Yesterday it poured cats and dogs all day. I got cold early  on in the day, and with this nasty rain, never really managed to warm up. So I thought that a warm cozy dinner would be much welcome on such a nasty day. Since my family’s taste are not adventurous, i could not propose one of my exotic meal I love to eat so much. So instead I fixed Swedish meatballs with rice. Theo kept coming in the kitchen as I was working on the meatball saying:

” Oh, mom.. it smells so good… when are we eating..?”

That was a good sign;-0

Ingredients: for a family of 4 hungry teenagers, 1 lb of ground lean beef, 1lb of ground veal, salt and pepper, 3 cups beef stock, 2 cups of white wine, onions, olive oil, 4 slices of whole
wheat bread, 1/2 cup of milk, 2 medium onions, 1/4 cup of chopped fresh parsley

First soak up your bread in the 1/2 cup of warm milk. When the bread is all soggy, remove the extra milk and press the bread with a fork until you have a paste. Dice one onion very very thinly and add it to the bread paste along with the fresh parsley, the veal and the beef. Mix well. You may find easier to mix with your bare hands… I know.. I know.. Yuk. but it works:-) Once everything is nicely blent together, form with your hands 1 inch balls and place them on a cooking sheet. Turn the oven at 350 F. Bake the meatballs for 20 minutes in the oven. While the meatballs are cooking, dice the other onion thinly and saute it in a teaspoon of olive oil until the onion becomes golden. Remove from the pan. Warm up 1 teaspoon of olive oil in the pan, and saute the meatballs in batches so that they can all brown on all side. Once all meatballs have been sauteed, put them all back into the pan, throw 2 tablespoon of flour and mix the flour until it coat all the meatballs, continue browning the meatballs for a few more minutes. Then throw in the warm beef broth along the white wine. Stir well to make sure that the flour is not burning at the bottom of the pot. Turn the heat up and make it come to a boil. Once the sauce is boiling a little, turn the heat back down and let your swedish meatballs cook for about 30 minutes. While the meatballs are cooking, boil some water and throw in 2 cups of wild rice in the boiling water. Let the rice cook for about 20 minutes. Once the rice is cooked, drain the water. To finish your meatballs, throw in 1/2 cup of heavy cream ( to make the sauce more creamy ( not necessary), and the sauteed onions. To serve, place several spoon of rice on each plate and top it off with a few meatballs and sauce. Bon Appetit!

The family loved it so much that there were NO LEFT-OVERS -That’s a good sign. Wouldn’t you agree?!