Dr Pepper Meatballs

T    Two of Gene's favorite eaty drinky things in the whole world are meatballs and BBQ.  One of my favorite things in the whole eaty drinky world is Dr. Pepper.  Yep, prune juice drinkers unite!  (Actually, that's a myth. Dr. Pepper is beloved even if it did have prune juice as its base but it does not. Too bad. We could drink it and pretend to be healthy.)  What do you get when you put all three of those eaty drinky things together?  Dr. Pepper Meatballs.  Which is three words that equal the three-lettered word:  YUM!

One of the great things about this recipe, aside from its deliciousness, is how customizable it is.  Don't feel like making meatballs by hand?  Use bagged ones from the grocery.  Don't like Sweet Baby Rays BBQ sauce?  We can't be friends. Just kidding! (Although it is my absolute favorite bottled BBQ sauce)  Feel free to substitute your favorite.  Don't need 24 meatballs? Freeze half.  Need 48 meatballs? Double the recipe.  You see what I mean, here.  It really is a jack-of-all-trades recipe.  We eat it over mashed potatoes, over sautéed zucchini and rice, by itself as appetizers.  You really can't go wrong with Dr. Pepper Meatballs and the recipe is very easy to make. The sauce comes together in a flash and the longest time spent is all about how fast you can make meatballs by hand.  I use a Pampered Chef cookie scoop to make the balls even but if you don't have one, a little diversity in size never hurt anything.  And let me tell you, not only will the spouse love these, the kids are going to love the idea of them so much they'll want to help make the sauce.