Several years ago I started reading another blogger – that’s listed down at the bottom of my webpage – one of my favorites – A Year From Oak Cottage. Marie writes two blogs now – that one that’s a little bit of everything about Marie’s life and some recipes – and the other one called The English Kitchen – where Marie shares recipes mostly about the good old-fashioned kind of home cooking she does. Marie used to work as a chef/cook at a big manor house and had interesting stories to tell about some of the food she cooked for the family, and about the cottage they lived in (obviously, called Oak Cottage) with their collie dog Jess. Marie and I emailed a bit and when we knew we were coming to visit England we happened to be driving right through Chester, where they live now.
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Here are the tastingspoons players. I’m in the middle (Carolyn). Daughter Sara on the right, and daughter-in-law Karen on the left. I started the blog in 2007, as a way to share recipes with my family. I’m still doing 99% of the blogging and holding out hope that these two lovely and excellent cooks will participate. They both lead very busy lives, so we’ll see.
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BOOK READING (from Carolyn):
Music of Bees, Eileen Garvin. Absolutely charming book about a woman in midlife, lonely, who raises bees, also makes unlikely friends. Heart-warming and very interesting about beekeeping.
A Postcard from Paris, Alex Brown. Really cute story. Dual time line, 1940s and present day about renovating an old apartment in Paris, things discovered.
Time of the Child, Niall Williams. Oh such a good book. Very small village in Ireland, 1960s. A baby is left on the doorstep. The town all whispers and helps. I listened to an interview of the author, which made me like him and his books even more.
Sipsworth, Simon Van Booy. If you like animals you’ll swoon. An old woman who really wants to die finds a tiny mouse in her house and befriends it and finds a reason to live. Utterly charming book.
The Forger’s Spell, Edward Dolnick. True story. For seven years a no-account painter named Han van Meegeren managed to pass off his paintings as those of Johannes Vermeer.
If You Lived Here, You’d be Home by Now, Christopher Ingraham. Could hardly put it down – about a journalist who takes on a challenge to move to small town in Minnesota and write about it. He expects to hate it and the people and place, but he doesn’t. Absolutely wonderful true story.
The River We Remember, William Kent Kreuger. 1950s, Minnesota. A murder and the aftermath. Could hardly put it down. Kreuger has such a vivid imagination and writing style.
How the Lights Gets In, Joyce Maynard. An older woman returns to New Hampshire to help care for her brain-injured son. Siblings and family, lots of angst and resentments.
The Filling Station, Vanessa Miller. Every American should read this book. A novelized retelling of the Tulsa massacre in 1921. Absolutely riveting.
The Story She Left Behind, Patti Callahan Henry. Love this author. Based on a true story. A famous author simply vanishes, leaving her husband and daughter behind. She had invented a mystical language no one could translate. Present day, someone thinks he’s solved the riddle, contacts the family. Really interesting read.
The Girl from Berlin, Ronald Balson. Love anything about Tuscany. An elderly woman is being evicted from a villa there, with odd deed provenance. Two young folks go there to help unravel the mystery. Loved it.
The Island of the Colorblind, Oliver Sacks, M.D. Nonfiction. The dr is intrigued by a remote Pacific island where most of the inhabitants are colorblind. He also unravels a mystery on Guam of people born with a strange neurological problem. Medical mysteries unveiled. Very interesting.
The Bookbinder, Pip Williams. Post 1914 London. Two sisters work at a bookbindery. They’re told to not read the books. One does and one doesn’t. One has visions beyond her narrow world; the other does not. Eventually the one gets into Oxford. Lovely story.
The Paris Express, Emma Donoghue. 1895 on a train to Paris, a disaster happens. You’ll delve into the lives of many people who survived and died in the crash.
A Race to the Bottom of Crazy, Richard Grant. This is about Arizona. Author, wife and child move back to Arizona where they once lived. Part memoir, research, and reporting in a quest to understand what makes Arizona such a confounding and irresistible place.
The Scarlet Thread, Francine Rivers. A woman’s life turned upside down when she discovers the handcrafted quilt and journal of her ancestor Mary Kathryn McMurray, a young woman who was uprooted from her home only to endure harsh frontier conditions on the Oregon Trail.
