Our original reception menu included a Swedish Meatball. Ikea meatballs are one of my comfort foods - I ate pounds of the things while finishing my thesis. I suggested to Stacey that we cut corners and just serve the Ikea meatballs.
"But Swedish meatballs are so easy!" she protested.
Ok, then. Beef and Pork meatballs with a cranberry sauce it is.
Alas, this week the Swedish Meatballs were put in jeopardy. The beef, pork, onion, carrot, and celery for the meatballs only cost $30. A key ingredient to Stacey's sauce? Ten pounds of veal bones. Those are hard to come by at the moment though every grocer promises they'll have them in stock (haha) in a few weeks. Worse? The bones are, at best, going to cost $30.
Janell the Money Squirrel has great difficulties doubling the cost of a meatball for its sauce alone.
Stacey went to the figurative white board and starting coming up with various solutions. She called her contacts for tips on how to obtain the bones at a cheaper price. She sought out solutions of ready-made broth. She invited entire sauce subsitutions.
Finally, I had a small epiphany. The meatballs don't have to be Swedish per se. They could be Egyptian for all I care. (Do they have meatballs in Egypt?) Meatballs of all nationalities are welcome at my reception.
Thus Stacey has now decided on a spiced cranberry glaze for the meatballs. I was no help in that selection. She suggested everything from a tomato and pineapple bbq glaze to some sort of ginger and citrus sauce. I kind of shrugged and said, "What would you choose?" She indicated her favorite suggestion and I replied, "Ok, that."
So, yay, we shall now be serving non-Swedish meatballs in some sort of different cranberry sauce. Yum yum yum.
I think that, considering the timing of your wedding, cranberry sauce seems fitting anyway. Wish you could come to Katelyn's birthday party this weekend. We're making sweet potato cheesecake with maple cream and pumpkin pie cake.
ReplyDeleteThere is a squirrel for frugality on my family crest. I always thought that was funny. Not that I didn't try to live up to it. Thanks for reminding me of that with comparing yourself to a squirrel.
You kind of get to the point, in all this reception stuff, I think, that you're DONE making decisions. At the beginning it feels like every dang single decision will be vital to happiness and good memories... by the time the wedding is on the horizon I found myself telling my mom (my stacy perse) just do whatever. Do what you want. Whatever it is, I'll go along with it... meatballs themselves really can't be bad, can they? I mean, perhaps chocolate sauce woudln't be best. Or maybe it would be an amazing coup of gourmet creative thinking! In the end... everyone will remember you and how gorgeous you look and how happy you both are, not the meatballs :)
ReplyDeleteHow kind of you, Janell. :)
ReplyDeleteHave a wonderful wedding this weekend!
-Claire
So now that you are all kinds of married, I thought I'd check in and see how you're doing! (Since Nanowrimo is over and I'm no longer dreading the act of opening my laptop...)
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