When I was a little girl, whenever we went to pot luck get-togethers, I always loved my mom’s meatballs. They were delicious, but most importantly to this sugar-aholic, they were sweet. They were my first savory-sweet food love. Years later, I asked my mom to make meatballs for a get-together, and she wasn’t sure exactly which meatball recipe I was talking about. I asked for the “sweet one”, and she asked if I was talking about the “jelly-meatballs.” Jelly meatballs? That was crazy talk. Surely she remembered the ones she made over and over seemingly every time. And surely they weren’t made with flippin grape jelly! After going back and forth, I was horrified to learn that the meatballs I so loved were, in fact, made with jelly. Grape jelly? How was it possible that grape jelly could be mixed with meatballs to be edible let alone delicious? I didn’t understand it. I wanted to fight it. But, as it turns out, some things are better off not fighting. Sometimes things that shouldn’t go together do to create something wonderful. And that’s ok.

Recently, I decided to do a play on the famous grape jelly meatball recipe.

The main ingredients of the original recipe are grape jelly, meatballs, and …wait for it…chili sauce.

I know. Random! But, hey, it works.

Anywho, I wanted to do something similar (still using jelly), but with a new flavor twist. I decided on using orange marmalade for a tangy twist on this pot luck classic.

I also decided, since I had the time, to make the meatballs from scratch, but you can use frozen ones if you’re short on time.

The result – a sweet meatball 10 year old me would have loved.

Slow Cooker Meatballs with Orange Marmalade

This recipe is a fun twist on the class grape-jelly meatball recipe that most people have had at one pot luck or another. The orange marmalade gives the meatballs a lovely tangy flavor that still keeps the sweetness of the original version. And if you’re short on time, don’t worry about making the meatballs, just buy some frozen (and check out the alternate preparation directions below the recipe).

Total time required to make meatballs from scratch: 25-30 minutes (save this time by getting frozen meatballs)
Other total time: 5 minutes (to make sauce) and 1 hour (cook time in slow cooker for from-scratch meatballs) / 2 hours (cook time for frozen meatballs)

Ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup plain bread crumbs
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 13-ounce jar orange marmalade (I used Bonne Maman, which is very tangy – use brand of choice)
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• non-stick spray

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper (or non-stick spray/aluminum foil)
2. Combine beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg, garlic, salt and pepper. Using your hands mix until evenly combined, but try to not overmix. Form into 1 inch meatballs and place prepared baking sheet (use non-stick spray or parchment paper). Bake 10 minutes, turn, bake 10 additional minutes.
3. In a large bowl, add marmalade, ketchup, soy sauce, and pepper. Stir till mixed well.
4. Prepare slow cooker with non-stick spray. Add baked meatballs and sauce. Stir to coat meatballs. Cook on high one hour.

Alternate Directions for frozen meatballs: Add frozen meatballs (no need to defrost!) to the slow cooker with the sauce from Step #3 above. Cook till meat is completely cooked/warmed through – on high for about 2 hours or low for about 6.

These meatballs would be great to make when you’re entertaining or if you need to take something to a pot luck. They’re a great appetizer but could also work well for a more tapas or small-bite kinda meal.

What do you think of jelly meatballs? Love them or hate them?

PS Who’s ready for the 3rd annual Eat in Month? It’s headed your way…tomorrow!

Brie. Baguette. Vino.

That was my Facebook update after I finished my last (crazy-stressful-busy) work day of 2011. Phew! It’s also what I was enjoying immediately after shutting down my work laptop.

After enjoying one Christmas with my family and one with hubby’s, hubby and I celebrated our Christmas tonight.

I experimented with a new risotto recipe that I’m hoping to share with you guys soon. It was inspired by a visit to Olive Garden a couple years ago where I ordered the shrimp and asparagus risotto. I enjoyed the mindless stirring after staring at 6 databases and roughly 25 excel spreadsheets all day during work. lol

Hubby decided that since I was in charge of dinner, he’d be in charge of dessert.

He brought home two caramel apples from Rocky Mountain Chocolate, and we dug into the pecan-chocolate one tonight.

