Saturday, February 16, 2013

Char-grilled Meatball Sandwiches!

       Sorry this blog didn't go out sooner this week, but things have been getting busier. Work is picking up a bit as we get closer to the start of the season in May. Last weekend I grilled pork sausage meatballs and we had meatball sandwiches on Saturday. For Sunday, we made apple cheddar bacon waffles and biscuits and gravy. I also got my mini prize pack that I won from Big Butz BBQ. It contained a pork rub called "Pig Pollen," a jar of their original sauce and a jar of their cranberry sauce. I will be trying these soon. In fact I used the pork rub on some pork chops this weekend for dinner.

Free Stuff!
      For Saturday dinner, I made meatball sandwiches. Earlier in the day, I prepped the meatballs. I took course ground mild Italian pork sausage and added grated Parmesan cheese, Italian seasoning, bread crumbs, olive oil and pepper. After mixing everything together, I formed it into balls. I then covered them and put them in the freezer. I have found that if I put meatballs or other types of patties in the freezer for a short time, they stay together better when you put them on the grill.
    When it was time to grill the balls, I put them in my flexible basket and put them on the grill at a high heat. While the meat balls were cooking, I started the sauce. First, I sauteed some onions and garlic then added a can of sauce to the pan. As I was stirring the sauce I looked out the kitchen window and noticed a lot of smoke coming out of the grill. I went out and opened the lid to flames. The meatballs had flared up! I turned off the burners and took the meatballs off. I closed the lid to try to let the flames burn out. After a minute they were still going so I sprinkled some baking soda on the grill and the flames were out. The meat balls were charred, but they were also done inside. I added them to the sauce with some more grated Parmesan and let the whole thing simmer for a bit.

Charred meatballs. (Sorry about the glare.)
 For the buns of the sandwiches we used the left over buns we made for "Aloha Turkey Burgers" the previous weekend. We put them in the fridge to thaw over night and then heated them in the microwave when it was time to assemble. We cut the buns in half and lightly buttered them before ladling some meatballs and sauce on the buns. Then each sandwich was topped with grated mozzarella cheese. The meatball sandwiches were good even though the meatballs were a little too charred. I didn't mind the char though. The buns were a good complement  to the meatballs and sauce.
Meatball Sandwich!

Close-up of Sandwich.
 Sunday for dinner we decided to make homemade gravy to go with some biscuits Stacy had made earlier in the week. We also had a recipe for bacon cheddar apple waffles that we wanted to try, so we made a batch of those too. The bacon cheddar apple waffle recipe came from a local Alaskan chef. We modified it slightly to fit the ingredients that we had. Our cheese was medium instead of sharp and our apple was not a granny smith. The waffles turned out good. It was surprising how the three flavors of the apple bacon and cheese worked together. The cheese got a little lost in the mix, sharp cheddar might have been better. Overall we liked the waffles. They were good with just butter on them. I put some sausage gravy on one of mine and that was really tasty also. We will defiantly be making these waffles again.

Bacon cheddar apple waffles with homemade sausage gravy.
I hope everybody has a good week. I will be trying to get this sent out sooner next week. Happy grillin'.

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