(6-8 servings)
I haven't felt much like cooking lately. I've made mostly green salads and whenever I got bored of those, I'd head over to a local salad bar and load up on veggies and various prepared salads. I love beets and this bar often has red beets in a balsamic vinaigrette and golden beets with ginger.. I can't get enough of either of those. I also like to sample some of their other offerings, such as Mediterranean tuna salad, Moroccan couscous salad, spicy lentils or herbed peas. These salads change daily and I never tire of the selection. Considering this is December with so many temptations everywhere, this has worked out well for me.
One of the things very much on my mind this week were Swedish Meatballs. I remembered a friend once mentioning she made her meatballs using a stand mixer which surprised me. I've always imagined tougher meatballs if you "over-worked" the meat. I couldn't have been more wrong, these meatballs were both lighter and smoother, making me curious how a meatloaf might turn out using this method.
Swedish meatballs are usually served on their own with the gravy on the side, but I usually end up reheating them at some point so I just combine them with the gravy when I prepare them. I didn't have any Lingonberry sauce on hand, so I picked up a bag of cranberries instead. Cranberries are altogether different, but they taste fine alongside these meatballs. When I prepare the cranberry sauce (I follow the directions on the bag), I add less sugar keeping the sauce nice and tart for these.
HAPPY HOLIDAYS!
