Swedish Meatballs

I've only had Swedish Meatballs a few times in my life. I have enjoyed them the times that I ate them. So I was excited to try this recipe from Mom2Rose from recipezaar for the October 2009 recipe swap. She calls them Grandma Katie's Swedish Meatballs. I downsized for a family of 6. Her original recipe feeds something like 25 or more people.

Swedish Meatballs

a little over a pound of ground beef

8 oz ground pork

**6 strips bacon, crispy and finely crumbled
1 cup finely diced celery

1 large onion, finely diced

1/2 cup or so of breadcrumbs

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1 can cream of mushroom soup

1 can cream of chicken soup

16 oz beef broth

I cooked my bacon in the oven on a cookie sheet at 350 degrees until done. I drained most of the bacon fat leaving just a little. Save the pan with drippings and set aside.

Combine all meatball ingredients from the ground beef to the breadcrumbs in a mixer. Make sure it is well combined. Make golf ball size meatballs.

Using extra breadcrumbs - coat each meatball and place on reserved cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for about 40 minutes.

Meanwhile - combine soups and broth mixing well to remove any clumps. Add just a little to a crockpot. Add cooked meatballs. Pour remaining sauce over meatballs. Leave in the crockpot for just a couple hours or so.

We served this over rice. A very yummy comfort meal.

Chocolate Oatmeal Walnut Muffins

I made these yummy muffins over General Conference weekend. It was perfect snacking on these while we watched the speakers share their messages on the computer!
This recipe comes from Mom2Rose from recipezaar. She is from Michigan, USA and found the recipe on the Hershey's website.

Chocolate Oatmeal Walnut Muffins
1 cup quick cooking or regular oats
1 cup buttermilk
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2/3 cup light brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup flour
1/4 cup baking cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 cup walnuts, coarsely chopped

Heat oven to 400 degrees. Combine all ingredients gently in a mixing bowl. Pour into muffin tins lined with paper baking cups.
Bake 16-18 minutes. I was able to get 12 muffins from this recipe.

Crunchy Oat Cereal

What a great idea to use up all that oatmeal in my food storage! Jen T from New Zealand shares this recipe on recipezaar - I chose it as part of my recipe selections for the swap in September 2009. Use this recipe in the recipe below as well.

Crunchy Oat Cereal
1 1/4 cups large rolled oats
1 1/4 cups roughly chopped nuts (I used sliced almonds and walnuts)
6 TBSP maple syrup - the good stuff
6 TBSP butter or margarine, melted

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Mix all ingredients together and spread onto a large shallow baking pan sprayed with vegetable spray.
Bake for 30-35 minutes - or until golden and crunchy.
Let mixture cool before storing in an airtight container. May be stored up to 2 weeks in a cool dry place.

Use this cereal in the recipe below.

Breakfast Cranachan

Jen T from New Zealand is the chef for this tasty breakfast. She says it is a traditional Scottish recipe brought up to date - found in a "3 Ingredient Cookbook." If you like - add a bit of honey to make this a little sweeter. I liked it without the honey addition.

Breakfast Cranachan
Serves: 4
3 oz crunchy oat cereal (see above recipe)
2 1/2 cups plain vanilla yogurt
1 1/3 cups raspberries ( I used frozen) may also use any berries you like

Preheat oven broiler. Spread the cereal in a shallow pan and place under heat for 2 - 2 1/2 minutes. I found this to be a good amount of time compared to the 3-4 minutes in the recipe. I didn't want it burned.
Set aside to cool.
When cook - fold into the yogurt. Gently fold in 1 cup of berries. Careful! Don't crush the berries!
Spoon into 4 dishes. Top with remaining berries.
Enjoy right away!

Rustic Bread

I love bread. A lot. When I come across a great bread recipe - I like to pass it on to you guys. This recipe was one I chose from the September 2009 Aussie/NZ recipe swap at recipezaar.com. The chef who submitted this recipe is Sage from Ontario, Canada. She uses a bread machine. I do not own one so will post how I did the recipe.

