Swedish Meatballs - Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free Version

I love Swedish Meatballs but since I have issues with gluten and my husband has issues with lactose, they are not something that either one of us can enjoy without suffering the consequences.

Over the last year, I have been tweaking the recipe my mother uses to make a lactose-free, gluten-free version and I think I have finally come up with a recipe that I am happy with.  It is flavourful, rich and decadent.

There is one ingredient that I should explain - I put in 1/4 cup on plain apple sauce in the gravy.  I realize this may seem odd but when I was looking at the list of ingredients on the Ikea Swedish Meatball sauce, I noticed that there was apple powder listed.  I realized this was the slight sweet, tangy edge that my sauce was missing.  When I added the 1/4 cup of plain apple sauce, I was amazed at the extra depth it added.

So here is my tweaked recipe.  I apologize but I have no pictures.  There was none left after tonight's dinner and since I have been adjusting this recipe every time I have made it, I really didn't expect tonight's version to be THE one.

Gluten-Free, Lactose-Free Swedish Meatballs

Meatballs

1 lb ground beef

1 lb ground pork

1 onion, diced

2 tbsp. olive oil

½ cup gluten free, dairy free panko

2 large egg yolks

½ tsp. ground allspice

½ tsp. ground nutmeg

Salt and pepper to taste

Gravy

¼ cup vegan margarine

1/3 cup rice flour

4 cups beef broth

¼ cup plain apple sauce

¾ cup heavy lactose free cream

¼ tsp. ground allspice

¼ tsp. ground nutmeg

1 tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. chopped parsley for garnish (optional)

Combine beef, pork, panko, eggs, spices and onions in a large bowl.  Season with salt and pepper.  Mix well.  Roll into 1 ¼ - 1 ½ inch balls.  Add oil to large heavy sauce pan.  Cook meatballs in batches until all sides are brown - about 4 to 5 minutes.  Transfer to plate.

Gravy – Melt butter in the bottom of the same sauce pan that was used to cook the meatballs.  Whisk in rice flour and cook until lightly brown – about 2 minutes.  Whisk in beef broth and cook, whisking constantly until slightly thickened.  Add in apple sauce, cream, spices, Worcestershire sauce and Dijon mustard.

Stir in meatballs, cover, and reduce heat to simmer until meatballs are cooked through.  Stir at regular intervals.

Serve with potatoes or rice or gluten-free egg noodles.

A litte creative time....

I am sitting here watching it snow once again and wondering where the heck spring is.  I am also wishing I was back on my retreat being creative instead of staring at a large load of laundry that needs to be folded.

Last weekend was my Spring scrapbooking retreat.  I spent 3 days playing with paper, glue, ink and not worrying about a thing.  I love retreats.  They are a dedicated time to be messy and let myself go. I don't really worry about how much I get done but this weekend I was surprised by how productive I was.

The little loops of black are feathers that I tied in a loop so the barbs spread out.  The background is mandala pattern stamps that I had picked up earlier in the day.  I don't know what it is about new supplies that tend to jump start your creativity but they do.

I also bought these fantasy eye and butterfly stamps when I picked up the mandala stamps:

I decided not to do a layout but just something that could be put in a shadowbox frame instead.  The wings of the feathers are popped dotted to add more dimension.

Sometimes is it a good idea to dig into your old supplies as well.  I was looking for anything that was a sword.  I really wanted to emphasize the Legend of Zelda theme of his shirt.  I went through all my ephemera and embellishments to see if there was anything I could use.  I, then, dug into my dies.  I had completely forgotten that I had the Spellbinders Heraldry dies...and low and behold, they were absolutely perfect for this layout.

I toned down the pattern on the paper with some gesso and used matching paper from the same line to coordinate a more monochromatic layout.  Tim Holtz's swirls die is one of my gotos.  I find I reach for that die with almost every layout that I use flowers.

I am starting to channel my friend Michelle with this layout.  Her style is streamline and elegant whereas mine is over the top and heavily embellished.  It is nice sometimes to break from your style and try something different.