And tonight’s Riesling tasted extra-delicious in the new wine glasses my MIL gave us for Christmas. I’ve been wanting stemless wine glasses for years, and I’m really excited to serve wine to guests using them!

I’m feeling very blessed to have enjoyed three beautiful Christmases this year. I hope your holidays were lovely, too.

What was your favorite Christmas, Hanukkah, or other holiday gift and/or memory from this year?

In hubby’s family, Santa brings not only the presents, but the tree, too! So, we spent Christmas Eve decorating their Christmas tree for hubby’s sister’s kiddos.

I caught hubby’s bro’s dog sitting still for once.

Normally, she wags from head to toe and looks more like this.

Many of the ornaments on the tree were handmade by hubby, his brother, and his sister from when they were kids. It was fun to see their creations from the past.

And the finishing touch – tinsel!

Lots and lots of gold tinsel.

And with the tree decorated, we hit the sack. Zzzzzzzzzz…

***

By the time we got up on Christmas morning, the kids had already opened their stockings and were playing with the new toys Santa brought them.

And Santa’s sleigh must have been really heavy last night with all of these presents!

After a couple photos in front of the tree…

…it was time to start opening presents.

Someone especially loved their new Wii. So cute!

The only thing I didn’t capture on my camera was when the whole Christmas tree toppled over while we were in the middle of opening presents! It was scary at first, but luckily, no one was hurt, and nothing major was broken. The fall broke a couple ornaments, but most of them survived, which was great since many are sentimental and one-of-a-kind. No doubt, this will turn into a long-lasting family story. I can hear it now…”Remember that time our Christmas tree fell over?” Yup, making memories I tell ya!

Anywho, after a quick clean-up, we continued the present-opening party.

Someone else was pretty excited about their gifts. Bailey ripped right through his gift bag to get to the contents: a retractable leash with a flashlight, a new “baby” (wonder how long this one will last lol), and treats!

Happy corgi.

…especially after enjoying one of his new peanut butter treats!

***

By the way, I know I’ve been a bit MIA, but things have just been really crazy lately. It’s been much easier for me to post on Facebook, twitter, and Instagram (username: thechiclife), so be sure to follow me there! I’m currently loving Instagram because it’s so fun to share my life in photos!

***

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

Since we spent Thanksgiving with my family, we planned to spend Christmas with hubby’s. Luckily, we had enough vacation days left for 2011 to mostly work out our plans. I was hoping to take the week between Christmas and New Year’s off, but the numbers didn’t quite line up for me, though, I won’t have to work, too much (yay!). That’s the downside. The upside? We had enough to squeeze in a quick trip to see my family before Christmas!

{Mom, dad, sis}

{Christmas tree bokeh}

Mom was really proud of the garland she put together this year, so I’m sure she’ll love me sharing some photos with you guys. You won’t see this featured in a magazine or anything, but she’s only recently gotten into doing crafty things. I think it looks fantastic!

{Bailey Claus & the Christmas tree; Dad carving the turkey}

My parents opted for a turkey breast this year. I don’t really like the wings or legs, so it worked for me!

We had a good family effort for the dinner. Mom made the turkey and gravy…

…dad made the mashed potatoes (and stuffing)…

…sis made the cranberry sauce and sweet potato fries with 2 dipping sauces (maple syrup & nuts and herbed sour cream – inspired by Emeril}…

….and I made something my family reluctantly agreed to try – brussels sprouts! Even my health-freak dad was hesitant to try the brussels sprouts. My sister told me later that they were the only vegetable he didn’t like (and all this time I didn’t think there was a vegetable he didn’t like). Apparently, he hadn’t had them since he was a youngster at the boys school where they likely served over-cooked, mushy sprouts. Ew! I was hoping to convert him (and the rest of my fam) with my Simple Brussels Sprouts recipe (shredded and sauteed and not mushy at all). And convert them I did. Even Sis (who is opposite of my dad and pretty much hates all vegetables) liked them.

