Pizza Fondue and Freeze Ahead Meatballs

This pizza fondue is very popular with our teens and college age offspring as well as their friends. It's pretty popular with me, too, because most of it can be made ahead of time.

The 'fondue' is basically just a spaghetti or pizza sauce. You can make your own from scratch and freeze it, or you can just buy spaghetti sauce in a jar and set it aside until you need it.

Up to several weeks ahead of time:
Make and freeze tiny meatballs (see below)
Buy a variety of breads, cut them into finger long strips, seal well in bags and freeze them.
Freeze a package or two of cocktail hot-dogs
Buy a bag of frozen, cubed pineapple and keep in freezer

The day before the party:
Slice peppers into strips
put a slice of Canadian bacon with a slice of mozzarella cheese, roll it and put a toothpick through to hold it together
Put your frozen ingredients in the refrigerator to defrost.
Dice cubes of various cheeses

The morning of the party:
Put spaghetti or pizza sauce in crock-pot with grated mozzarella cheese

Just before the party, reheat your meatballs, put whole mushrooms and cocktail hot-dogs in the oven to roast, and then:

set out a platter with:
olives
mushrooms
sliced pepper strips
your Canadian bacon and cheese rolls
tiny meatballs
sliced breads
cocktail hot-dogs
pineapple
cheese cubes

A bowl of grated pizza cheeses

Set these out with toothpicks, hors d'oeuvre picks, or skewers. Let guests put together their own little shish-kabobs, ladle sauce from the crock-pot over this, and sprinkle some grated cheese on top of that.

Make Ahead Meatballs:

3 lbs. ground beef
1 12oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup oatmeal or cooked rice
1 cup bread or cracker crumbs
2 eggs, slightly beaten
1 cup onion, minced very fine
2 tsp. garlic powder
1 teaspoon thyme
2 tsp. salt
1 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. chili powder, or to taste
1/2 tsp mace (optional)

To make meatballs, combine all meatball ingredients in a large bowl, mix very well (I like to put my hands into plastic bags and mix with my hands- this way I can really combine the ingredients thoroughly but keep my hands clean.
Use a melon baller to shape small meat balls, an ice cream scoop for larger balls. Shape into rounder balls. Place on trays lined with waxed paper or parchment paper and freeze until solid. Remove from trays, and store in freezer bags or freezer safe plastic containers until you are read to use them.

Place frozen meatballs in a 9×13 baking pan, cover. Bake at 350° for 45 minutes. Remove cover and bake 15 minutes longer, or until meatballs are browned all the way through.

This makes approximately 80 meatballs (more if you make them smaller, less if you make them larger). If you want to have it separately from the pizza fondue, bake it in the pan with about 3 cups of chili sauce or cocktail sauce. With this version just bake it without a cover for an hour, or until the meatballs are done.

Another make-ahead meal my family enjoys is Bar-b-qued pork. Take a large pork loin roast, add a splash of soy sauce or Italian salad dressing and cook it all day in the crockpot. Shred it with a fork or knife and add a jar of bar-b-que sauce. Serve this over kaiser rolls.

Almost any crockpot meal can become a make-ahead meal by combining the ingredients ahead of time and freezing them together. Put in the crockpot frozen and cook all day on high, stirring occasionally.