I managed to get through this winter without being totally stuffed up

or wheezing, but now I'm super tired all the time. I wonder if I managed to come down with something after all but the only symptom is being tired? (Okay, and having a very small amount of phlegm, but I'm not drowning so I hardly notice it.)

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Made Swedish Meatballs

I love Swedish Meatballs, and making my own is much better than the frozen kind, but wow, what a production. The recipe is simple enough, but so much moving stuff in and out of the food processor. Fresh breadcrumbs, not dried. Grind the onions, then grind the meat some more to make it really really pasty, which I have to do in batches because the machine isn't that big. Roll out lots of tiny meatballs. WASH THE DAMN FOOD PROCESSOR. It's such a hassle. (Luckily for me, I had a band-aid on my thumb, so I was able to impose on Ana and ask them to do the meatball rolling. I could've done it faster due to practice, but I'm sure not complaining.)

Today my sauce wouldn't thicken and wouldn't thicken, and I made more roux and it still didn't thicken, so I melted some more butter still and when I went to the pantry to get more flour - it thickened! Like glue! Tasty glue, but still. After all that bother I decided I'd just live with thick sauce.

There is a reason I only make this once or twice a year. Friday is my birthday, and I sent Jenn to Trader Joe's to get me lemon curd (and also copious amounts of butter, because it's $1.50 cheaper there than the current price at my supermarket, and that adds up fast) and tomorrow I'll make cake, but today I had my birthday Swedish Meatballs. (I was going to have barbecue pork in the slow cooker, but I forgot to put it in early enough. My backup was buttermilk brined pork chops, but I forgot to brine them. I normally would make split peas in this situation, but I used up the last of the split peas this afternoon making soup for lunch. Happy birthday to me!)

Anyway, the recipe I have in the cookbook calls for what seems like a very small amount of spice given the amount of meat. When I went checking this out on the internet, it seemed like no two recipes call for exactly the same spices! I have no idea how they do this in Sweden, but mostly I just mix and match as I see fit on any given day. And I double it from what it says in my book. My book is clearly wrong.

Poll #23339 Swedish Meatballs

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 25

View Respondents

Which spices (in small quantities) should go in either the meatballs or the sauce?

View Answers

Allspice
13 (54.2%)

Black pepper
18 (75.0%)

Cardamon
10 (41.7%)

Cloves
8 (33.3%)

Ginger
7 (29.2%)

Mace
1 (4.2%)

Nutmeg
15 (62.5%)

Other
6 (25.0%)

Parsley?

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Yes
18 (78.3%)

No
5 (21.7%)

Lingonberry jam?

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Yes
11 (45.8%)

No
10 (41.7%)

Some other jam I can more readily get
3 (12.5%)