Eric's Birthday Dinner Recipes

As I mentioned yesterday on Facebook, Eric said my Swedish meatballs are almost as good as his mom's. That felt like a victory to me. Here are Jean's recipe and notes (she'll be the "I" throughout the recipe portion). I've include my notes after the recipe.


Swedish Meatballs
I use 2 lbs. of real good hamburger (like Sirloin, which has less fat)
1 egg (beaten)
1 medium onion (chopped-less, if you don't like that much)
1/4 cup parsley flakes
1/8 teaspoon each ground nutmeg, pepper, and salt.
3/4 to 1 cup of plain bread crumbs
Put 2 Tablespoons of butter or margarine in fry pan. Form meatballs. Brown all sides.

Gravy
5 beef bouillon cubes
5 cups boiling water to dissolve cubes; 1 cube to 1 cup boiling water)
(I put about 2 or 3 tablespoons of flour with about 1 1/2 inches of water in my small blender glass--Blend)
Put boiling water in fry pan first; then add flour mixture. There should be enough gravy to cover all the meatballs.

-Jean Brusven

(Keri's notes- I used the 93% lean hamburger this time. I used about half an onion because I was trying to hide its presence from my Dad who doesn't care for onion. I used about 3/4 cup of bread crumbs. Browning the meatballs takes me a while. It's easy to get two of the sides, but then I use tongs to rotate the meatballs around to try to get the other sides browned. I try to keep the heat on medium to medium high, because there's no use rushing this process. I also keep the meatballs on the smaller side to make browning easier. I have to go through two shifts of browning, so I end up using 4 tablespoons of butter. The night before, I completed the steps through browning the meatballs and then put them in fridge.
The next day after lunch, I had Eric put the meatballs, hot water, and bouillon cubes in the crock pot on low. When I arrived home from school I added the flour to the pot. We ate around 5:30-6, so the timing worked out well. They were much more moist this around because Eric recently told me his mom has her meatballs stewing in the gravy for quite a while. I didn't realize that and in the past I've only had them in the gravy until I finished cooking the rest of dinner.)

I also made Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes for dessert. I used this recipe on Bake at 350'. She actually links to a recipe at Tidymom.com, but I used the Bake at 350' lady's modifications. I think they turned out great and have managed the willpower to only eat one so far. In the future, maybe I'll attempt piping the frosting to make it look fancy, but I decided this would not be the time to learn. I baked the cupcakes and mixed up the cookie dough and frosting the night before. I covered the cupcakes overnight and put the dough and frosting in the fridge. I had to put the frosting in the microwave for about 45 seconds to soften it up the next day. I also only used mini chocolate chip cookies whenever chocolate chips were called for. In the future I may consider putting the flour back into the frosting recipe. I omitted the flour as suggested by the Bake at 350' lady, but I think it would have been a good addition; maybe taste more like cookie dough?


In hindsight, perhaps Aiden was upset because he didn't get to try any meatballs or cupcakes. I don't think I'll be framing this family photo. (This one was the best one of the bunch!)