A Place to Hide, Ronald Balson. 1939 Amsterdam, an ambassador has the ability to save the lives of many Jewish children. Heartwarming.
Homeseeking, Karissa Chen. Two young Chinese teens are deeply in love, but in China. Then their families are separated. Jump to current day and the two meet again in Los Angeles.
North River, Pete Hammill. He always writes such a good story. A doctor works diligently healing people from all walks of life. His wife and daughter left him years before. One day his 3-yr old grandson arrives on his doorstep.
A Very Typical Family, Sierra Godfrey. A very messed-up family. Three adult children are given a home in Santa Cruz, Calif, but only if the siblings meet up and live in the house together. A very untypical scenario but makes for lots of messes.
Three Days in June, Anne Tyler. The usual Anne Tyler grit. Family angst. This wasn’t one of my favorites, but it was entertaining and very short.
Saved, Benjamin Hall. Author is a veteran war reporter. Ukraine, 2022, he nearly loses his life to a Russian strike. Riveting story – he survives, barely.
Grey Wolf, Louise Penny. Another Inspector Gamache mystery in Quebec. She is such an incredible mystery writer.
All the Colors of the Dark, Chris Whitaker. A missing person mystery, a serial killer thriller, a love story, a unique twist on each. Could hardly put it down.
Orbital, Samantha Harvey. Winner of 2024 Booker Prize. I don’t usually like those, but I heard the author interviewed and she hooked me. This is not a normal book with a beginning, a story and an end. It’s several chapters of the day in the life of various astronauts at the ISS (Int’l Space Station). All fictional. She’s been praised by several real astronauts for “getting it” about space station everyday life.
The Blue Hour, Paula Hawkins. An island off Scotland. Inaccessible except when the tide is out. Weird goings on. An artist. A present day mystery too.
Iron Lake, William Kent Krueger. A judge is murdered and a boy is missing. Riveting mystery.
Tell the Wolves I’m Home, Carol Ricks Brunt. 1980s. A 14-yr old girl loses her beloved uncle. Yet a new friendship arises, someone she never knew about.
Four Treasures of the Sky, Jenny Zhang. 1880s, a young girl is kidnapped in China and brought to the United States. She survives with many hurdles in the path.
The Boy Who Fell out of the Sky, Ken Dornstein. Memoir, 1988. The author’s brother died in the PanAm flight that went down in Lockerbie, Scotland. A decade later he tries to solve “the riddle of his older brother’s life.”
Worse Care Scenario, T.J. Newman. Oh my. Interesting analysis of what could/might happen if a jet crashed into a nuclear plant. Un-put-downable.
Song of the Lark, Willa Cather. Complicated weave of a story about a young woman in about 1900, who has a gifted voice (singing) and about her journey to success, not without its ups and downs.
Crow Talk, Eileen Garvin. Charming story which takes place at a remote lake in Washington State, about a few people who inhabit it, the friendships made, but also revolving around the rescue of a baby crow.
The Story Collector, Evie Woods. Sweet story about some dark secrets from an area in Ireland, a bit magical, faerie life, but solving a mystery too.
A Sea of Unspoken Things, Adrienne Young. A woman investigates her twin brother’s mysterious death. She goes to a small town in California to figure it out, to figure HIM out.
The King’s Messenger, Susanna Kearsley. 1600s England, King James. About one of his trusted “messengers,” and his relationship with a young woman also of “the court.” Lots of intrigue.
In the Shadow of the Greenbrier, Emily Matchar. Interesting mystery in/around the area of the famous resort in White Sulphur Springs, West Virginia.
Isola, Allegra Goodman. Hard to describe, survival story on an island in the 1600s.
Save the Date, Allison Raskin. Rom-com, witty, LOL funny. Clever.
The Sirens, Emilia Hart. Numerous time-lines, Australia. Mysteries abound, nightmares, abandoned baby, weird allergies.
Red Clay, Charles Fancher. LOVED this book. Mostly post-Civil War story about the lives of slaves in Alabama during Reconstruction.
Stars in an Italian Sky, Jill Santopolo. Dual time line, 1946 and recent time. Love stories and a mystery.