{My plate}

And I had to save room for one of the oatmeal, butterscotch, chocolate chip bars my sis loves baking. They’re a Pampered Chef recipe and deeeeeeeelish. I enjoyed mine with some milk in one of Sis’ s cool Asian mugs.

***

And along with some Christmas gifts, my parents sent us home with some of their old furniture they don’t want any more. Woohoo! Our empty living room is going to be looking much better after this! I’ll have to share some updated living room photos once we get things set up.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays everyone!

Ahh…it’s the most wonderful time of the year…the Christmas season. This is one of the times of the year I feel most like a failure. While normal people plan ahead, make Christmas lists, finalize their shopping and wrap presents, I run around like a crazy person just trying to keep up with my normal schedule. I’m guessing my tendency to procrastinate doesn’t help me much here either.

Not only have I not finished my Christmas shopping, nor have I wrapped a single present, I haven’t blogged in almost a week. Fail!

But, I do have good news in the being-productive arena…I did spend most of Sunday actually tackling my Christmas shopping list. I have almost all of the people on my list set on gifts…now I just need to wrap them. And hopefully, I don’t wait till the last minute like I often do.

And this Sunday, after letting our Christmas tree sit undecorated since Tuesday, we finally got around to putting up some decorations. You’d think I’d be super early doing this since I love Christmas and Christmas decorations so much, but…I just wasn’t.

But yes, Sunday evening, hubby and I turned on some Christmas tunes and sipped hot carob-soy drinks with whipped soy milk and a sprinkle of cinnamon (ok maybe I was the only one enjoying the carob drink).

We got our decorations out of storage and put them up.

We don’t have a lot in the way of Christmas decorations, but I’m really pleased with our growing collection of ornaments. We’ve enjoyed adding one or two special new ones every year.

And this year, our mantel is really coming together. These white vases stay here year-round, but I’ve added a sparkly garland that matches the tree tinsel, as well as new Christmas lights and the star stocking holders we got last year. And my mom even gave me some of my childhood stockings, which we’ll be using now.

I wanted to make a wreath for the front door, but all the wreath supplies were sold out at Michaels. Doh!

But hey, I feel like I’m doing ok this year so far!

So yup…the Chic house is Christmas-fied. Yessssss! Doesn’t Bailey look thrilled in his Bailey-Claus costume?

Now, about that gift wrapping…

Tis the season of gift giving, and if you’re anything like me, you like to gift handmade goodies for the holidays. Even if you prefer to purchase your treats from a local store or bakery, this tutorial will work for you, as long as you plan to place them in a mason jar.

Here’s a super easy tutorial on how to festively decorate a mason jar for gift giving.

Mason jars are great for so many holiday gifts: cake/cookie/bread mixes, granola, BBQ sauce, jam/jellies, and the list goes on. This tutorial will work with any mason jar, no matter the contents. Fill it with your choice of treats!

Last year, i made some pretty traditional holiday treats – Cookies ‘N Cream Bark (click for bark recipe) and…

Pink Salted Chewy Caramel Candy (click for caramel recipe). I put a little of each treat into a mason jar so my gift recipients got the best of both worlds.

But, if you just google “mason jar homemade gifts” (or something similar), you’ll find plenty of other options and other ideas.

On to the tutorial!

This tutorial uses simple and affordable materials:

• Mason jars (almost the same price as, if not cheaper than, those cute tins at craft stores)
• Scrapbook paper
• Kitchen twine
• Fabric

The style is reminiscent of old-fashioned jam jars, so you’ve likely seen similar jars. This is just how I ended up decorating mine.

Using a large scrapbook shape puncher of choice (I just used circle-shaped tool), cut out cute scrapbook paper for your gift tags. If you don’t have a puncher, you can really cut any shape you like, even a square or rectangle.

Punch a hole in the top of the gift label.

Write down the contents of the jar on one side of the paper. If you made your jar contents, you may want to add the word “homemade” to your label. Also, maybe pay better attention than I did when I was paper shopping and get one that doesn’t have lines on the back. Oops. Moving on…

Cut a square out of some fun fabric. You want the square to be a little larger (by about 1 – 1 1/2 inches on each side) than the mouth of the jar. Some of the fabric will be covered by the top ring of the jar, so when you’re measuring, be sure to take that into account. My jar is medium sized, and my fabric is about a 5 inch square. For your first jar, just cut one square as your test square, screw on the top ring and see if you like how it looks. Adjust fabric size if needed.

