The Great Meatball Cookoff

Lately we haven't been up to much. The usual looking for jobs for me, and Niki finishing up her Real Estate classes. However, this past weekend the Mackenzie's hosted the "Great Meatball Cookoff". With three participants; The Millses, The Mackenzie's, and the Macejkovic's, the game was ON!

The rules of the game:

1. Each team uses the same Costco Italian style frozen meatballs as a base

2. Each team creates their own sauce for the meatballs

3. Meatballs will be sampled in a family taste test that evening, the winner will receive ..... A NEW CAR. Oh wait, no, the winner will actually just get all the glory.

Entry: Pineapple Meatballs
Participant: Mills Family
Basic Sauce Ingredients: Pineapple juice, brown sugar, worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, pineapple chunks.
Oh Damn! These meatballs were good. Figuring the competition would go with a more traditional approach to appetizer meatballs, the Mills family tried to reach outside the box to make their mark. These round meaty morsels didn't disappoint. With the sweet taste of pineapple and the caramelized brown sugar, this thick, syrupy sauce combined with the chunks of pineapple, really pleased the palette. With the added health benefit of pineapple breaking down protein and aiding digestion, this recipe was a great all around appetizer.

Entry: Creamy Beef Bouillon Meatballs
Participant: Macejkovic Family
Basic Sauce Ingredients: Beef bouillon, cream cheese, milk (?)
With an old Macejkovic family recipe, Jenna brought the 'thick and hearty'. These were some good meatballs, you just can't go wrong with any kind of cream sauce...on anything. These bad boys were a meal in themselves. The thick cream sauce with a beef herb taste was a great example of hearty home cooking. Nice work Jenna.

Entry: Meatballs in Italian Red Sauce
Participant: Mackenzie Family
Basic Sauce Ingredients: Tomato Pasta Sauce, Garlic, Herbs & Spices
We almost missed out on this traditional Italian greatness. Upon arriving at the contest venue, the Mackenzie team expressed their desire to withdraw from the competition siting an uninspired entry that had no chance of winning. Now the other two teams showed up for a contest and that's what we were going to have. So after some aggressive convincing, mama Mackenzie picked up the wooden spoon, she was in! Good thing she changed her mind. Taking an ordinary jarred tomato sauce and working wonders with her 7 (or so) herbs and spices, she whipped up a fantastic mix that was perhaps the best compliment to the style of meatballs we used (Niki liked it so much, she drank it). Nice work mama-in-law, way to bring it!

So I guess you're wondering who won. Well, I can tell you that all the meatballs were great. At dinner we discussed how nice it was to have a variety of such distinctly different tasting meatballs.

That said, since the name of this blog is 'Mills Family Blog', I have to declare the Pineapple Meatballs the Winners.
Sorry Texas fam', thanks for playing.