Swedish Meatball Soup

Swedish Meatball Soup

Wednesday greetings!

Halfway to to weekend.
Let’s be Wednesday warriors!

PRESENTING WEDNESDAY READER
January 15, 2025

BEGINNING WITH:

POLAR BEAR ARTWORK

I’ve actually never seen a polar bear up close and personal.
And I’m totally cool with that.  ha
I do, however, find these magnificent, white beauties absolutely powerful and awe-some and I love these pieces of art that allow me take a look at them from afar and just imagine...

LESLIE ELMAN’S
TRIVIA AND FASCINATING FACTS

Always bumps up my “didn’t know that” thinking skills/cap “but now I do.

QUICK QUESTION

If I only had 5 minutes to go and shop at the grocery store – what would I grab in the five minute dash?
hmmm — I’m sill pondering.
Gotta think what items are closest and how fast I can get to them.
You?

SWEDISH MEATBALL SOUP

Is not a disappointment!
It’s familiar and quite uniquely different all at the same time.
A new soup friend in a bowl of delicious.

TRACY BECKERMAN

Roomba story had me rolling with laughter.
I’ve heard about these little round Roomba things that do their deal and vacuum so you don’t have to.
I’ve never had one or laid eyes on one. |
Have you?
But I may just ask Santa for one next Christmas.
Yeah, I still believe in Santa on occasions like this.  haha

STACY’S WORLD ON FRIDAY!

A little teaser —
Something about ice cream, but it’s absolutely not ice cream.
Believe me — I tasted “it” and could hardly believe it wasn’t ice cream!
Tune in Friday for what Stacy’s got to share!
* a full on trickster* for our taste buds!

AS ALWAYS, FRIENDS
GRATEFUL FOR YOUR
VALUABLE TIME + SHARING + ENGAGING

ENJOY THE READ!

CATCH YA FRIDAY
SAME TIME
SAME PLACE

Swedish Meatball Soup

POP QUIZ

  1.  MOTHER-OF-PEARL IS A SUBSTANCE THAT FORMS NATURALLY INSIDE WHAT?

    a) Human bones
    b) Rocks
    c) Seashells
    d) Trees

  2. NEIL ARMSTRONG FIRST SET FOOT ON THE MOON IN WHAT LOCATION?

    a) Sea of Clouds
    b) Sea of Fertility
    c) Sea of Serenity
    d) Trees

  3. MONOSODIUM GLUTAMATE, OR MSG IS ADDED TO FOOD PRIMARILY FOR WHAT PURPOSE?

    a) Food colorant
    b) Flavor enhancer
    c) Preservative
    d) Sugar substitute

Daymaker Readable

QUICK QUESTION

IF YOU ONLY HAD 5 MINUTES
IN A GROCERY STORE — WHAT
WOULD YOU BUY?

Bear

POP QUIZ ANSWERS

  1. Mother-of-Pearl, also known as nacre, forms inside seashells.
  2. The Apollo 11 Lunar Module landed on the area of the moon’s surface known as Mare Tranquillitatis, the Sea of Tranquility.
  3. Monosodium glutamate, or MSG, is added to food mainly as a flavor enhancer.

COPYRIGHT 2025 LESLIE ELMAN
DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM

ALL MUSIC IS FOLK MUSIC.
YOU AIN’T NEVER HEARD NO
HORSE SING A SONG, HAVE YOU?
~ LOUIS ARMSTRONG ~

SATISFACTION GUARANTEED

INSTEAD OF HANGING UP ON A
TELEMARKETER, JUST SAY, “I’M NOT
INTERESTED BUT THANK YOU FOR CALLING.”

RIDDLE ME THIS

IF AN ELECTRIC TRAIN IS TRAVELING
SOUTH, THEN WHICH WAY IS THE SMOKE GOING?

Flowers

SWEDISH MEATBALL SOUP

Since soup season is full on — I’m bringing out all the great recipes I have in my recipe box to share.  I don’t really make this soup that often.  * shoulder shrug *  I don’t know why because it’s incredibly delicious!
I got this recipe from the caterer while working on the series Salem, in Louisiana. 
It’s super easy to make – okay, the tiny meatballs take like 10 minutes to roll and do the little browning thing — but efforts pay off with each spoonful bite when served.

