Welcome to the fourth A Homemade Christmas! This is week Four of Ten (you don’t have to enter in each one). I hope you’ll join us in sharing about homemade gifts that you have received or made — past, present, and future!
You can click here for the Introductory post.

Four years ago for Christmas I received a gift that I will cherish for the rest of my life. It was a binder filled with my favorite recipes. Momma spent hours putting it together each night after Breezy and I went to bed. I was so happy to receive it.

The book is a white three-ring binder. She made a cover for it that says, “Emily’s Recipes” with a clip art picture of a loaf of bread beneath it. Inside are plastic sheet protectors that are filled with typed out recipes (a few are handwritten as well).

One of the best things about it is the fact that I can continue to add more recipes to it. It is like a continual gift. It is used in our kitchen now, and will be used in the kitchen of my future home.

Last year, I wrote this about one of the recipes:

Happy Tears for Christmas

There once was a little girl, she had a Godly Christian family. A wonderfully caring father, a dear mother, and sweet big sister.

This little girl was a people person.

If her mother was in the kitchen, she’d be right along side her, helping and watching her every move, so that one day she would know how to cook for her own family.

She enjoyed asking “what’s for dinner?” and if she was asked what she wanted for dinner, she would probably reply, “Barbecued Meatballs.”

One year for Christmas her mother decided to give her a cookbook, with all of her daughter’s favorite recipes.

When the young girl opened the present on Christmas morning, she was overjoyed. And when she turned the page, tears came to her eyes. At the top of the page was written, “Barbecued Meatballs.”

Since that recipe has so many memories wrapped around it, I would like to share it with you.

Barbecued Meatballs

PREHEAT: 350°  |  BAKE: 1 hour  |  MAKES: 80 meatballs

Meatballs:

3 lbs. ground beef
1 12oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup cracker crumbs
2 eggs
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
2 tsp. chili powder

Sauce:

2 cups ketchup
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp. liquid smoke
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 cup chopped onion

To make meatballs, combine all ingredients and shape into walnut-size balls. Place meatballs in a single layer on wax paper-lined cookie sheets; freeze until solid. Store frozen meatballs in freezer bags until ready to cook.

To make sauce, combine all ingredients and stir until sugar is dissolved.

Place frozen meatballs in a 9×13 baking pan; pour on the sauce. Bake at 350° for 1 hour.

These can be baked in any amount, just adjust your sauce recipe accordingly.

Have you made or received any homemade gifts? If you’d like to make a post about your homemade gifts, you can sign Mr. Linky below. You can add one of my Homemade Christmas icons to your blog by clicking here. Each Thursday (until the end of December) there will be A Homemade Christmas post! Hope you’ll join in the fun as we learn, inspire, and encourage one another!

A Homemade Christmas Participants

1. Tina 2. Emily 3. Robin @ Robin\’s Egg Blue

4. maralena 5. Elastigirl 6. BreezyTulip

7. SchoolinRhome 8. Becca

Filed In: A Homemade Christmas, Cooking, Crafts, Family, Femininity, Foods, Future Home, Holidays, Home, Homemaking, Hopechest, Inspirations, Memories, Recipes, Stories