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Recipes: Swedish Meatballs

Aug17

Vickie’s Swedish Meatballs
I love this dish. My Dad made this when I was in my teens, but I always felt something was missing. A friend of mine invited me for dinner and he cooked this dish based on his Mom’s family recipe.

Over the years I’ve altered both those recipes to my family’s taste. Out went the green peppers, in went a few spices. Out went the soy sauce and in went the Worcestershire sauce.

You can make the meatballs from scratch, or use store bought meatballs. And it doesn’t matter what kind of pasta noodles you use either. We like egg noodles in this dish, but fettuccine works well too.

Ingredients

  • Pasta Noodles
  • 30 oz. Meatballs – fresh or store bought (thawed)
  • 1⁄2 cup Diced Onion
  • 1 tblspoon butter
  • 1 cup beef stock
  • 1 cup heavy cream
  • 3 tblspoons all-purpose flour
  • 1 tblspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1⁄2 teaspoon rosemary
  • Do NOT add salt – there’s enough salt in the beef stock.

Directions

  • Fill a medium sauce pot, with warm water and noodles. How many noodles is up to you. But you’ll need at least 1 cup. I like to add a tab of butter to the water, but that’s optional. Cook over medium heat until tender.
  • In a large skillet, melt butter and saute the chopped onion.
  • Half-way through the saute, add the meatballs. You want to brown the balls before you add the liquid ingredients.
  • Once the meatballs have cooked, add the flour to the mix and allow it to soak up any left over butter or grease from the meat. Stir the flour until it clumps.
  • Next add the Worcestershire, heavy cream and beef stock. Stir until the flour has melted into the liquid and starts to thicken.
  • Add the pepper and rosemary. Stir frequently until the sauce has thickened to your preference.
  • Drain the cooked noodles and add them to the skillet mix. Stir and let sit over medium heat for 5 minutes.
  • Serve hot.

Alternatives

  • My friend’s mom liked to add green peppers to her sauce. I wasn’t a fan. But if you like that sort of thing, slice a green pepper into long strips and add them to the skillet when you add the liquid ingredients. Cook the mix for an extra 10 minutes, Before you add the noodles.
  • You can use Soy sauce instead of Worcestershire. It significantly changes the flavor of the sauce.
  • You can add Thyme to the mix when you add the Rosemary.

Serve

  • Serve Hot
  • Serve with fresh warmed Italian bread slices.

© 1997-2018 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D., Springwolf's Kosmos. All Rights Reserved.
© 1997-2021 Springwolf, D.D., Ph.D., Springwolf’s Creations. All Rights Reserved.

Recipes: Beef or Chicken Burritos

Apr29

Vickie’s Beef or Chicken Burritos – with White Queso
As we’ve gotten older, really hot food has become a problem. Especially for me. But we still love Mexican food. So we’ve come up with alternative recipes for our favorite dishes. This is one of those recipes. Of course you can make a few alterations to this recipe and hotten it up for those in your house who like spicy food.

This is just my quick and easy burritos with White Queso sauce. To make this a big family meal, think about adding some Spanish rice on the side.

Aidan’s White Queso Sauce  Continue reading →

Recipes: White Queso

Apr29

Aidan’s White Queso Sauce/Dip
One of our favorite restaurants in the Richmond Virginia area is Mexico Palace. The Spotsylvania store was our local branch. The folks there are always friendly, efficient and the food is great!

Now that we live in NC, our son has turned his hand to duplicating their White Queso dip. It’s great as a dip or a white sauce over burritos, enchiladas or whatever Mexican dish you enjoy. This is his current version of their Queso. Even if it’s not exactly theirs, it’s really really good!

Use as a White Sauce for Beef Burritos.

Preparation Time: 20 min
Makes 2 cups Continue reading →

Recipes: Roast Beast Stew

Jan16

Vickie’s Roast Beast Stew

Ever since I was a little kid, I’ve loved the Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Especially the ending when the Grinch is serving the ‘roast beast’ for dinner. The name was the inspiration for my own roast beef concoction. A delectable beef stew to calm any beastly appetite.

This slow cooked roast beast is best prepared in a large crock pot and cooks over night. There’s little you need to do during the slow cook. But boy does it fill the house with a delectable aroma. I think it’s perfect for those cold snowy days, when you crave something warm in your tummy. And it’s easy to make, which leaves more time for sledding and snowball fights.

Preparation time:

  • 20 minutes to prepare, but you’re going to cook it in a crock-pot for 12 to 18 hours. That means starting the cook time early in the morning to have it ready for dinner.
  • Or the easier method, start preparation at 9pm, cook it over night until dinner the next day.
  • If you use the over night method, you’ll have to check it several times during the day to add water.

