Around the World in a Pot

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My roommate and I had our annual Christmas party this year, and outside of the neighbor calling at 1:30am to see if the party would 2:00am because she could hear everything in her apartment, it was a wonderful night.

One of the many dishes that we had was my take on Cocktail Meatballs (a.k.a. Grape Jelly Meatballs.) Prior to my friend Ryan’s birthday party in San Diego about 2 years ago, I never really had heard of treating meatballs this way.  Apparently I’ve been obviously to meat and jam combinations all my life; my friend, Denise, has invited me over to her parent’s for Night in Venice annually for the last 20 years and I enjoyed the Cocktail Kielbasa (a.k.a. Raspberry Kielbasa). Yet I never noticed the similarity between the recipes.  It wasn’t until I asked, “What’s in the sauce, sesame seeds?” that I learned it was raspberry preserves.
A crock pot of Cocktail Meatballs
For an easy and hearty appetizer, I simply use a 4 quart slow cooker on high and add two 1½ pound bags of frozen, pre-made meatballs; a jar of jam, jelly or preserves (this party I used Ikea’s Lingonberry jam, Sylt Lingon); Dr Pepper, about a jam jar's worth; Bourbon, about a 1/3 of the jam jar; and Sriracha, to taste (if you don’t know all about wonderful Sriracha, check out The Oatmeal’s what’s-not-to-love description.) I start it about 3 hours before the party and turn to warm when the first guests arrive.

This kindled my want to use my crock pot more.  My mom had made a few dishes while I was young.  There is something excited about throwing items into a pot first thing in the morning, then turning it on and letting it do its thing until you come home from work. 
Straight from the Oatmeal, Sriracha
In addition to just trying to use my crock pot more, I wanted to be adventuresome in my cooking.  As you probably know, I'm in a bookclub that values good eating and good drinking along with the good read and great discussions.  As part of our "thing," we pick themes for our bookclub potlucks.  Sometimes, they are based on the setting - Indian food for The Splendor of Silence by Indu Sundaresan, and other times they are based on an idea - "Bake whatcha momma made ya" (your favorite dish your mom made growing up) for The Red Tent by Anita Diamant. I love these themes because sometimes we pick a cuisine that I know how to make well and sometimes we all have to learn how to make something new.  For example, I learned how to make Tomato Bredie (about 5/6 of the way down on the page), a delicious South African lamb stew when I chose Disgrace by J. M. Coetzee. 

I want to try to cook dishes with flavors from all around the world in my crock pot, of course. I've been wondering when I could use my crock pot since I've been traveling a bit and I'm not always home. Ironic, I know, when will I have enough time to do something easy like use my slow cooker? With my traveling schedule, it looks like Monday night (for preparations) and Tuesday morning (for setting and forgetting) end up as the right time to try some world cooking in a crock pot.  As you may have guessed, I am cooking something today - my first foray is a molha, an Azorean spiced beef stew.  I'll update you all next week. 

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