
Search Our Site

By Mary
/ December 9, 2016
Mom’s Swedish Meatballs and a Party for 12
I grew up in the quintessential big farm family. As the first girl after eight boys, I kind of ruled the roost, at least for a short time, until a baby brother and twin sisters came along and spoiled that gig. Farm life needed all of those helping hands in those days because no one had huge tractors or gargantuan combines. We had little red Farmalls – As and Cs – to help do the work on our Century farm. And after all of the farm work, my mom had some starving boys on her hands. My mom was really not the greatest cook in the world; she just didn’t have time to fuss with fancy foods. She did, however, have some classic dishes that were wonderful. Her big challenge every day was to put a lot of food on the table, fast. Those boys could eat a lot of food and you’d better guard what was on your plate or it would be gone, too! To help keep up with the volume, my dad had a potato truck and a bread truck deliver to our farm. Thus when I get out one of my mom’s recipes to make something, I almost always have to brush up on my fifth grade fractions to bring them down to “normal” serving sizes. One recipe I looked at recently was for “icebox” sugar cookies. (Side note: She almost never made cookies as they were gone almost before she was done baking. Her recipe calls for 8 cups of flour and 4 cups of sugar – this will be a blog for another day!) One of those wonderful recipes I remember was Swedish Meatballs. She only made them once a year – at Christmas – because it takes a lot of meatballs to...
Read More
About

Welcome to my blog! I am an Iowa Farm girl who aspires to write a cookbook featuring vintage and favorite recipes from my family and friends. I'd like to bring you the art of cooking like your mother, grandmother, or whoever is your cooking inspiration. Keep it simple and enjoy! --Mary Food Blogger, Travel Writer, Photographer, Computer Geek, & Gardener
Blog Categories

More Great Stuff
Lefse and the Real Importance of Holiday Traditions
Today, I was reminded why we jump through all of those holiday hoops. We make dozens of cookies, we drink hot chocolate or eggnog, we shop and we trim the...
One Rotisserie Chicken, One Afternoon and Four Healthy Recipes
When I was a young bride, my mother gave me a lesson on how to buy a week's groceries on twenty dollars (not including paper & cleaning products). OK, yes,...
Winter Blahs? 6 Ideas To Get Your Spring Mojo…
The end of winter can really bring me down...the snow is often dirty and the days grey, this year the winter blahs have hit me far earlier than usual-- we...
Tequila Lime Grilled Chicken for a Dinner for Two
Last night my husband wanted Mexican for supper, but I was getting tired of the same old beef tacos and burritos -- I wanted chicken and I wanted it grilled....