happy football season!

football season is here. which means fall is almost here too! the cooler weather and game day food are some of my favorite things about this season. in honor of the first sunday of football, we had saucy asian meatballs and korean beef tacos. the korean tacos are a longtime fave here but the meatballs were a new recipe. we'll definitely be making them again! 

saucy asian meatballs (adapted from gimme some oven) 

• 1 lb ground pork or ground beef 
• 1 lb ground chicken
• 2 teaspoons sesame oil
• 1 cup Panko or breadcrumbs
• 2 teaspoons fresh ginger
• 2 eggs
• 3 teaspoons minced garlic
• 1/2 cup thinly-sliced green onions
• optional garnish: toasted sesame seeds, sliced scallions 
for the sauce
• 2/3 cup hoisin sauce
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tablespoons soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 teaspoon fresh ginger

preheat oven to 400

in a large bowl, mix together meatball ingredients until well-combined. shape into balls (i made mine about 1.5 inches, which yielded about 35 meatballs), and place on a parchment lined baking sheet or in a greased 9 x 13 baking dish. bake for 20-25 minutes, or until meatballs are golden on the outside and no longer pink on the inside. 

while the meatballs are baking, whisk together all of the sauce ingredients until blended. once meatballs have finished cooking, you can either dip each meatball individually in the sauce mixture. Or you can pour the sauce over the meatballs and gently stir them until covered. 

serve warm, and sprinkle with additional garnish if desired.