5+++ The meatballs and the sauce were delicious. I realized half way into making the sauce I didn't have any pineapple and didn't have time to go the the store. I therefore improvised...I watered down some lemon juice and amazingly it was extremely tasty.

I had made this once before following recipe to a T and it turned out great. Today I decided to try it again. I did a couple of changes due to availability of certain items, and a couple of tweaks of my own. I sauteed the veggies in a little bit of butter, but no way near 1/2 c., I think that is excessive. I also added a pinch of the Creole Seasoning Blend (made according to the recipe and I highly recommend you use this rather than store bought) to the sauteeing veggies and it added just the right hint of taste to them. Used 2 cans of diced tomatoes (easier than breaking up whole ones), followed the rest of the recipe. But as far as meats go, I used a rotisserie chicken bought at our grocery's deli, used fully cooked chicken sausage with garlic and herbs (can't find andouille in these parts), 3 large ham steaks, fully cooked already, just sliced them up, and kept the frozen shrimp. I put some of the recipe w/o the shrimp (son-in-law allergic) in a separate casserole dish, and the rest fit into a large roasting pan (an All Clad turkey roasting pan without the rack) However I found out while cooking the roasting pan jambalaya was no where near as hot (temp wise) as the smaller casserole I'm presuming due to the thickness of the pan. It worked better with a tin foil roaster I bought in the grocery store. The rice cooked up beautifully, I did not have a problem with it at all. I did put the shrimp in right at the beginning as they were still partially frozen, they tasted fine, n

Nice Change of pace. I would suggest only using half of an onion though. I ended up adding another 1/2 cup of rice to it and it was still a little TOO onion-y.