Tasty Bakes #5: "Mom's Swedish Meatballs"

My boyfriend and I are in a long distance relationship which I often reference. This weekend was his turn to come visit and instead of our usual running around we decided to stay at home. This was the best decision we ever have made. It was the most perfect weekend from the dancing to Dean Martin on vinyl, to seeing the movie Hotel Transylvania and getting the chance to spend some time in the kitchen together. Typically, when we are together we eat out because we don't have the time or the means to cook for ourselves. So this time I asked him what his favorite dish was and I would cook it for him. His response: "Swedish Meatballs the way mom makes them. Nobody makes them like her."

Well, me being the fiery and stubborn redhead that I am, took this as a challenge. On his request I sent his mother a quick email asking for her recipe  It is here in I found out why nobody can make it like mom. Her "recipe" as she put it, is really just throwing it together. It's funny how moms have a way of doing that where it always comes out perfect. Seeing as I accept I can't and never will be able to make them exactly  like mom, nor do I want to, I early on made the decision to use her "recipe" as only a guideline as what to do.

Needless to say, my Swedish meatballs did not taste like "mom's" but they were a huge hit regardless. After eating dinner Saturday night we had a few leftovers but not long. Sure enough, Sunday he ate them all on me. I couldn't be too upset though because I really appreciated the compliment on my cooking considering it was my first attempt at making any type of meatballs and I had some big shoes to fill.

Here is the recipe I came up with using my boyfriend's mother's recipe as a guideline. I cut her recipe in half so this one is good for two people with some left overs.

Ingredients

-1 lbs of Hamburger
-1 eggs
-1/3 cup of garlic and herb bread crumbs
-1/4 Tsp.Salt
-1/4 Tsp. Pepper
-2 cubes of beef bullion
-1/2 Flour
-Water

Mix together the hamburger, egg, bread crumbs, salt and pepper in a bowl. This was the fun part for me. I mixed it all together then rolled into balls about 1.5" wide. This was fun to have my boyfriend in the kitchen because he helped. Once all the meatballs are made, brown them in a large pan until they are cooked all the way through.

Note: Make sure you use a large enough pan to later have room for making the sauce with it.

Next drain the grease out of the pan. I really don't like grease at all so I actually remove all the meatballs from the pan and then dispose of the grease. Once that has happened return the meatballs to the pan and add 1 cup of water and simmer. After about 5-10 minutes of simmering some of the water should cook off and add another 1 cup of water and the 2 cubes of beef bullion.

Let the water, cubes and meatballs simmer down for about 5 minutes. At this time add 1/2 cup of flour and another 1/4 cup of water and stir. This will be lumpy at first but stir and let cook and it should thicken to a gravy. This part is somewhat by eye depending on your preference.

Mixing in the flour and water.

Serve them over mashed potatoes. My mother's secret to this is to use OreIda's frozen bag of potatoes. They taste just like full fledged homemade mashed potatoes but they are so much easier!

Super quick and easy!

It makes it easy to do after spending so long on the main dish. I cook them as directed on the package I added Cabot Seriously Sharp Shredded Cheese. This was the perfect combination. You could swap out the mashed potatoes for noodles I'm sure but I haven't tried this yet.

Of course we had to use the festive fall plates I found at Rite-Aid.

Hope you all enjoy as much as we did!