Continue reading →

Recipes: Cracked Pepper Roast Beef

Jan16

GrandMa Sandy’s Cracked Pepper Roast Beef

A perfect recipe to stick to your bones on a cold winters day. This roast dish has a French flair with the base being Aus Jus. You can make the sauce from scratch, or use Sandy’s option and purchase a package of McCormick Aus Jus.

Sandy preferred to make this roast in a pressure cooker. But through the years, she opted for an easier method and prepared this dish in a crock pot instead.

I recommend the crock pot as well. It’s less dangerous. If you’ve ever been around a pressure cooker that exploded, you’ll understand. Hmm, I wonder what happened to my Mom’s pressure cooker. I believe it went missing after an explosion incident, and that’s when the crock pot appeared. Continue reading →

Recipes: Swedish Meatballs

Dec20

Papaw’s Swedish Meatballs

Papaw’s Swedish Meatballs
When I was a teenager, my Dad started doing a lot of cooking on the weekends. I don’t know if he was just giving my Mom a break. Or if he simply had more time to do the simple things in life. I mostly remember my Dad working the Night Shift and sleeping during the day.  Of course his weekends were usually reserved for Golf.  Until the late fall and winter.

One of those winter weekend meals was what he called Swedish Meatballs. I wrote this recipe down one Saturday when I was helping to make dinner. Actually he told me to come make the meatballs, after he tossed everything into a big mixing bowl. Pretty sure he didn’t need the help. He just wanted someone else to get their hands into mixing and kneading the meat together with the eggs. Come on, what kid didn’t like playing in the mud and squishing the goop between your fingers. Cooking like this is the same thing. You just get to say you’re cooking, instead of playing in the goop.

Preparation Time:
20 minutes preparation,
30+ minutes cooking time Continue reading →

Recipes: Traditional Meatloaf

Dec1

Mamaw’s Meatloaf

Mamaw’s Traditional Meatloaf
When I was young, my Mom worked. In my neighborhood, she was the only working Mom at the time. She was a Nurse that had started out her career in the ER. Tough job! But she still found time for all 3 of her girls.

Every now and then, she would make a quick dinner. There were various versions of that, but my favorite was her Meatloaf. I don’t know if there’s anything special or unusual about the way she made it. She did tell me once when I asked to help make it, that she makes it the way her Mom taught her. But instead of using the spices and herbs from scratch, she simplified that seasoning with a packaged version.

When I asked her to teach me how she made it with my Grand Mother, she checked the pantry and thankfully we had all the traditional seasoning to give it a go. So this is her from scratch recipe. I still like it. Continue reading →

Recipes: Smothered Beef Bites

Dec1

Smothered Beef Bites

Vickie’s Smothered Beef Bits

Quick and easy to fix. Have you ever opened the freezer and tried to decide what to have for dinner? That’s how this recipe came about.

It was too cold to run out to the store. So we gathered what we had at home and threw something together that warm everyone up. While feeding that need for something different.

Of course here in the south, gravy goes with everything. And this dinner is no exception.

It’s a simple beef and gravy dish, served perfectly with potatoes and your favorite veggies. Continue reading →

Recipes: Race Time Meatballs

Dec1

Vickie’s Race Time Meatballs

Vickie’s Race Time Meatballs 

My sister makes great meatballs for Sunday game time. But in our house, the summer and early fall is time for NASCAR!

I’ve taken her Game Time Meatballs recipe and tweaked it a little to meet the taste of my Boys. Our version is more of a barbecue recipe that’s sweeter and hotter than my sisters. And we’ve played with the flavor of the meatballs a tiny bit too. Our version is also a bit darker on the table, because of the barbecue. So if you’re one of those folks who sets a table for contrasting colors, keep that in mind.

Like her Meatballs, you can serve our version in a bowl or fashion them into a sub with your favorite fixings. You can also cut them into quarters after cooking and turn them into a chunky dip for your favorite chips. And of course they’re always good with a warm corn muffin too! Continue reading →

Recipes: Game Time Meatballs

Dec1

Pam’s Meatballs

Pam’s Game Time Meatballs 

My sister makes the best meatballs for Sunday game time. Whither it’s football or in our house NASCAR racing, these meatballs make for a great addition to any coffee table feast!

Several times during football season you could walk into the house and be greeted by a wondrous smell of barbecue and fresh baking bread. You can have them in a bowl, on a sub or slice them up and try them as a dip with your favorite Tostitos chips.

If you’re interested in a more barbecue version of meatballs, try my Race Time Meatballs.

How ever you like your meatballs, you’ll like these! Continue reading →