Battle Mountain, C.J. Box. Another one of Box’s riveting mysteries. Love his descriptions of the land.
Something Beautiful Happened, Yvette Corporon. A memoir of sorts in Greece, tiny island of Erikousa, where the locals hid Jews during WWII. All elusive stories told by the author’s grandmother.
The Jackal’s Mistress, Chris Bohjalian. 1860s Virginia, about a woman who saves the life of a Union soldier. Really good story.
Song of the Magpie, Louise Mayberry. Really interesting story about Australia back in the days when it was mostly a penal colony. Gritty strength of a woman trying to thrive with her farm.
The Boomerang, Robert Bailey. A thriller that will have you gripping the book. About a lot of secrets surrounding the president (fictional novel, remember) and his chief of staff and about cancer. A cure. Such a good story.
Care and Feeding, Laurie Woolever. Really interesting memoir of a woman driven to succeed in the restaurant business. She worked for Mario Batali and then Anthony Bourdain. Gritty stories.
Everything is Tuberculosis, John Green. Maybe not a book for everyone. A real deep dive into the deadly tuberculosis infection, its history. I heard the author interviewed and found the book very interesting.
The Book Lovers Library, Madeline Martin. Fascinating read about Boots’ drug stores’ lending library. And the people who worked in them.
The Arrivals, Meg Mitchell Moore. LOL funny, about a middle-aged couple whose children (and their various family members) return to the family home and the chaos that ensues.
My Life as a Silent Movie, Jesse Lee Kercheval. About grief. A big move to Paris, finding herself a new life with a new set of real blood family.
Escape, Carolyn Jessop. Another memoir about a woman really in bondage in Utah, Mormon plural marriage.
Tasting Spoons
My blog's namesake - small, old and some very dented engraved silver plated tea spoons that belonged to my mother-in-law, and I use them to taste my food as I'm cooking.
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Posted in Travel, on August 17th, 2010.
Yesterday (Monday) we checked out of our B&B in the outskirts of Windermere and drove down to the yacht basin and took a lovely cruise around Lake Windermere on a touristy kind of double decker boat. It was a glorious day. Perfectly sunny and warm. My DH so loves the water – not quite like the ocean which is his favorite – but a big lake is certainly a good substitute.
Another view from a different area of the lake. After our cruise we drove on south to Chester, and I’ll write up something about that part in another post.
Posted in Travel, on August 15th, 2010.
Distant view of Lake Windermere from atop the pass just east of it. A bit of haze in the air, but a lovely, sunny day.
A view from one of the narrow windy roads near Ullswater.
A lake near Ullswater. I risked life and limb to get across the busy road to take this picture.
A lovely, paved walkway near Rydall Water.
In California we don’t see much moss, so I’m always enchanted to find it alive and well all over England, tucked into the edges or rock walls.
The lovely garden at our B&B in Windermere. We’re off tomorrow to Chester.
Posted in Travel, on August 14th, 2010.
As I write this it’s Saturday morning and we’re in the Lake District, where we’ll be for three days. Yesterday we drove from Harrogate across the Yorkshire moors. What ruggedly gorgeous, green land. The pastures, the crooked rock wall fences, the grazing sheep and cattle. And the narrow, narrow roads. Our GPS routes us the most direct, not necessarily the highways, so often the voice will tell us to turn right onto a tiny little lane barely wide enough for one car, let along two cars passing. And we bumble along for 5 curvy miles hoping we don’t encounter a car. Most often we do. But the locals are kind and climb their own outside wheels up an embankment to allow us to pass. And they wave. And smile.
Yesterday (Friday) it rained nearly all day as we drove. Fortunately it was a light, but steady rain, otherwise I’d have been white-knuckling the steering wheel. When we drive back roads in England I’m a relatively slow driver (so we can ogle the scenery); on the more main highways the cars and trucks whiz along at high speed. The locals know every turning and bend so they line up behind me. I try to pull over to let them pass, but it’s difficult to find places to pull over. Once I turned left into a small farm lane, only to find that the big honking BMW that had been dogging my back bumper for miles turned down the same lane. Then I had to find another place to pull over. Finally did, while the BMW driver glared at me. I took only the one photo of the moors as it was steady rain nearly all day. That’ll be it for the Yorkshire Dales. I love the town and village names. Pately Bridge at Nidderdale. Shipton. Middle Hareham, That first one was a charming town full of tourists walking the narrow road, but it was raining so we decided not to stop. Rain doesn’t discourage the locals.