With the silver, flat-disc-part of the top already on the jar, put the fabric on top of the covered mason jar.

Use your fingers to keep the fabric from shifting too much and screw the top ring over the fabric.

Tie on some kitchen twine.

Then tie on your label.

And that’s it! You’re done!

Happy holidays everyone!

Reader question: if you like making them, what do you put in mason jars for gift-giving? If you like receiving them, what’s the best mason jar gift you’ve received over the years?

I didn’t grow up with a lot of family nearby. Most of my dad’s family lived in the North and most of my mom’s family lived in the Philippines.

(photo from the family album)

Our closest family members, who we referred to as “cousins”, were somewhat distant relatives. I believe the mom of the family, Rose, is my mom’s third cousin.

(photo from the family album)

It never really mattered to us how they were related – they were simply family, and they also lived in the South, just a couple hours away.

(photo from the family album)

We spent many holidays together when I was growing up and grew quite close over the years. I actually like to think of my cousins, Leo and Marlon, as the brothers I never had. Over the college years, the trips to see our cousins grew infrequent, but we visited when we could.

***

This year, for the first time in many years, we decided to visit cousins for Thanksgiving. Hubby and I left Thanksgiving morning from Charlotte and were meeting my parents and sister in Atlanta.

I thought this text message conversation with my mom (sent during our road trip) was particularly hilarious…and telling.

After about 4 1/2 hours in the car, hubby and I were greeted by Rose and some surprise family members – Rose’s sister, Amy, and her family, Rose’s brother, Ben, who came all the way from the Philippines, and Ben’s daughter, Joy, and her family. We were also greeted with a kitchen full of delicious Thanksgiving food.

We had a bit of a Filipino-fusion style Thanksgiving – many of the traditional Thanksgiving fare paired with some traditional Filipino eats: turkey, mushroom gravy, macaroni and cheese, brussels sprouts, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, plus pancit…

…avocado popsicles…

…and a Filipino dessert I’ve always wanted to try – suman.

Suman is a sticky rice made with rice and coconut milk that is wrapped in coconut leaves and steamed. When it’s ready, you unwrap it and eat it with sugar.

It’s a wrapped version of the “sweet rice” dish that I love so much. It was good, but I think I like the sweet rice dish better because you cook the coconut milk with brown sugar and the flavors really develop together.

Anywho, as we were finishing up our first round of Thanksgiving eats, Rose, Amy, and Joy decided to whip up a giant batch of lumpia, which is like Filipino spring rolls.

These were made with pork, garlic, green onion, and water chestnuts.

After finishing up dessert, I headed out with the younger crowd to go visit my cousin Leo who got stuck working on Thanksgiving. Boo! He’s a bartender, so it made it easy for us to visit him and have a couple drinks. We also brought him some Thanksgiving eats.

After relaxing for a couple hours, Sis and I headed back to the house for more Thanksgiving food: turkey, gravy, cranberry sauce, stuffing, mashed potatoes, pancit, broccoli salad, and lumpia…

And more dessert: suman (with brown sugar this time), pumpkin pie, a piece of my sister’s chocolate chip/oatmeal bar, fruit, and flan.

Leo came home shortly after with the rest of the gang, so we could enjoy the rest of Thanksgiving day all together. We had plenty of food, laughs, family, and friends, which is exactly what I love on Thanksgiving.

Reader questions: how did you spend your Thanksgiving this year? What was your favorite food?

A week late, but I wanted to share some photos from our Halloween festivities…

Hubby and I love celebrating Halloween. There’s just something fun about the theme that makes me happy – maybe it’s the costumes or the unique way you can theme your eats. Who knows?

Unfortunately, with things being so hectic lately, I sort of dropped the ball putting any plans together, so we just invited a couple friends over for a casual night in.

