Tasty, hearty fare satisfies winter appetites

Wow! It's the start of another year and it's time to tone down the consump­tion of rich, heavy meals and return to some down-­home "comfort" foods to bring the new year in properly.

The fudge is gone, the pies are eaten, and we're back in the "simple" mode. Such as this old recipe that my Norwegian Grandma used for to-die­ for meatballs. She made it with Mama's venison hamburger, leftover bread and used heavy cream for the sauce. You can do the same, or tone it down with milk.

Also, vegetarians can use ready-made soy meatballs, and using the spices in the recipe for the sauce to achieve the special flavor.

Norwegian Meatballs

4 tablespoons butter

1 small onion, chopped

2 slices hearty farm-type bread, crusts removed, bread torn into small pieces

2/3 cup vegetable broth or other cooking stock (beef is OK, but not chicken)

1 egg

1/ 4 teaspoon EACH ground allspice and ground pepper

1 pound lean ham­burger

Melt 2 tablespoons of the butter in a heavy skillet. Add onion and sauté until translucent, 5 minutes or so. Cool while combining bread and broth/stock in large bowl. Mix in onion mix­ture, egg and spices. Add ground meat and blend well. Shape into 1 1/4-inch balls. Melt remaining butter in large skillet over medium heat and sauté meatballs until cooked through and browned, turning occasionally, about 20 minutes. Remove to platter, keep while making sauce.

To make sauce, take reserved meatball drippings in skillet, add 2 tablespoons flour and stir over medium heat until beginning to brown. Gradually whisk in 1 1/3 cup stock or broth and 2 tablespoons cream.

Simmer until sauce is thick and smooth, stirring frequently, 5 minutes or so. Season to taste with allspice, salt and pepper. Pour over meatballs to serve.

Grandma just added the meatballs to the big iron skillet of sauce, stirred it up and served it.

Tip: You may do as Grandma did and use sour cream instead of whipping cream if you wish.

Grandma never served potatoes with her meat­balls, saying it wasn't proper. They were to be eaten with biscuits or cornbread. The next recipe isn't hers, but would go wonderfully with the meatballs.

Cranberry/Nut Cornbread

1 cup packed dried cranberries (not craisins)

1/2 cup fresh orange juice

1 cup all purpose flour

1 cup yellow cornmeal

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon ground car­damom

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups sour cream

1/3 cup real maple syrup

6 T (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, melted, cooled

2 teaspoons grated orange peel

1/2 cup chopped wal­nuts or pecans

In small bowl, combine cranberries and orange juice. Let stand 30 minutes or so. Stir occasion­ally, until cranberries soften slightly. Drain, discarding juice.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Generously coat 10-inch springform pan with butter. Mix flour, cornmeal, baking powder, salt, cardamom and bak­ing soda in large bowl.

In another bowl, whisk egg to blend, add sour cream maple syrup, melted but­ter and orange peel and whisk to blend well.

Add sour cream mix­ture to dry ingredients and stir just until blended Mix in nuts and cranber­ries. Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake about 35 minutes or until tester inserted in center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool completely in pan on rack. Serve at room temperature, cut into wedges.

To offset the richness of the meatballs and the slight sweetness of the cornbread, serve a simple cucumber, radish and red onion salad, tossed in a vinaigrette of olive oil, white wine vin­egar, dashed with sugar and sparked with black or dried crushed red pepper. What a satisfying supper!

I'll end today's column with a breakfast goodie, speciality of my other - German - Grandma, also a fabulous cook. This is her coffee cake, great in the morning, or for din­nertime dessert topped with cream.

Apple and Raisin Spiced Coffee Cake with Streusel

(Serves 8)

2 1/2 cups flour

1/2 cup chopped wal­nuts or pecans

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/3 cup chilled butter, cut up into bits

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon EACH ground allspice and nut­ meg

1 cup sugar

1/3 cup butter, room temperature

1 large egg

1 cup whole milk (soy or reconstituted canned OK)

1 cup raisins

1 cup chopped peeled tart green apple (Granny Smith or similar)

Powdered sugar

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter 9x9x2-inch baking pan.

Combine 1/3 cup flour, nuts, brown sugar and 1 teaspoon cinnamon in bowl. With fingertips, rub in 1/3 cup chilled butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Set aside — this is the streusel.

Sift 2 cups flour, 1 tea­spoon cinnamon, baking powder, allspice and nut­meg into medium bowl. In large bowl, beat 1 cup sugar and 1/3 cup of room-temperature butter until light and fluffy. Add egg; beat well. Mix dry ingre­dients into butter mixture alternately with milk, a little at a time. Stir in raisins and apples. Spoon half the batter into pre­pared pan. Sprinkle half of streusel over batter.

Carefully spoon remain­ing batter over streusel, then sprinkle remaining streusel evenly over all.

Bake about 45 minutes or until tester comes out clean. Cool in pan on rack, store at room tem­perature. Sift powdered sugar over top of cake and serve warm or at room temperature.

(Editor’s note: For many years, Valle Novak has written gardening and cooking columns for the Daily Bee. “Weekend Gardener” and “Country Chef” became renowned for their humor, information and common sense advice on how to do everything from planting to cooking. While she recently retired, she has shared a number of columns to delight her many fans. This is one such column and was originally published on Jan. 3, 2010.)