July 2010

Hello

This is the first post on my new blog. I hope to update it more than the old blog. I've also tried to resurrect some of the posts off of my old blog.

Scott and I at a Cubs Game

My brother and I at a Cubs game.

Swedish Meatballs

There are almost as many recipes for Swedish meatballs as there are Swedish amateur chefs. The three main types are (1) small, fried, served without sauce; (2) large, fried, served in brown gravy; (3) medium size, boiled, served in sauce. The present recipe is a very simple version of type-1 meatballs, a chil drens favourite.
Ingredients

* 500 grammes (1 lb) ground beef
* 1 small onion
* 1 egg
* 1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
* vegetable oil (for frying)
* salt, pepper

Proceed as follows -

1. Finely grate or chop the onion.
2. Mix the ground beef, the onion, the egg and the bread crumbs. Add some white pepper and salt to taste.
3. Form into 30 walnut-size meatballs.
4. Heat 2 tbsp of vegetable oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Sauté the meatballs in two batches until browned on all sides and cooked through (approximately ten minutes).

 

Pierogis

Potato and Cheese Filling
10# Baking Potatoes - peeled, cubed, boiled a nd mashed (save water for dough)
8# Farmer's cheese
1 pt sour cream
salt & pepper to taste

• Combine mashed potatoes, farmer's chees e, sour cream, salt and pepper in large bowl
• Shape into balls using 1 3/4" ice cream scoop or roll by hand into 1 1/4" balls

Dough
1 stick margarine - melted 4 large eggs - beaten 3/4 C Milk 1-1/2 C Potato Water - st ir in sediment 1t salt 8 c flour

• beat eggs in mixer bowl with whisk. A dd melted margarine, milk, potato water & salt.
• Change to paddle beater and add 4 c flour. Beat until smooth.
• divide batter in half.
• Change t o dough hook and add enough remaining flour to half of batch so dough does not s tick to hands repeat with other half of batter. Dough should be refrigerated for several hours or overnight to make it easier to handle.
• Pat out a piece of dough and put through pasta machine on thickest setting
• Reduce thickness u ntil pierogis do not break when boiled (trial and error)
• cut dough into cir cles - approx 3 3/4" dia. using cookie or biscuit cutter (or lid of jar)

Note - about 3 batches of dough needed for 10# raw potatoes used in filling. Assemble dough & filling by putting scoop of filling in center of each circl e, folding dough over and pinch edges to seal.

Cool in boiling water app roximately 1 minute after pierogis rise to surface.
Coat with melted marg arine and refrigerate or freeze until ready for use.
Thaw and fry until golden brown. Serve with mushroom gravy of desired.
Yields about 200 to 250 pierogis

Spinach Balls

2 10oz boxes of frozen chopped spinach 
2 cups stove top stuffing 
1 stick margerin melted 
1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
2 eggs 
4 onion very finely chopped (Optional)

Mix melted butter with stuffing mix and add enough warm water to slightly soften but not make mushy (about 1/4-1/2cup)
Slightly beat eggs
Mix everything together
Form balls (about 1")
Bake at 350 for 15-20 mins.

What I did at your place on Thanksgiving was with 1 of your bags of spinach (I don't know how much it was) I reduced the other ingredients to

1-1/2 cups stuffing mix
1/2 stick margering 
1 egg 
1/2 cup cheese