Sis drove in from out of town to hang out for the weekend. She helped me carve pumpkins over BBQ take out from local restaurant Mac’s.

Friends – (left to right) Sarah, Shamecia, Talicha, me!

We actually stopped by one fun party at another friend’s house to watch them record a music video to YMCA. Oh yea…it was hilarious! They even had fake mustaches for one part…and they were all girls.

Anywho, we had some creepy decorations going on back at the Chic house – nothing crazy – just a couple things here and there. I really liked spreading this fake spiders all over the mantel, though. They reminded me of a photo I saw once in a Martha Stewart Halloween magazine.

For eats we made this slow cooker BBQ chicken again…

…mashed potatoes…

….slow cooker meatballs…

…steamed veggies.

I was trying to do red, green, and white foods to go with some Halloween colors. I thought about labeling the food to make it sound scarier than it actually was, but “blood and guts”, although entertaining, didn’t exactly sound appetizing.

We had mocktails with POM, and we also had some vino (moscato).

The eats were tasty…but I really loved dessert.

Sis helped me bake up some Depression-style cupcakes with chocolate buttercream and tombstone cookies. She did all the tombstone writing. The cupcakes were baked without any eggs or butter! The trick appears to be the vinegar and baking soda combo, which I think I’m going to play with to make some other baked goodies (I’m thinking cake and muffins).

I had a great time having a casual Halloween in and enjoying tasty eats. It wasn’t as crazy as last year’s foodie Halloween party, but it was perfect for this year. Who knows how Halloween 2012 will end up!

Reader question: If you celebrate it, how did you spend Halloween?

Where do you go to get fresh tacos with local ingredients for Cinco de Mayo?

The Roots farm truck! If you live in Charlotte, of course.

You can also visit them for more local-food-deliciousness on non-holidays. They’re all around town, and you can check their web site for location information.

I brought a friend to the food truck for lunch. She got the bean tacos, and I had the chicken. They were made with crisp lettuce and cheddar cheese from a local farm. I also got some broccoli salad for a side dish.

Just like yesterday, everything was super tasty.

Back at the office, I was chugging water and hot tea like it was my job. I made sure to have some Echinacea Immune Support because I’m feeling a cold or something icky coming on, and I’m trying to ward it away.

***

Post work, I taught a fabulous Zumba class! My small-but-mighty class was bigger than normal, but I was totally embarrassed by my crappy music. No, my playlist was fine, but something weird has been happening with the speaker the last 3 classes. I even purchased a new speaker cord the night before, but it didn’t quite solve things.

I actually ended up swinging by the Apple store on my way home where I learned that the issue was probably a faulty jack (the hole on my iPhone where I connect the speaker cord). Major music fail. With a super-expired warranty, my options were: purchase new docking station or buy new ipod. I decided to hold off, though I’m teaching again Friday night, so I can’t wait long!

The downside of teaching Zumba is that I often come home super late, and hubby and I have to have equally later dinners. The upside is that eating late means less wait times. I celebrated Cinco de Mayo for the second time of the day at dinner. We managed to squeeze into our favorite local Mexican restaurant, 1900 Mexican Grill, on Cinco de Mayo with a less than 5 minutes wait. Score!

We had our faves: a margarita for me, a Mexican beer for hubby, cheese dip…

…and fajitas (chicken)…

…with all the fixings.

The restaurant even had a special DJ playing lots of fun Reggaeton songs (the kind we often do in Zumba), so I made note to scout songs. I even got to talk to the DJ about some of those songs. Check out his DJ gear! It’s for sale and I kind of want to buy it. Good thing I am far from being able to afford any of it!

And check out what Bailey did the other night. I found him perched on top of a pile of blankets and pillows. I think his rump was about 1 foot off the couch. lol. Does your pet do this? Find the tallest pile of coziness to get comfy?

I’m going on a road trip this weekend. What are you up to?

And what is your favorite thing to eat on the road? Anything healthy-ish?

Happy Margarita! I mean…Happy Cinco de Mayo!

Did you celebrate? What did you do? Clearly I had a margarita (on the rocks)!