At the retreat, we do a make and take.  I don't know what it is about me but I have a hard time doing the make and take as is.  It is like I can't colour inside the lines.  This was this years make and take:

I like the colours of the paper and strangely enough I ended up using this paper for a layout about my son not my daughter.  I had to make it my own and this is what I ended up with:

Now that the kiddos are older, I find that I want to use "young" paper - cutesy, kawaii and silly.  I could use older pictures of them but there is a perverse pleasure in using them for teen layouts.

I really like what Doodlebug has been putting out lately.  It is very kawaii.  Whenever I see it I pick up whatever they have and usually multiple sheets of it.

That is all I ended up making but for me this is quite a bit.

Have a Happy Saturday!

Time Slips Away...

Time slips away so quickly and lives get so busy.  Blog posts become lower priority items and the next thing you know 2 years has gone by.  I rarely craft anymore which I really miss.  I basically get two weekends a year that I dig all my supplies out, load a choice selection in my car and head to my scrapbooking retreat 3 hours away from home.  I am far enough away that I can concentrate on being creative but close enough if anything major happens, I can be home relatively quickly.  If I didn't have these weekends, I think I would have gone insane long ago.

My next retreat is coming up soon and I am so looking forward to it.  I am already digging through supplies trying to figure out what I want to take and what I want to work on.  I don't tend to get much done but I am always happy with what I manage to get finished.

My last retreat was in November and I managed to get 4 layouts done.

This one is of my father doing a demonstration in the forge for Pioneer Days.  Using a lot of metal embellishments and twisted wire made sense for this layout.  It is also a cleaner layout than my usual style.

This next layout is more me - lots of layering, fussy cutting, flowers, die cuts and embellishments.  Basically, the more the merrier.

When we were home last, we did a session of family photos.  This one is of my mom, me and the kiddos - three generations.  There are three lady bugs incorporated into this layout.  When I was growing up there were always three wooden lady bug magnets on my mothers fridge.  It just seemed right to add them to this layout.

Every retreat, everyone is given the same paper to use in a challenge.  It is always fun to see how everyone does something different with the papers.  The next two layouts are made from that challenge paper.

Two very different styles of layout but both are "fan" pages and are using photos taken at ComicCon.

Hopefully, it will not be two years before I post again.  I have started bullet journalling but I am using it more for keeping track of my life than being creative...although, I can't resist every once in a while adding doodles, embellishments and some kind of over the top decoration.  In many ways I am hoping that it will lead back to more scrapbooking and card making.

Have a good Saturday.

A scrapbooking retreat....

Last month, I attend a scrapbooking retreat at the Timber House near Brighton.  I haven't been doing much the last year or so and I was hoping it would jump start me back into being creative.  It was a beautiful location.

Surprisingly, I did not get down to the beach until Sunday.  I arrived in the dark on Friday night (not really that late since the sun sets at 4:30 pm at this time of the year) and I worked until Sunday morning.  I basically took breaks to eat, sleep and do a bit of visiting.  Overall, it was a very productive weekend and was just the kick in the pants that I needed to get started again.

I worked mainly on layouts and playing with some multimedia techniques.

I have one more layout at I started but is not yet complete.  I figure I will get to it during my Christmas holidays.

Today, I am concentrating on designing and doing up my Christmas cards.  I am enjoying making them again but I forgot how long it takes.

Have a good Sunday.

Time for A Change

I haven't had a chance to do much crafting in the last few months.  The new job, although very interesting, is also very time consuming.  The learning curve is huge but that is to be expected with a new job.  I am hoping that as I get more of a handle on the job that I will carve out some time to dig back into crafting again.

I figured that a good place to start digging back in was to refresh my blog.  It was feeling a little dated and cluttered.  With Spring coming soon, a clean, fresh look was needed.  I have also been decluttering my drives and filing my photos away.  One of the gems that I found buried with in layers of folders are some old card sketches that I did back in 2011 and 2012.  I figured I would repost a few here.

Have a good Sunday.