Swedish Meatballs

I don't know why these are called "Swedish" - this recipe was given to me by Hubby's mother, whose parents were from Norway.  One Christmas break, she made these and sent them with us as we headed back to the college apartment.  I knew I had to have the recipe as Hubby-to-Be's eyes would glaze over as he ate them.  They are a great way to use up some of the Christmas ham* and go so good with cabbage and black eyed peas!

 Assemble about a pound of leftover ham, a pound or so of ground pork, 2 eggs, a cup or so of dry seasoned bread crumbs, brown sugar, vinegar, and dry mustard.

 I don't own a food processor, so I pulse the ham in a blender in batches.  Works fine!

Mix the finely minced ham with the pork, eggs, bread crumbs.  Have a little milk handy if the mixture is too dry - mainly this depends on how much bread crumbs you have - I only had a cup or so, but you could always use more.

 Form into large meatballs and place in a deep casserole dish.  Then mix your sauce ingredients:

About 1/4 cup each water and vinegar, with 1 cup brown sugar and 1 T. dry mustard.  Pour over the meatballs and place in 375 oven.  Bake for one hour, basting with the sauce every 15 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, you could be making your sides.

The picture does not do them justice.  The sauce gets a deep caramel color and is so good spooned over the ham balls.  They are a family tradition here; one I'm sure will continue as the years go by.  

Happy New Year, everyone!

Gina

*Don't forget to use the ham bone as the basis for the best pot of beans your crock pot ever made!

File this away for next New Year's!

Faux pas birthday rum cake

I got this recipe from Pioneer Woman for a rum cake - looked less complicated than the one my mother always made, so I thought I would give it a whirl for Bubbie's birthday.  The only thing I did differently was to use Captain Morgan spiced rum...yum!

 Basic cake mix, spiked with rum, with vanilla pudding for extra moistness

 It has pecans and a sweet rummy glaze, too.  Of course, this made the teenagers act the fool, thinking they're getting away with something. My daughter informed me that perhaps I had gotten Bubbie's age of 12 confused with Firstborn's of 21...

 

 

Bubbie was too into his new mp3 player to get too excited about the rum, anyhow.  That is a single candle in the center of the plate that plays the birthday song, ha ha.

Happy Birthday, Grayson Reed!

Gina

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Christmas Eve Candy Making

My sister came over for lunch and an impromptu candy-making session!

Here she is showing me how to make my favorite Christmas treat: marshmallow-caramel-rice-krispy- thingamajigs! I don't think they have a real name...

You roll the frozen marshamallows in melted caramel sweetened condensed milk and butter goo, then roll them in rice krispies.  Yes, highly technical, I know.  And very, very, messy!

 She also made this peanut butter confection with Golden Grahams cereal. YUM.

They are chewy, crunch, peanut buttery and so good!  I think it had melted peanut butter chips, peanut butter, butter, and corn syrup.  Not a diet food, obviously!

These are so good with a cup of coffee.  She left us quite a few to munch on over the next few days.  A nice treat on a rainy and cold Christmas Eve.  

Merry Christmas, everyone!

 I hope your weekend will be filled with family, good food, and good times (:

Cranberry bars

We are having a "Milk and Cookies" party at work to exchange Secret Santa gifts.  I am taking some mulled cider and these wonderful bars.

I usually make them this time to year to use up the rest of the cranberry sauce and my peeps love them - they are good for breakfast, too!

 Start with 1 1/2 c. each flour, whole oats, and brown sugar.  
Add 1 t. baking powder and stir.

 Then cut in two sticks of softened butter until it looks crumbly.

 Spread 2/3 of the oatmeal mixture into a 9x13 pan, to with 1 c. of cranberry sauce and finish with the rest of the oatmeal crumbs

Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes.  It will get toasty and make the kitchen smell so good. Cool, cut into bars, and pour your coffee!

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What this face says

 

It's 6:30 p.m. on a school night.  Normally the time I wind down 

for the day and eat dinner.  It's been a long week, a long day.

 

 I'm trying to wait patiently for brother's band concert to begin, but I am tired.

And bored.  And hungry.

And not interested in taking silly pictures

Feed me a warm dinner with dessert, and let me sleep late tomorrow.
And give me a ride to school?

Gina

Christmas cards

Our Christmas cards arrived from Shutterfly on Tuesday:

I qualified for 50 free cards as part of a promotion they were offering to bloggers.  The site was less intuitive than the one I used last year but I stuck with it and even managed to design some Thank You's and address labels to match, too!  I think the black and white of the photos make the bright green and red stand out and it makes the whole card look more formal, even tho the pictures are casual.  So, since I remembered to pick up stamps, still had my calligraphy pen in the card tin I keep holiday stationery in, and had an hour after dinner,

I went ahead and addressed them. 

Can't wait to send them out!

Dog tired of this doggie

I started something by sewing the for my preggo friend at work.

 

Turns out a couple of the other ladies liked this doggie, too.  It's not exactly the easiest pattern I've ever sewn, but at this point, I have made at least 6 of them.

 Make that 8.  

I'm going to be making at least three more of them before I retire the pattern for a while!

Gina

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Hunting down the perfect tree 2010

 We drive out to Elgin the day after Turkey.

It was brrrr cold!  We head to a part of the farm where not everyone else is.

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Gina 

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Domestically Speaking's

Christmas Countdown