan.

~Stir the cornstarch and brown sugar together in a saucepan and place over low heat.

~Add the reserved pineapple juice and vinegar; stir until smooth.

~Bring the mixture to a boil; pour over the meatballs in the slow cooker. 

~Cook the mixture in the slow cooker on low until the flavors are thoroughly combined, 3 to 4 hours. (If you do the big roaster, you might need more time, especially if the meatballs are crowded together.)

Blessings from my kitchen to yours,

Leni

Cocoa Cones for a Crowd (Wedding Favors)

What's this? A recipe post on a Wednesday? What can I say, I thought I'd throw caution to the wind. Plus with holidays, and soccer games, most of the time I have no idea what day of the week it is. Speaking of soccer, last night I about froze to death at my daughter's soccer game. Which made me think of how badly I wished we'd brought hot cocoa. And then I remembered the left over cocoa cones I had at home. 

For our daughter's autumn wedding, we decided to make Cocoa Cones. These were fun to make, and I love how they came out. 

The finished product on the table. A lovely family from our church added the final touches to our cones.

First we had a bunch of Moriah's childhood friends over to make the cones. Great fun!

Cocoa cones can be made for any event, as they are so easy to personalize. They can also be made in a variety of flavors and would be great for kids to make for gift giving at Christmas. We made ours into a fall theme by adding fall leaf sprinkles. My daughter then gathered a bunch of her favorite quotes on love and marriage to add to them. One side has the quote, the other has the cocoa directions and the couple's names and wedding date.

 I scaled the recipe back a little bit, as we made these for 200 people. Also, even if you're making them for 200 people, good luck with finding a container big enough to mix it all in at one time. And I have really large containers!! I saw a suggestion with one of the 1,000's of recipes I read, to mix it all in a garbage bag. I really didn't want the plastic taste added to it, but I suppose it's worth a shot if you wanted to do it all at once.

Leni's Notes:
~If you're making these in bulk, like we did, it will save you a lot of money to order the container supplies online. We bought our supplies for this and the cheesecakes at the WEBstaurant Store. Shop around, you might find better prices yet!
~Each of these cones makes 2 servings, or one really big serving!
~The cocoa portions stores really well, but if you're making them way ahead of time, hold off on the marshmallows until closer to the date. They can get a little stale.
~For flavor variety, try different flavored coffee creamers or add some instant coffee to the mix.
~ Also, to the powder mix, you can add cinnamon or ground red pepper, depending on your tastes. ;o)
~I highly recommend trying a cup of the cocoa before packaging to be sure you like the flavor. You might decide to adjust the cocoa or sugar content.
~If you are looking for decorating ideas, do a Google Image Search for Cocoa Cones.

Supply list:
Plastic cake decorator bags (2 bags for each cocoa cone.)
Closures for the bags (2 for each cone) - we used small zip ties. You could use twist ties, rubber bands, etc.
Sprinkles (optional, but really cute!)
Decorations (we did printed tags with colored ribbon. Whatever fits your theme.)

Ingredient List for 45 Servings:

3 Cups cocoa powder
6 Cups granulated sugar
10 Cups instant dry milk
2 Cups dry coffee creamer (plain or flavored)
Mini Marshmallows (1/3 Cup per cone)
Optional: flavored chips to add to the marshmallows. (Chocolate, peanut butter, butterscotch, etc.) or crushed hard candy, like candy canes.

In a large bowl, mix the cocoa powder, sugar, milk and creamer together.
Take half of your decorator bags and fill each with 2/3 C of dry mix.
Twist the top to push down the mix and close it off.
Seal very tightly with a zip tie. (We cut the extra off.)
Trim the plastic to about a half inch.
Place each filled decorator bag inside another bag.
Top with marshmallows, sprinkles (1-2 tsps) and chocolate chips.
Twist closed without smashing the marshmallows, seal with another zip tie.

Add your decorations and instructions (1/3 Cup mix with 3/4 Cup boiling water.)

Blessings from my kitchen to yours,
Leni

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes for a Crowd

Finally, I get to share some wedding recipes with you!

I made a lot of these. 200 pumpkin cheesecakes...I was swimming in cheesecakes! lol

This was what we put on our cupcake tower for the wedding. They really were not terribly hard to make, and once you get the process going, it goes quickly. These would be great for Thanksgiving or Christmas, also. They freeze wonderfully, and my older kids have discovered they like them straight out of the freezer like a pudding pop. (Remember those?)

Because I was making so many of them, I bought 3 oz paper cups to bake them in. These are the type that stand straight up, and don't spread out when you fill them. I had to order online to find them, but they were worth it.

I played with this recipe for a while before I found just the right dimensions. I hope you enjoy!

Fresh out of the oven.

On the cupcake tower at the wedding.