We did stop at Fountains Abbey along the way yesterday. It’s an ancient set of large ruins. Brilliant green with fresh grass and moss. Steeped in history. Here’s a collage of photos I took there. It was raining most of the time so the photos are a bit dark. It was a beautiful place, though.
The Lake District is a very popular tourist destination. Dave and I have been here before, nearly 20 years ago, but we stayed in a very lackluster B&B in an out-of-the-way village; too far from everything. That’s why it was cheaper, you know! This time I booked us into a place in Windermere. No lake view, but it’s a lovely place with a pleasant back garden. Today the weather is bright and shiny. But cold. I’m layering clothing because I didn’t bring a long-sleeved shirt. I have a light weight polyester jacket and a raincoat. Maybe I’ll have to go shopping for a warmer sweatshirt type jacket.Likely I’ll just make do.
Posted in Travel, on August 13th, 2010.
Some of you may recognize this – from Brideshead Revisited, the BBC program (and a 2008 movie). What a gorgeous place. One of England’s stately homes, this one not owned by the National Trust, but still owned and used by the Howard family. Half the home is open to the public for a fee (as seniors our tab was about 10 pounds each – $15). We visited some of the public rooms (reception rooms), saw plenty of beautiful historic art, sculpture, exquisite furniture. See photos below. The gardens are stunning.
My favorite room in the house was the library. Or maybe it was the room above with the little writing desk. Wish I could be invited to tea there one day.
Castle Howard is about 10-15 miles NE of the city of York. We had a beautiful day to drive, all back roads, some so narrow we had to climb the left wheels up the side in order to let cars pass. We love those kinds of English country lanes. The North Yorkshire moors are stunning.
Posted in Travel, Uncategorized, on August 11th, 2010.
If this isn’t a typical looking country inn of England, then I don’t know what is! Our flight was very nice – oh that first class stuff is something else. We both slept about 4-5 hours on the way over, arriving several hours late (took off 2 1/2 hrs late from LA too). I won’t tell you about the ticket snafu. Let’s just say we arrived fine, rented our car, and started driving. It always takes me an hour or so to adjust to driving on the other side of the road, but no mishaps so far. We arrived at this inn above, at Waddesdon, called the Five Arrows. We arrived late, but kindly they still were willing to feed us dinner. Delicious it was, too. We both had pork belly and I ordered the oh-so-lovely summer pud (layered bread in a small bowl with oodles of fresh berries and clotted cream. Off we went to bed.
The next morning we tried to tour the actual Weddesdon Manor, a National Trust home, but found it was closed on Mondays. Too bad! So we drove a ways and visited Claydon House (another National Trust house) instead. Lovely.
Then we zipped up the motorway and arrived near Nottingham about 4:30 pm. Our dear friend Dinny was expecting us. We went out to dinner that night to a lovely country inn called Langer Hall. Yesterday we spent hours and hours visiting, going into downtown Nottingham to buy a new battery for my camera (can’t believe I went off from home with it charging away in the kitchen near our all-packed bags). We visited Marks & Spencers too (Dave always buys his knickers at Marks & Sparks – he’s owned nothing but M&Ss knickers for about 28 years.) Bet you didn’t know that the Queen wears Marks & Spencer’s knickers. They are extremely well made – Dave still has the ones he bought 30 years ago and they’re holding up, albeit a little thin.
As I’m writing this we’ve driven north into Yorkshire. Maybe tomorrow I’ll share more photos of the Dales. We’re having fun. As I type, my DH is watching Robin Hood on television (how appropriate since we just left Nottingham). We’re about to go to dinner.
Posted in Travel, on August 8th, 2010.
