With the holiday’s being just around the corner I thought what a great time to list some holiday appetizers, many of these I actually make every Christmas, some are recipes I’ve been meaning to try.

Sweet & Sour Meatballs
These mini meatballs are a hit every Christmas in our home. Don’t forget to put out some tooth picks or little Christmas colored toothpicks.

Meatballs
1 lb Ground Beef
1/4 cup Bread Crumbs
1/2 tsp S&P
1/2 tsp Italian seasoning

Preheat oven to 400C. Wash hands before handling meat, put all ingredients into a large bowl and get your hands dirty, that’s right, squash and squeeze all that meat with your hands to evenly mix all the bread crumbs and S&P through out the meat. Grab a little chunk of meat and form into a ball around the size of a green olive, place meatballs into ungreased roast pan or any baking dish with lid, cover and bake for around 30-40 minutes, start checking on them after around 30 minutes, if your not sure if there done cut one open and make sure there is no pink to it.

Sweet & Sour Sauce
1/2 cup Ketchup
4 tbsp Vinegar
1 tbsp soy sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1 heaping tbsp Cornstarch
1 tbsp cold water
- You may want to cup up chunks of green/red/yellow peppers, these can be added to sauce after it is finished but before meatballs are mixed in, simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes.

Mix all ingredients except Cornstarch into a pot or saucepan, bring to simmer on medium heat stirring often, mix cornstarch with 1 tbsp of cold water in a small bowl before adding to sauce (this will prevent clumps) when sauce is simmering, mix in cornstarch mixture, allow to simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes stirring more often. Pour cooked meatballs into sauce and carefully stir, trying to not break the meatballs, use a ladle or a big spoon with holes to drain some of the sauce off the meatballs, place on platter or plate.

Garnishing Ideas
- Place big lettuce leafs on plate and pour meatballs on top (these meatballs taste good rolled up in iceberg lettuce leaves.
- If you have a big enough platter use cheese cubes to outline the shape of a stocking and pour meatballs inside outline.
- cut lettuce leaves to look like tree branches and use meatballs to look like bulbs on the tree, cut out a piece of cheese for the star and line meatballs on bottom for the trunk. (I’ve never done this but it just came to me as a neat idea, I will try it this week and take a picture to add below this recipe)