This recipe starts off using Biga (pronounced bee-gah) - an Italain starter. Something similar to sourdough in that it sits overnight.

Rustic Bread

Mix in a glass or plastic bowl:

1 cup warm water

1 tsp yeast

1/2 cup white flour

1/2 cup whole wheat flour

Combine with wooden spoon until smooth. The mixture will be bubbly. Cover with a cloth and let stand overnight.

Next day (remember to give yourself several hours for the dough's first rising)

Combine:

Biga

1 1/4 cups warm water

2 TBSP honey

2 TBSP butter, softened

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 tsp sugar

1 TBSP salt

2 TBSP gluten

2 tsp yeast

I use my bosche to mix well. I let it sit for about 40 minutes. Then I added:

1 additional cup whole wheat flour

2-3 cups white flour - enough to make a soft, non-sticky dough

Place dough in a greased bowl and let rise about 3 hours. It will take that long. Knead for a bit then shape into 2 long loaves. Cover and let rise 45 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Score the loaves and dust with white flour if desired. Bake at 400 degrees for 10 minutes then reduce heat to 350 degrees and bake an additional 30-35 minutes. Bread is done when tapping on the top yields a hollow sound.

Carrot Cake

This recipe comes by way of Jen T from New Zealand. She found it in a "Taste" magazine in 2006 courtesy of the "Fat Dog Cafe" in Rotorua, NZ.

Don't mind my feeble attempts to decorate this cake. I didn't feel like messing with frosting so made carrots from gumdrops. I think it's a rather ingenious idea! :)

This is a very moist cake.

Carrot Cake - courtesy of the Fat Dog Cafe

1 cup vegetable oil (you could go 1/2 cup oil 1/2 cup applesauce as well)

1 1/2 cups brown sugar

3 eggs lightly beaten

2 cups grated carrots (this is where those grated freezer carrots come in handy)

1 3/4 cups flour

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp cinnamon

1 cup walnuts, roughly chopped

1/4 cup sunflower seeds (plain - NOT shelled. )

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Beat oil and sugar until well mixed. Add eggs and carrots. Mix thoroughly. Add in remaining ingredients.

Divide between two 9 inch round cake pans. Don't forget to grease and flour them. I forgot to flour mine and it was a bit tricky getting the cakes out of the pans in one piece.

Bake for 30-40 minutes or until the cakes spring back after pressing lightly. Don't overcook.

Leave cakes in pans for 10 minutes before turning onto cooling rack.

Icing

This icing was a bit overpowering so next time I will use something different. I changed the porportions as well since I was making a layer cake.

12 oz cream cheese, softened

2/3 cup powdered sugar (I would use more of this next time)

1 tsp grated lemon peel

Mix icing ingredients very well. When cake is cool, fill in the middle and frost the cake.

To make the carrots:

I rolled out orange gumdrops in some granulated sugar until flat. Then I rolled up the gumdrops to shape into a carrot shape. The tops - I cut a green gumdrop in half and used scissors to cut almost all the way through to make "tassles" for the carrots. Very elementary.

Avocado and Chicken Melts

This recipe was chosen as part of my selections for the September Aussie/NZ recipe swap. The cook is Jen T from New Zealand. This was a very tasty lunch today. A real treat!

Her recipe calls to do the chicken differently than what I did. The post beneath is about chicken breasts. I did an extra couple with just breading and used half a chicken breast for this sandwich. So I am changing this portion of the recipe since I liked it so much.

Avocado and Chicken Melts
1 hoagie type roll per person
1/2 breaded chicken breast leftovers from next post, warmed
avocado slices
tomato slices
cheese

Cut roll in half lengthwise. Place under broiler just until toasted. Remove and layer desired avocado slices, chicken breast, tomato slices and cheese. Return to oven/broiler for a few minutes longer - just until the cheese melts.
Serve warm.