No, I didn’t take that photo. Found it on the internet somewhere. But hopefully that’s about the same view I had today as my DH and I winged ourselves across the pond, as the saying goes, to Britain. On Sunday morning when this will appear, we’ll be there. We will have left Los Angeles yesterday if all went well. We’re going specifically to visit two friends of ours: one who lives in Nottingham (north central); the other in Cheltenham (west, near the Cotswolds).
Most of the B&Bs will have wi-fi, so once I figure out how to hook up my mini-laptop, using the proper cables, voltage converter (110 to 220) and wall plug, and log onto the wi-fi, I’ll be able to post while we’re away. How often, I don’t know. We’re going to be gone about 2 1/2 weeks, so I hope to give you some photos here and there. Our touring destinations include the Yorkshire Dales (James Harriott country), the Lake District (Beatrix Potter country) and Wales (where we’re going to one town called Hay-on-Wye which has no less than 32 used and antiquarian book stores). With the two visits to friends along the way. And hopefully one other visit to a blogging friend, which I’ll share about when I get there. We have reservations for dinner in London on our last night, at one of Jamie Oliver’s restaurants. We’re not staying in London at all this trip – we’ll stay our last night at a hotel at Heathrow and will take the train into the city for dinner. We have an early-morning departure, so we wanted to be close by and not have to fret about returning the car or having a foul-up with getting to the airport in a timely manner for our early morning flight. Anyway, our dinner in London hopefully will be good food – and fun. We’re looking forward to the entire trip, but also to the weather. The forecast is for highs about 70°, lows about 51°. Oh yes, and there will be rain.
If you’re a techie, in this high-tech day and age, it’s a feat to pack all the right cables, wires, plugs, adapters or converters for international destinations. In addition to my mini-laptop (with mouse and bulky power cable), I take my iPod too with earphones. My iPod puts me to sleep every night as I listen to podcasts that last about 15-30 minutes; I’d hate to be without it. It needs charging with its apple charging cable every 3-5 days. My Kindle will go with me too. I have about 30+ books loaded on it, so obviously I won’t be running out of reading material. But it needs a different kind of charging cable, required about once a week. And I’ll take the little light that attaches to the Kindle case so I can read at night when I’m wide awake with jet lag. I’m also taking my iphone (it’s a 3G with GSM, so it does work in Europe). I don’t plan to use my phone much at all, so it seems kind of senseless to take it, yet it would be very helpful if we need to make last-minute phone calls, or for family to reach us in an emergency. My AT&T calling plan doesn’t include England, of course, and the phone charges will be costly. I’ve been doing some reading online about international travel with an iphone, so I know as soon as we leave Los Angeles I need to turn off “data roaming,” otherwise my iphone will continue to ping for mail continuously (with fees). But if I’m connected to free wi-fi at our hotels, there won’t be any fees. Hopefully I’ll only use the phone once or twice. I have a regular plug charging cable, and I have one that will charge in the cigarette lighter in the car. I don’t want to take both. What a pain! And most of that won’t work unless you plug it into a British wall adapter (they use a bulky 3-prong plug) and the converter. Last trip I finally figured out I needed to use a stack of books to prop up the connecting pieces, otherwise they seem to fall off/out of the plug or out of the wall. And I don’t know about you, but sometimes in older hotels or B&Bs I’m crawling all over the floor trying to FIND the wall plugs. Usually they’re hiding behind furniture, behind desks, dressers, bedside tables. That happens here in the U.S. too, but it’s worse in most other foreign countries. All of that stuff will go with me in my rolling carry-on.
Then I’ll be taking my DSLR camera. It has a different connecting USB cable to plug into the mini-laptop so I can download pictures to it. And then the battery charger for the camera too. I may take my small point-and-shoot camera too. I can use the same download cable, but I must take a different battery charger. If I want to take photos in restaurants I’m embarrassed to whip out my big DSLR, but I can take pictures somewhat unobtrusively with the small one. We’re renting a car with a GPS. Even though I’m very good at directions, and have always adapted well to driving on the other side of the road (I’ll likely do most of the driving), a GPS is such an easier way to get places. Oh my.
So, here’s what’s going in my carry-on. I’m packed and ready to go, so thought you’d get a kick out of seeing what’s going with me – or you’re shaking your head now, knowing I’ve gone off the deep end.
