Swedish-y Meatballs: the grown up version of Gramma's delight. That sounded bad.
So, as 30 approaches, I am finally understanding what people mean when when they say, “I can’t eat like I used to.” It’s true! On one hand, I will NEVER sacrifice flavor for the sake of a smaller belt notch, but on the other hand I am realizing that I simply can’t expect to eat the richest, cheesiest, creamiest dishes every night of the week and not feel like wearing my pajama pants to work everyday. So, in the spirit of compromise, I am researching ways to mimic my favorite rich dishes in a more healthy, non-artery clogging, heart-stopping way. It’s a lesson in food science.
Tonight I made one of my favorites: Swedish Meatballs. Traditionally, this dish comes with a few cans of Cream of Mushroom soup. Instead of that, I used milk, veggie broth, butter and flour. Add some nutmeg and all-spice and when I closed my eyes I was almost back at Gramma’s house eating meatballs and being called a schiester while Grampa cheats at a game of cribbage. Ah family.
I also used ground turkey instead of ground beef or pork.
Meatballs:
2 slices whole wheat bread, in small pieces (soaked in 1/2 c. milk)
2 lbs. ground turkey
2 eggs
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
nutmeg and allspice
Sauce:
3 T blsp butter
1/4 c. flour
1 c. milk
3 c. veggie/chx broth
spinach
nutmeg and allspice
Eats
TAT
What says comfort food like chicken pot pie?!? Biggest Loser AND chicken pot pies!!! One of my favorite food-ventures lately has been the chicken pot pies Sarah and I made for TAT #2. As you can see, they were out of this world.
Chicken Pot Pie: Chicken, peas, carrots, celery and delicious gravy (snatch that gravy up!) baked inside of a buttery crispy crust. YUM!
The recipe can be found on one of my favorite blogs, smittenkitchen, here http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/11/chicken-pot-pie/.
After a few attempts at figuring out how to make and affix dough to a tin foil mini pie tin, we got it down and now have a freezer full of the homemade food version of a mom hug. Yay.
Eats
TAT
Alyssa and I just got back from a little road trip down to chicago to take part in Santacon. Picture 200+ santas waltzing downtown chicago chanting “HO, HO, HO” and crawling from bar to bar indulging in more than their fair share of Holiday Cheer. It was a sight to be seen.
The really great part was the reaction we got from everybody the group passed on the street. There were a lot of honks, high fives and numerous photos with children.
Steph was an awesome host, and we really really can’t wait to make it back to Chicago to see the city properly. It was kindof a whirlwind weekend tour that just made us wanting more. So we will be back…oh yes, we will be back.
Next year, I think the plan is to hit up Santacon NYC!
Adventures
chicago
So last weekend was Dunchfest, my annual celebration of all things breakfast. This year was no let down. I think the highlight of my 20 course day-long meal was the mexican breakfast bake that Jenn brought, which had tons of cheese, eggs and cream of mushroom soup all together in a sloppy, delightful mess, and the mini-quiches on puff pastry made by yours truely. That’s not to mention, of course, the bloody mary bar and hot spiked cider, but that goes without saying.
Here are a few of the other highlights of the day…food wise:
Adventures
dunchfest
Poached egg on cheesy toast with truffle oil and tomatoes
Okay, so this was just over a week ago, and with Dunchfest and SantaCon and lots of other great adventures distancing myself from this wonderful brunch, I’ll just keep the details short and sweet and let the photos speak for themselves.
Alyssa woke me up the morning of my birthday last Saturday with promises for something wonderful for all of my senses, one of which was an incredible, delectable Saturday morning home cooked brunch. On the menu was pesto twice baked potatoes, lemon ricotta crepes with blueberry topping and bananas, and an amazing truffle-cheese toast with a poached egg. Seriously, I was in heaven.
Eats
brunch
Heirloom Tomatoes at The Wedge this summer.
As we now begin our voyage into that wonderful time of year that involves scraping our car windows in the morning and bundling up to go get the mail I thought I would pay hommage to the things that get me through the long winter days…. Heirloom Tomatoes! The Wedge had this pile of heirlooms this summer that brought a single tear to my eye. It was exotic. provocative and utterly mouth watering…. and yes, I AM talking about the tomatoes, not DP, who was also there. The other things that get me through winter are:
Charlie Brown Christmas Trees!
Sledding Wranglor
Hot Chocolate
Reading by the fire
Waking up to new snowfalls
Slippers, sweater and throw blankets
Snuggling up for movie marathons
Christmas Eve!!! FFF!!!
Snow Days
Opening our canned vegetbles
Tax Time…most days
Movie dates
Snow boots, scarves, mittens and hats
Blizzards
Christmas cards
Mariah Carey’s Christmas album
Ice Skating
NYC in the winter
Dunchfest
Hoodies
Soup on a cold day
Orgasm Heat (you know, when the sun is out and it warms up your car when you get in from the cold)
There are so many more things that make living in Minnesota during the 5 months of winter worth every moment. It brings together people of all walks of life in an endeavor to all survive and thrive to see another summer.
Adventures
Feta Cheese Stuffed Roasted Red Pepper and Rosemary Turkey Burgers with Crispy Prosciutto and Pesto Toppings with Rosemary Roasted Potatoes and Yellow Tomatoes with Cottage Cheese
Sarah instigated Tuesdays are Taken in an effort to never again let a whole week go by without seeing each other…we live under that same roof afterall! So for this season of TAT, we are watching The Biggest Loser and cooking anything and everything that will get us on that show eventually. Tonight we fired up the grill for these delicious turkey burgers. Tuesdays are Taken are also fast becoming the night of the week that I get to cook with meat. 🙂 These burgers were as good reheated as they were the night of. Turkey surprisingly makes great burgers and meatballs too! It has the same texture of ground beef, but seems to absorb the flavors of the complimentary ingredients better than beef. It also doesn’t feel like a greasy brick after scarfing it down.
Sarah gives the meal a “best burgers I’ve ever eaten, but didn’t like the prosciutto as much 8.7”
Alyssa gives it a “9.4 for the turkey burger surprise sneak attack and an extra point for the bacon… bacon always gets an extra point.”
Eats
Burgers, TAT, Turkey
Pickled Green Beans
When I woke up this morning I found a mountain, literally, of canned pickled green beans. With the help of Sarah and Nicki, we were able to can 22 jars of delicious organic spicy green beans, with the plan of giving them out for Christmas to our friends. At this point though, I’ll consider it a Christmas miracle if they last that long sitting on my counter. God they look amazing.
Absolutely gorgeous. The jars all stuffed and ready for the brine!
Brine, bring to a boil:
2.5 c. water
2.5 c. vinager
1/4 c. salt
Each jar had green beans, onions, julienned carrots, garlic cloves, thai and jalepeno peppers, dill, peppercorns and mustard seeds. MMM. Let’s hope we didn’t just brew a batch of botchulism….
Eats
Canning
