By The magazine column launched. January issue, page fifty-one: "Fire and Family: Cooking with the Riveras" by Marcus Rivera. The first column: Roberto's carne asada. The story I wrote in November, polished and published, with a full-page photo of me and Roberto at the cinder block grill (taken by the magazine's photographer, who drove to Maryvale and spent an hour shooting us while Elena fed him three plates of food because Elena feeds everyone who enters her house, including photographers).
The response: emails from readers, comments on the magazine's website, DMs on Instagram. People saying: "I have a father like Roberto." "I have a grill like that." "I cook for my family the way you cook for yours." The recognition. The resonance. The food is specific — carne asada, lime, garlic — but the story is universal: a parent teaches a child, the child teaches the next child, the fire passes. Everyone has a version of this story. Everyone has a grill or a stove or a kitchen where someone taught them that food is love.
Roberto read the column. Elena showed it to him on the tablet. He read it twice. Then he called me and said nothing for ten seconds. Then: "You got the lime right." That is his review. I wrote 1,200 words about his life, his grill, his legacy, and his review is: you got the lime right. Because the lime is the detail. The lime is the thing that makes the carne asada his and not anyone else's. The lime is where the love lives. He is right. I got the lime right.
Elena's retirement is this month — January 20th. Thirty-five years as a teacher's aide at the bilingual elementary school in south Phoenix. The school is throwing her a party. I am cooking for it — pulled pork sliders for sixty people, because when your mother retires after thirty-five years of service, you feed the people who loved her. This is what I do. This is who I am. The son who cooks. The man at the grill. The fire that does not go out.
Sixty people is not a small number, and when the party is for your mother—thirty-five years of showing up for other people’s children, every single school day—the food has to hold up to that weight. I knew I wanted something that could be made in volume, something that would stay warm through a long afternoon of stories and hugs and the kind of crying that sneaks up on you when someone you love finally lets themselves be honored. These sweet and sour crockpot meatballs were exactly that: a slow cooker doing the heavy lifting while I stood in the room and watched Elena be celebrated the way she deserved.
Sweet and Sour Crockpot Meatballs
Prep Time: 10 minutes | Cook Time: 3–4 hours | Total Time: 4 hours 10 minutes | Servings: 10–12
Ingredients
- 2 lbs frozen or homemade meatballs (about 40 meatballs)
- 1 cup grape jelly
- 1 cup chili sauce (such as Heinz)
- 2 tablespoons soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
- 1/4 teaspoon black pepper
- Sliced green onions, for garnish (optional)
- Toothpicks or slider rolls, for serving
Instructions
- Make the sauce. In a medium bowl, whisk together the grape jelly, chili sauce, soy sauce, apple cider vinegar, garlic powder, ground ginger, and black pepper until smooth and fully combined.
- Layer the crockpot. Add the meatballs to the slow cooker in an even layer. Pour the sweet and sour sauce over the top, making sure all the meatballs are coated.
- Slow cook. Cover and cook on LOW for 4 hours or HIGH for 2 to 2 1/2 hours, stirring once halfway through, until the sauce is thickened and the meatballs are heated through.
- Keep warm and serve. Switch the slow cooker to the WARM setting for serving. Garnish with sliced green onions if desired. Serve with toothpicks as an appetizer or spoon onto slider rolls for a heartier option.
- Scale for a crowd. To feed 60 people, triple the recipe using three slow cookers or one very large roaster. Prepare the sauce the night before and refrigerate; load the cookers the morning of the event.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 16g | Fat: 14g | Carbs: 28g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 640mg