Honey Garlic Crockpot Meatballs — Two Hundred Meatballs, One Table, One Toast

Christmas week. The family arrived. Anna and David and Sophie and Jakob and Lena, packed into one car, sleeping bags and gifts in the trunk. Peter flew from Chicago. Elsa walked from her apartment. Erik drove Mamma from Fifth Street. The house was full — twelve people, one wheelchair, three machines, a dog. The living room was a maze of sleeping bags and pillows. Jakob slept on the floor near Paul's bed, by choice — "I want to be near Grandpa," he said, and the saying was matter-of-fact, the way Jakob says everything, and the matter-of-factness concealed the enormity of what he meant. Christmas Eve. I made the julbord. Not the full production of last year — not two hundred meatballs, not three kinds of herring, not the ham — but a julbord. Meatballs: mine, with the real recipe, one hundred. Pickled herring: one kind, dill. Gravlax: cured, sliced, beautiful. Rye bread. Jansson's temptation. The rice pudding with the almond. Mamma brought her meatballs. One hundred this year. She said, "Enough for a small julbord." Two hundred total. For twelve people. Plenty. Paul was at the table. Wheelchair. Ventilator. Eye-tracker. Feeding tube delivering his Christmas dinner silently while the rest of us ate meatballs and herring and ham-less but full. The candles were lit — twenty of them, the same number as every year. The advent star was in the window. The Swedish carols were queued on the speaker. Paul typed the toast. Letter by letter. Slowly. The table waited. The candles flickered. The food cooled. Nobody cared about the cooling because Paul was typing and Paul's words mattered more than warm meatballs. He typed: "TO THIS TABLE. TO THIS FAMILY. TO LINDA, WHO MADE EVERYTHING, ALWAYS. TO INGRID, WHO MADE THE MEATBALLS, ALWAYS. TO THE LAKE. TO THE SHIPS. TO EVERYONE WHO ISN'T HERE AND EVERYONE WHO IS. GOD JUL." The machine said it. The table was silent. Then Mamma: "Skñl." And everyone: "Skñl." The rice pudding. The almond. I stirred for two hours that morning. The almond went in. The pudding was served. I found the almond. In my bowl. In my spoon. The almond was there, right where — right where I know Paul wanted it to be. (I placed it myself, at his instruction, typed in the kitchen at five AM: "PUT THE ALMOND IN YOUR BOWL." I did. Because he asked. Because the luck.) I held up the almond and the table cheered and Paul's eyes were on me and the eyes said: the luck is yours. Take it. You'll need it. Christmas. The julbord. The meatballs. The candles. The almond. God jul. From a house full of machines and sleeping bags and meatballs and love and a man in a wheelchair who typed his toast letter by letter and whose eyes gave the luck to his wife. God jul. God jul. God jul.

We made two hundred meatballs that Christmas Eve — a hundred from me, a hundred from Mamma — and they were gone before the candles burned down, which is exactly how it should be. In the years ahead, when the julbord is smaller or the hands are fewer, I want a recipe that still carries the weight of that table without requiring everything I have left. These honey garlic crockpot meatballs aren’t Swedish, and they’re not Mamma’s, but they are warm and generous and made for a crowd — and that’s close enough. Paul would approve of anything that keeps people at the table longer.

Honey Garlic Crockpot Meatballs

Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 3 hours | Total Time: 3 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 10

Ingredients

• 2 lbs frozen fully cooked meatballs (about 40 meatballs)
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup soy sauce (low-sodium preferred)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tablespoon rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• 2 tablespoons cold water
• Sesame seeds and sliced green onions, for garnish

Instructions

1. Make the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together honey, soy sauce, minced garlic, ketchup, rice vinegar, sesame oil, ground ginger, and black pepper until fully combined.
2. Load the slow cooker. Place the frozen meatballs in the bottom of a 4- to 6-quart slow cooker. Pour the sauce evenly over the meatballs and gently stir to coat.
3. Cook low and slow. Cover and cook on LOW for 3 to 4 hours or on HIGH for 1.5 to 2 hours, stirring once halfway through, until meatballs are heated through and sauce has thickened slightly.
4. Thicken the sauce. In a small bowl, whisk together the cornstarch and cold water. Stir the slurry into the slow cooker during the final 20 minutes of cooking. Replace the lid and allow the sauce to thicken.
5. Garnish and serve. Transfer meatballs to a serving dish or leave in the slow cooker on the WARM setting. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and sliced green onions before serving. Serve with toothpicks as an appetizer or over steamed rice as a main.

Nutrition (per serving)

Calories: 290 | Protein: 14g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 27g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 620mg