A Crabmeat and Cheese Po'boy, known locally as a Vancleave Special, is made with seasoned, thin crab patties, served on po'boy bread with mayonnaise, cheese, shredded lettuce, sliced tomatoes and pickles. Add a cup of gumbo and a cold Barq's root beer in the bottle.

Crabmeat and Cheese Po'boy

It rained long yesterday, ahead of a cold front that will be bringing some welcomed lower humidity and temperatures for a day or three again. I love a good rainy day though, especially now that I work from home and don't have to make that 60-mile, round trip commute on a dangerous interstate highway.

Honestly, with a legal career that was already stressful enough, the stress started well before I got there with that drive most days. It was a fine paying job, and I really enjoyed my work until Hurricane Katrina took it away, but honestly, there are so many things that I really don't miss about it anymore.

Meaty, garlicky, beef and pork meatballs served on po'boy or sandwich rolls, dressed with a Creole sauce made from The Trinity and tomatoes, and topped with shredded Mozzarella cheese.

Creole Meatball Po'boy

Seriously, who doesn't love a good meatball? I have a stand-by, no-frills, meatball recipe that I've been using since the beginning of time, but when I had the chance to review Emeril's newest cookbook, Sizzling Skillets, awhile back, I saw this gargantuan beef and pork meatball he had in there for a recipe called Big Boy Meatballs and Spaghetti. You can see those pictured in my sneak peek review post with the Chicken Sauce Piquante I featured back in October. The meatballs looked and sounded so good, I knew that I had to give them a spin, well, with my own spin on them of course!

The original recipe was very heavy on garlic, like 12 cloves heavy, or what would amount to 1/4 cup of minced garlic. While I do love me some garlic, I just had a feeling that would be way more garlic than even this girl could handle, so I cut that way back. As the meatballs were baking, a very distinct smell of garlic filled the house, and so, I was sure glad I did! One tablespoon provided more than enough garlic flavor, and, in fact if you are not a big garlic fan, feel free to reduce that even further. On the other hand, if you're adventurous, hey, go all full out with garlic gusto I say!

Although I chose to oven bake the meatballs, you can certainly pan fry them - you'll need between 2 and 3 tablespoons of olive oil or a vegetable oil. I also rolled mine to get an even twelve meatballs, four for each po'boy, but you can roll them larger or smaller, depending on what you intend to use them for. In fact, these will make amazing, little slider bites for the Super Bowl game this weekend. Men will love them for their meatiness, women will love them because they are small and a little neater to eat than say, a whole meatball sandwich, which I will tell you I certainly did eat. For party po'boys, just put the meatballs on individual pistolette rolls or use small dinner rolls, dress them in the same manner and I think you'll have a winner on your hands!