HERE’S HOW WE MAKE IT:
INGREDIENTS

1 large egg

2 cups half-and-half cream, divided

1 cup bread crumbs, think (Progresso Italian bread crumbs  in the tall cylinder cardboard containers found in the pantry section of your local market)

1 small yellow onion, finely diced

1/2 cup fresh parsley, minced

1 tsp salt

1  1/2 pounds ground beef

3 or more TBSP butter

1 TBSP Worcestershire sauce

3 TBSP all-purpose flour

1 tsp pepper

1/4 tsp garlic powder

6 cups beef stock

1 pound red potatoes, cleaned and small cubed

1 package (10 ounces) frozen peas

8 ounces wide egg noodles, prepared al dente (according to package instructions) drained and gently tossed with a little olive oil; set aside

1/2 cup freshly shredded Parmesan cheese

NOW IT’S TIME TO GET THE SOUP STARTED

  1.  In a large bowl, beat egg with a fork
  2.  Add 1/3 cup of cream, bread crumbs and finely diced onions, Worcestershire sauce and minced parsley
  3. Crumble ground beef over mixture and mix well with your hands or a wooden spoon
  4. Shape meat into 1/2 inch balls

IN A LARGE SOUP POT OR DUTCH OVEN

  1. Brown meatballs in butter in batches over medium heat
  2. Remove meatballs as they finish browning and set aside

TO DUTCH OVEN/SOUP POT

  1. Keep burner heat at medium
  2. Whisk in flour, garlic powder, pepper and stir until smooth
  3. Gradually whisk in beef stock
  4. Turn heat up to medium-high
  5. Bring to a boil, stirring frequently for about 2 minutes

REDUCE HEAT TO MEDIUM-LOW

  1. Add meatballs and small diced potatoes
  2. Cover
  3. Simmer for about 25 minutes – or until potatoes are tender
  4. Stir in peas and remaining cream
  5. Heat through

WHEN READY TO SERVE

  1. Place a small handful of prepared egg noodles in the bottom of each serving bowl
  2. Ladle soup on top of egg noodles
  3. Sprinkle a little of the freshly shredded Parmesan on top

SERVE

With fresh baguette slices

~ Hippie Cowboy recipe box

RIDDLE ANSWER

THERE IS NO SMOKE —
IT’S AN ELECTRIC TRAIN

Creamy Recipe

LOST IN SUBURBIA

THE SCENE OF THE CRIME
BY TRACY BECKERMAN

If this were a game of Clue, I knew who the victim was, where it died, and what killed it.

The Roomba was dead.  In the den.  With a shag carpet.

The question was, who done it?

When I arrived home that day at 12:41 p.m., the familiar wooshing of the Roomba, set to vacuum at 12:30 p.m., was suspiciously absent.

I scoured the house but couldn’t find the Roomba anywhere.

I turned to the dog.

“Bowie, do you know where the Roomba is?”  I questioned him.

“Is it lost?”

“Was it kidnapped?”

“Did something nefarious take place in this house while I was gone?”

But the dog was mum.

I retraced my Roomba’s steps, and then, just as I was about to leave the den, I spotted it.  In the corner.  Silent and un-Roomba-ing.

Upon closer inspection I could see what happened.

It had choked to death on a clump of shag carpeting.

I was bereft.  It was only 6 months old.  It had died at such an early age.  And it was definitely an untimely death.

We knew the Roomba couldn’t handle the shag carpeting:  We had caught it in distress one time before, and from that day on, we decided to keep the den door closed when the Roomba was working.

But somehow, mysteriously, today, the door had been left open, and the unsuspecting Roomba had fallen prey to the lure of the shag.

Before I could figure out who killed the Roomba, I wanted to make sure the Roomba was, in fact, dead.  The shag carpeting had the Roomba firmly in its clutches, so I grabbed a pair of scissors and cut it out of the tangled mess.

Then turned the Roomba over.

Its bristles were knotted up in shag.  The roller was completely encased in shag.  The filter was full of shag.

It was clear the Roomba was dead, and it had drowned in shag carpeting.

But I took it to triage anyway and worked on it, feverishly removing all the tangles of sag carpeting from its rollers and coils.

I grabbed a set of charging paddles.

“Clear!”  I yelled, then shocked the Roomba.

But it didn’t respond.

It was dead on arrival.

Wiping away my tears, I started to look for clues.

The door to the den had been closed when I left the house; of that I was certain.  So who opened it?

And more importantly, who had it out for the Roomba?

I walked into the kitchen.

Vacuum cleaner mysteries always made me hungry.

But as I opened the fridge, I noticed the dog sleeping across the kitchen floor.

Slowly a thought entered my head.

Could it be the dog?

