A friend of Kristina’s, Cori Staples, shared this recipe with her and Kristina shared it with me. I am putting it here, along with Cori’s notes so that we can always find it.

Cori Staples’ Blueberry Muffins

1 1/2 c. all-purpose flour
3/4 c. white sugar
1/2 t. salt
2 t. baking powder
1/3 c. vegetable oil
1 egg
1/3 c. milk
1 c. fresh blueberries

Crumb topping:
1/2 c. white sugar
1/3 c. all-purpose flour
1/4 c. butter, cubed
1 1/2 t. ground cinnamon

DIRECTIONS
1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 c. measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with the flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. To make crumb topping: mix together sugar, flour, butter, and cinnamon. Mix with a fork, and sprinkler over muffins before baking.
4. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

A few personal notes about this recipe: I didn’t put the crumb topping on the ones Brian had, but it is very good. But proportionally it seems off to me. So if I make the regular recipe I only make half as much crumb topping, if that makes sense. It also has a strange yield – if you do fill the cups right up like it says, it makes about 7-9 muffins per batch. Next time I’ll probably not fill the cups so full and get more muffins out of it, especially when using the crumb topping. That’s just my two cents. Hope you like it!

Serves 4-6

I double or triple this recipe all the time! There isn’t such a thing as too many Swedish meatballs!

For the meatballs-

• 3 slices white bread, crusts removed, cut into cubes (about 2 cups)
• 1/4 cup milk
• 4 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1/2 large yellow or white onion, grated using the large holes of a box grater
• 1 large egg
• 3/4 pound ground beef
• 1/2 pound ground pork
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom

For the sauce-

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups beef stock
• 1/4 cup sour cream (use full-fat or the sauce may curdle)
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Soak the bread in milk, then shred: 

Place the cubed bread in a large bowl and mix with the milk. Let sit for 5 to 10 minutes. Once the bread has soaked up all the milk, shred with the tines of a fork or by hand.

1-Sauté the grated onion: 

Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan on medium-high heat. Stir in the grated onion and cook until translucent and softened, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool for a minute.

2-Make the meatball mixture: 

Stir the cooled onions into the milk bread mixture. Add the egg, ground beef and pork, salt, pepper, nutmeg, and cardamom. Use your (clean) hands to mix everything together until well combined.

(If you have extra time, chilling the mixture for 20 or so minutes will make it easier to form the meatballs.)

3-Form the meatballs: 

Use your hands or a cookie scoop to form the mixture into meatballs about 1 1/4-inch to 1 1/2-inch wide and place them on sheet pan. I line my sheet pan with foil it makes clean up easier. This recipe makes about 40 meatballs. Note that the meatballs will be a bit on the wet side.

4- Cook the meatballs:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Place the sheet pan with meatballs on the center rack and bake for 15 to 20 minutes. Meatballs should be juicy, but not pink inside. The internal temperature should be 165 degrees with a quick read thermometer.

5-Make the sauce:

Add 3 tablespoons of fresh butter to a pan. Heat the butter in the pan on medium heat until it melts.

Slowly whisk in 3 tablespoons of flour. Stir until smooth. Continue to stir, allowing the flour mixture to cook, several minutes, until the roux is the color of coffee with cream. Be careful not to let it burn.

When the roux has cooked to a lovely shade of light brown, slowly add the beef broth, stirring as you do.

The broth will sputter at first and may seize up, but keep adding the stock slowly and keep stirring. Eventually the sauce will loosen and become silky.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in the sour cream.

At this point, you can either add the meatballs to the sauce to serve or serve them separately. I like to serve them with mashed potatoes and a green salad because that is how my Swedish friend Christina Palomaki served them to me. I love these with lingonberry jam.

I found this easy and yummy recipe on the A Bountiful Kitchen website and I am going to put the link here so I will not forget about them. It makes about 3 big waffles in my Belgium waffle maker. https://abountifulkitchen.com/belgian-waffles/

Homemade cranberry sauce is so easy and so much better than from a can. This recipe is from my Tokyo friend, Becky Budge.
Ingredients-

1-12oz bag of fresh cranberries

1 medium apple, peeled and chopped

1 cup orange juice

1 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

Place all the ingredients in a saucepan much larger than you think you will need. This boils up more than you expect it to. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Listen for the cranberries to pop. Turn down the heat and allow it to simmer for 5-10 minutes. It will thicken as it cools. Spoon into a clean jar or a plastic container. It can be stored in the refrigerator or it can be frozen.

• 1/4 cup sugar or lightly packed light brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tablespoon ketchup
• 1 tablespoon light (regular) soy sauce
• 3 tablespoons unseasoned rice vinegar or cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup water
• 2 teaspoons cornstarch dissolved in 2 tablespoons water

I have been following the A Bountiful Kitchen site for a long time and Si Foster has some really great recipes that I use often. My new favorite is her pie crust. I have found that if I don’t post favorites here they can disappear from the original website. Please follow the links to see all of her hints and tips on making the perfect pie crust. I enjoyed the flakiness and crispiness of this crust.

Ingredients

2 cups + 2 tablespoons all purpose flour (add the two tablespoons if you at sea level)
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup shortening- I used 1/2 cup regular Crisco and 1/2 cup butter flavored Crisco
1/2 cup very cold water-I put it in the freezer when I started making the pie crust. I added just a little more water. Don’t add to much. you don’t want a sticky pie crust!

Method

1. Mix flour and salt.
2. Cut in shortening with pastry blender. You are looking for the shortening to be in pea sized pieces.
3. Add 1/2 cup water all at once. 
4. Fold ingredients with fork until flour is absorbed and dough comes together. If needed, add more cold water, a tablespoon or two at a time, until the dough resembles something similar to biscuit dough.
5. Divide dough in half for two pie crusts. The dough should be soft and not sticky. If sticky, roll in a bit of flour. 
6. Flour surface and rolling pin well. I use about 1/4 or more cups of flour on surface and spread in circle. Keep the rolling pin floured. 
7. Flatten dough with hand to make round disc shape.
8. Roll out from center to about 1/8” thickness. Place the pie plate on top of the dough. The dough should be rolled out approximately 2 1/2  inches past the edge of the pie plate, to allow for the dough to sink into the corner of the pie plate, and also extend over the edge of the plate so an outer crust is easily formed. 
9. Fold dough in half, lift onto pie plate.
10. Open and shape to pan, make sure to gently press the pastry into the corner of the pie plate. 
11. Cut off excess dough if making a single pie crust. If making a pie to be baked with filling, fill the pie shell, top with crust if desired (if making apple or other fruit pies). Follow pie recipe directions. 

Ingredients

Method

• In a large skillet over medium heat add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil and 1/2 tablespoon of butter, red bell pepper and garlic and cook for about 4 minutes.
• Add spinach seasoned with a pinch of salt and pepper mix until the spinach wilts down.
• Add cream cheese, milk and parmesan cheese mix well until cream cheese is melted and resembles creamed spinach.
• Heat a separate skillet on medium high heat, add remaining oil and butter.
• Season fish on both sides with salt and pepper and place on the hot pan.
• Cook about 6 minutes on first side and flip fish over and cook other side an additional 5 minutes, until cooked through and browned.
• Divide the spinach mixture on the bottom of each plate and top with piece of fish.