The only things NOT in this picture are my iphone and my DSLR camera which I used, of course, to take the picture! Am I crazy, or what?
About six years ago we bought a new BMW (for me) and we picked it up at the factory in Munich. What a fun experience that was. And the guy who gave us the lecture about all the car’s features, programmed into the GPS our first night’s hotel in Austria and our last night’s lodging in Amsterdam, AND, the location where we had to leave the car for shipping across the sea. Anyway, we had such fun with the GPS. After a couple of nights in Austria, we went over the snow-covered pass to Italy for a couple of weeks. I cannot begin to tell you how great that GPS was for getting around on small country roads or big cities in Italy. We did have to buy the European GPS DVD, though. Because we bought the car in Germany we named the GPS woman’s voice, Trudi. And oh, did Trudi ever save us many times. Every time we’ve traveled since, we either drive my car, or we rent a GPS to go with the rental car.
I feel like half my bag will be filled with tech stuff. When we travel, we travel light. Our idea of good, efficient packing is one roll-aboard each (27 inches), although ours are too wide to fit under the seats. But they’re much smaller than most people use. And I also take a carry-on that happens to be a rolling/pulling type. That’s where all that gear up above will go.
My DH, meanwhile, isn’t taking his phone. Or a computer. Or an iPod. Or a camera. He doesn’t use any other electronic devices. He rarely even looks at his email when we’re home and he has his own computer. Maybe I’ll be able to con him into storing all of the cables and chargers. Do you think? Probably not. Dave’s suitcase is always much lighter than mine. I’m the one who does all the travel planning, gathering all the documents we need. Sometimes I can get him to pack the maps. But I carry on my package of data with all the supporting documents for our flights, our hotel reservations, directions where I thought we might need them. I am taking one book, a tour book – a new one I bought – even though we’ve been to England about 10 times. I also carry more toiletries than he does, including cuticle scissors, regular small fold-up scissors, my hair dryer, curling iron and one pair of extra shoes. Maybe two this time.
Dave, for those of you who are new readers, has two artificial legs (amputation below the knee on both legs from diabetes/poor circulation). Unless he must change shoes to dress up, or work on the boat, he wears the same shoes for weeks. The socks don’t smell since there’s a plastic/foam foot shape in the shoe. Obviously, his feet don’t sweat. He hates changing shoes because it takes a minimum of 20 minutes to do so. (I know, I can hear you say what? Yes, it’s true, it’s very time consuming to change shoes on an artificial leg, and he has two of them. Just trust me on this one.) Consequently he wears just one pair of shoes when we travel – a pair that can be both casual and a little bit dressier. Mostly it’s his boat loafers (Sperry’s) since my DH has been a life-long sailor. He doesn’t take a sport coat or suit, and may only take one jacket plus a rain jacket. He likes traveling in shorts because it’s far easier to fly – and perhaps take off his legs – if he wears shorts. We’re using up all of our old frequent flyer miles for this trip. We managed to book first class going over, but we didn’t have enough miles to do it both ways. We wanted coach both ways, but there were none to be had several months ago when we booked this trip. So that’s why we’re going over first class (with the seats that flatten out to sleep on). And we’ll be sardines on the return. I almost think it’s a mistake to ever fly first class, because then you want to fly that way every time. It spoils you, big time. So watch for scenes from merry olde England.
Posted in Cookies, on August 7th, 2010.
Why, oh why, did I wait so long to make these cookies? My friend Ann N. (I have several friends named Ann, with a few having shared recipes with me – this is the first Ann N recipe on my blog) gave me this recipe a year or so ago, after she served them at one of our book club meetings. I thought then – as I do now – these are just great cookies.
They get toasty brown from the molasses. They have bold (the molasses) and subtle (ginger and cinnamon) flavors. I just love these cookies. They bake up ultra-thin. I like that too, about them. Each cookie is about 89 calories. Anytime a cookie is less than 100 calories I’m happy!
Posted in Desserts, on August 5th, 2010.