Could the dog have killed the Roomba?  Dog hated vacuum cleaners in general, but especially a vacuum cleaner that chased it around the house, trying to suck all the shedding dog hair directly off the dog’s body.

Yes, the dog was not a fan.

I went to the den and closed the door.

I got down on all fours and pushed against the door with my face, and like a dog.

The door resisted at first, then popped open. 

I shook my head.  I knew what I had to do.

“Bowie!”  I yelled across the house.

The dog appeared quickly at my side, tail wagging and full of joy, trying to throw off all suspicion that a golden retriever could be a stone cold killer.

“Bowie, the Roomba is dead.  And I suspect that you had something to do with it.  Do you have anything to say in your defense?”

The dog looked at the rug.

The rug winked at the dog.

“Don’t worry,” it said silently.  “I’ve got you covered.”

~ Tracy Beckerman is the author of the Amazon Bestseller, “Barking at the Moon:  A Story of Life, Love, and Kibble.”
COPYRIGHT 2025 CREATORS.COM

Fascinating Stuff

On rare occasions, it’s possible to spy a moonbow in the night sky.  A moonbow is like a rainbow, with moisture in the atmosphere illuminated by the glow of the moon rather than the light of the sun.  For a moonbow to occur after a nighttime rain, the moon must be low in the sky and extremely bright, and even then, the arc you see in the sky might appear white instead of tinted with all the colors of the rainbow.

A waywiser is a surveyor’s instrument used to measure linear distance.  (It’s also known as a surveyor’s wheel or a clickwheel.)   A wheel of a fixed size is connected to a pole with a gauge attached.  As the surveyor rolls the waywiser along the surface of the land, the gauge counts the wheel’s revolutions to determine the distance it’s traveled.  The name comes from German for “to show the way.”

“The Taking of Pelham One Two Three” — or “123,” if you prefer the 2009 remake — refers to a New York City subway train that departs Pelham Bay Park station at 1:23 p.m.  There hasn’t been a “Pelham 123” train since the original 1974 release of the original 1974 movie, in which the train is hijacked by thugs called Mr. Blue, Mr. Green, Mr. Grey and Mr. Brown.  Quentin Tarantino borrowed the color-coded criminals idea for his film “Reservoir Dogs” in the 1990s.

Twice in the history of the NCAA Division I Men’s Basketball Tournament, the championship game was contested by two schools with the same team mascot.  In 1951, the Kentucky Wildcats defeated the Kansas State Wildcats.  In 1997, the Arizona Wildcats defeated the Kentucky Wildcats.

Chief chemist at the United States Department of Agriculture in the early 1900s, Harvey Washington Wiley studied the effects of artificial food additives, mainly by feeding them to grad student volunteers.  The Wiley’s volunteers were nicknamed the “Poison Squad” gives you some idea of what the studies revealed.  His advocacy for food safety led to the passage of the Pure Food and Drugs Act of 1906.  The USDA Bureau of Chemistry was the precursor to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and Wiley was the first FDA commissioner.

8 replies
  1. Marty says:

    Which way will the smoke drift certainly had me laughing at myself! Then Daymaker adds a Swedish meatball soup Recipe. I’m on it as any soup with cream passes the taste test.

    Now to the “If only 5 minutes in the grocery store?” Easy! That would be milk, crackers and cheese. It’s my nearly daily go to snack. In fact, I’m going to it now!

    • Cheryl Clarson says:

      Hi Marty –

      That’s brilliant!

      I, too, love milk, crackers and cheese and I’m pretty sure those items could be collected in 5 minutes!e

      Appreciate your time and fun comments!

  2. Carol says:

    I’m feeling so smug today – aced the pop quiz AND the riddle. I win! I win! I win!

    So agree with Marty about cream in soup. Winner winner! Always!

    And the white bear art – I’m in!

    And the Stacy’s World tease…counting the minutes…

    Thanks for the fun!!!

    • Cheryl Clarson says:

      What? Carol!

      Pop quiz and the riddle?
      Boom!
      That’s very cool, clever lady that you are.

      I didn’t get all the answers as I typed in the questions – but I got a couple – which is a win for me. haha

      Thank you.

      xoxo

  3. Stacy says:

    Love the Roomba article! I had a device similiar to a roomba and my pup hated it. She would bark and bark then go hide under the bed.

    • Cheryl Clarson says:

      Hilarious!

      My cats just run and hide when I pull out the vacuum.

      Maybe a Roomba would keep them busy for hours.

      Thinking about it! haha

      Gratitude for your time and input share.

      happiness

Comments are closed.