Leni's Notes:
~Baking times will vary, but lean toward undercooked rather than over cooked. If they over cook, they get really dried out.
~Remember that when it comes to cheesecake, less is more with the mixing. You want to just combine your ingredients, without incorporating a bunch of air into it. Over beating will also give you a tough texture.
~These can be dressed up with whipped cream and a sprinkle of cinnamon or a drizzle of caramel sauce.
~They freeze well, but if they get thawed and refrozen, the cookies will go to mush.
~You can make these gluten free by leaving out the gingersnap, however without it, you will not get a nice level surface. Without the cookie, they tend to sink in a bit.

Mini Pumpkin Cheesecakes for a Crowd
This recipe makes 3 dozen servings.

4 (8 oz.) packages of cream cheese, softened (Full or low fat, don NOT use fat free)
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 eggs
32 Gingersnap cookies (one box is usually enough)
32 paper baking cups
1 cup pumpkin puree (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg

Beat cream cheese and sugar together.
Add eggs one at a time, beat just until smooth.
Add pumpkin and spices, beat just until combined.
Line cupcake pan with liners. Place a gingersnap flat side down in each liner.
Fill with cream cheese mixture, leaving about a centimeter clearance at the top.
Bake at 375 degrees for 15-20 minutes.
Allow cheesecakes to cool and store in the fridge or freezer.
To serve: Remove from freezer, but keep chilled until ready to serve.

More Small Wedding Details

For the wedding junkies (like me) out there, here are some more pics that I thought you might like.

The Bride with her Maid of Honor. My girlies.

Favors were Cocoa Cones with favorite quotes from movies, books and real-life friends. 

The groom and one of his sisters, also a bridesmaid. ;o)

Small details. The wedding program, head table, rings, flowers, cakes...

More small details. The bride's dress, the guest book, bridesmaid's lockets, bridal shoes.

The beautiful rings on one of the flowers the bride carried.

Fun item. The girls all waited in the museum next to the park. This used to be an amusement park before it burned to the ground. My hubby and I both spent much of our childhood time there. The bridal party all signed the guest book at the museum. Now they are part of the history too. ;o)

Wedding Update

Well, we survived! The wedding was amazing. The weather was not. Damaging winds. Tornadoes (thankfully in Buffalo, but enough to panic everyone who was watching the weather.) We were not watching the weather, we were too busy transforming our venue.

It started as this.

After many hours, and a lot of hard work from some of the best friends in the whole world, we morphed it into my daughter's dream wedding location. They were supposed to get married outside at this spot.

It had rained ALL day. Pouring, blowing winds, cold, nasty...but the weatherman assured us it would all be over at 2pm, 4 at the latest. The clouds cleared, the sun came out, and the guys set up the above location. At about 5:40 pm, this beautiful shot was taken. At 5:45 pm, it started pouring again! We gave up all hope and moved to plan C.

We had our guests sit down at their spots for the reception and had the wedding there. Daddy walked her down the isle (he's kind of blocked by the bride here.) Pastor Dave Akers was the officiating pastor.

Pastor Zatkiewicz gave a wonderful message.

They did manage to get outside for some pics after the wedding. They all had a great time.

You'd be amazed how hard it was to get the six of us together for ONE shot! My happy family.

 The deliriously happy couple in front of the cake table. We had individual pumpkin cheesecakes and an apple strudel cheesecake on top for them to cut and feed each other.

It was a gorgeous day that wore me out more than I could have imagined. I'd do it all over again though, it was all worth it!

By the way, don't look for a recipe from me on Monday. I still have a house full of wedding stuff to sort!!

Greetings From Wedding Central!

Still here, still not cooking!

Actually, lots of cooking, just none of it for daily consumption. Our fridge is full of wedding food, as is our freezer, the church's freezer, future son-in-law's freezer, friend's freezers...you get the idea.

I'll have lots of 'Cooking for a Crowd' recipes for you when I return! I promise to have a proper recipe post for you on the 17th. God willing and the creek don't rise...

Blessings to all!

What is Leni Cooking This Week?

Nothing! Probably not actually nothing, but it feels that way. I did put some Salisbury steaks in the crock pot yesterday, but I was completely unimpressed by it, so it doesn't count. ;o)

I am probably calling on my back up to bring home a roasted chicken tonight. My days are filled with wedding plans and wedding projects. Lists and phone calls and emails. Shots of adrenaline as I remember a fine detail that was missed. Panic as I realize a self-imposed deadline has passed. And yet, we're still having fun. ;o)

It might have been much easier to hire someone to do all of this for us, but it has been a precious time of working with my daughter and our sweet friends who are helping us. Great memories being built here!

I will resume posting recipes about mid-September. Meanwhile, you get to hear about wedding food and wedding plans and anything else wedding related that I find the time to bore you with! ;o)