I blame my sister for this column. Well, only a little bit. You see, we were eating Thanksgiving dinner at my grandmother’s with the family and she mentioned how she missed eating grandmother’s homemade meatballs. It got me thinking that I did too, and ever since then I’ve been craving them. 

I know how to make my grandmother’s meatballs, but it requires a few hours and slow cooker, neither of which I had this week. I did order a new crockpot on Black Friday, but it didn’t arrive on schedule, so I needed to cook my meatballs in another way. 

As it just so happened, another way came calling in the form of a sale at Target on another of my favorite foods, King’s Hawaiian Rolls. Those rolls are rarely on sale on Target, so I snatched them up and grabbed some precooked meatballs and decided to make sliders. 

Sliders are genuinely so easy to make because it’s just layering. Before you start layering your meatball sliders though, you gotta do two things first. First you have to cook some meatballs, either from scratch or according to package directions. Then you have to cut the buns in half like you would to make a sandwich. The bottoms of the buns will be your base, and the tops will hold it all together. 

After that, all you need to do is pour some sauce over the bottoms, put a meatball on each bun, add a little more sauce and some cheese and put the bun tops on. To give it a little extra meatball dinner feel, you can brush the tops of the buns with a mixture of olive oil, parmesan cheese and italian seasoning. 

They take only 20 minutes to bake, but you have to remember to remove the tin foil covering after 10 minutes. When they’re done, you’ll have about a dozen mini meatball subs to enjoy. Share them with friends at your next football party or keep them for yourself as a few days’ worth of lunch. No matter what, you now have a way to enjoy meatballs without having to go through the hassle of preparing the usual meatball and pasta meal. 

What you’ll need:

• 12 pack of rolls 
• 12 meatballs, cooked
• 2 cups of pasta sauce 
• 2 cups of shredded cheese (mozzarella) 
• 3 tablespoons of parmesan cheese 
• 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning 
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil 

How to make it:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  
2. Cut buns in half and place bottom half in a casserole dish.
3. Cover bottom layer of buns with 1 cup of pasta sauce. 
4. Put a meatballs on each bun.  
5. Add the other cup of sauce on top of meatballs.  
6. Cover with cheese
7. Place remaining half of buns on top
8. Combine oil and parmesan cheese and seasoning in a small bowl.  
9. Brush mixture over bun tops. 
10. Cover with tin foil and bake for 10 minutes. 
11. Take tin foil off and bake for 10 more minutes. 
12. Enjoy!