Sweet and sour meatballs

This is a really easy yummy dinner. It's also nice if you like 70's era Hawaiian nostalgia . . . you know, the blending of Asian and western foods and the random use of pineapple. We had this last night, and I kept thinking they probably served it at the midnight buffet on the Love Boat. You could probably just make it with the frozen meatballs that mum buys, but since we don't have Costco in NZ, I had to actually touch raw ground beef. Justin points out that it didn't kill me. There's a lot of sympathy in our marriage . . .

From "The Pioneer Woman".

Meatballs:

• 1.25 lb ground beef
• 1/2 onion, finely diced
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup fine bread crumbs
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp chili powder

Mix together and form into small meatballs (about 20 or so). Line on a cookie sheet and place in the freezer for 15 min (this is just to keep them from falling apart during cooking--Jamie could instead set them outside for 1 min . . .)

While they are freezing, chop up the vegetables and make the sauce.

Vegetables:

• 2 whole bell peppers, chopped
• 1 1/2 cups pineapple, chopped

The recipe calls for fresh pineapple, but I just used canned. Fresh would have been better, but that's generally true.

Sauce:

• 2 cups beef stock
• 2 TBSP soy sauce
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 TBSP cornstarch

Roll the balls in a small bowl of flour. Fry in batches in a canola oil. Set aside. Drain excess oil from the pan and throw in the bell peppers. Fry for one minute*, add the pineapple and fry for another minute. Pour in the sauce and add back the meatballs. Boil together gently until the sauce thickens. Add rice and additional chili powder as needed. Serve over rice.

* I followed these instructions last night, but I found that cooking that long made the bell peppers too soft. When I do this next, I'll either cook the peppers quickly then set aside before adding pineapples and the sauce, or just skip that step entirely and add them at the end.

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