SO refreshing! Wonderful flavor. Funny that I never make sorbet. Only because sorbets tend to be more sugar laden than ice cream, and since my DH is a Type 1 diabetic, I try not to serve him things that are so high in sugar. But when we were served this sorbet as a palate cleanser between courses at dinner a few weeks ago at The Lodge at Torrey Pines, and the waiter procured the recipe for us, I just had to make some. We’ll just eat it in very small portions.
Posted in Beef, on August 3rd, 2010.
I know, it seems like altogether the wrong season for Swedish meatballs and noodles. It’s not important why, but I needed to make these now. In the summer heat! On one hand I can count the number of times I’ve made them – I’ve always liked them, but just never seemed to do it. That’s fixed now, with a good recipe to refer to.
My DH would tell you if he were writing this, that I made a heck of a lot of dirty dishes. Bowls, pots, pans, measuring cups, spoons and utensils. More than seemed necessary, but I don’t know how I could have cut down. And the making of the meatballs wasn’t difficult, although a bit tedious, as meatballs can be. The onions needed to be cooked some before they went into the meat, breadcrumb, egg and spice mixture. The meatballs were formed (I got about 45 of them) and I decided to make these in an electric frypan, recommended in one of the recipes I referred to. I have a big, oval one and all 45 meatballs fit into it, just barely. They were cooked at 250° for about 10-12 minutes, I’d guess, turning them once. When you cook at that temp, it barely sizzles. But they cook eventually, with no popping and spattering. That part was nice!
About three recipes were consulted in the making of this dish. I liked things from all three, so just incorporated them all into one. Part from Alton Brown at the Food Network, plus two cookbooks I have here at home. The sauce was made with butter and flour, beef broth, then at the end I added in a little tiny bit of heavy cream and some light sour cream. Noodles were boiled, drained, and into a bowl it all went with a little bit of the sauce drizzled over everything. And some parsley sprinkled on top. Altogether delicious, even if it was 85° today.
Swedish Meatballs
Recipe By: Adapted for two different recipes.
Serving Size: 8
Notes: Serve as a main course with buttered noodles, or make smaller meatballs and serve as appetizers.
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
1/2 pound bulk sausage — or ground veal
1/2 cup yellow onion — minced
2 large eggs — beaten
1 cup fresh bread crumbs
1/3 cup milk
1 teaspoon salt freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon dried dill weed
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
3 cups beef stock — or canned beef broth
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup light sour cream
3 tablespoons Italian parsley — minced
1 pound egg noodles
1. In a large bowl, mix meats and onion. Add eggs, bread crumbs, milk and seasonings. Mix well with a large spoon or your hands. Cover and refrigerate for one hour (for easier handling).
2. Shape meat mixture into 1-inch balls and arrange in a cold electric frypan. The 1 1/2 pounds of meat will make about 45 meatballs. Turn on frypan to 250° and cook the meatballs uncovered for 8-12 minutes, turning once, until the meatballs are just cooked through. Alternately you can place the raw meatballs on a rimmed baking sheet and bake for 30 minutes at 350°. Remove meatballs and set aside.
4. In the frypan, turned to low, add the butter and melt. Add the flour and stir vigorously to dissolve any lumps with a whisk. If necessary add a small quantity of the beef sstock to the mixture to smooth it out, then add the remaining liquid all at once. Bring to a low simmer and cook for 5-10 minutes until the mixture is thickened. Taste for seasonings (will need salt and pepper), turn to low and add the cream and sour cream. Stir to combine, then add the meatballs. Cover the frypan and heat the mixture on low for about 10 minutes, until the meatballs are thoroughly warmed through.
5. Meanwhile, cook the egg noodles in salted water. When they’re just barely cooked through (al dente) drain and spoon servings onto plates or wide soup bowls. Add the meatballs and drizzle enough of the cream sauce to moisten all the noodles lightly. Sprinkle the top with chopped parsley and serve immediately.
Per Serving: 660 Calories; 37g Fat (51.0% calories from fat); 30g Protein; 49g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 201mg Cholesterol; 1383mg Sodium.
A year ago: Blueberry Pumpkin Muffins
Two years ago: Peach Pudding Cake
Three years ago: Pineapple Upside Down French Toast
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