There Will Be Meat TND/ Happy Birthday Ben Edition

For Ben's birthday TND of choice, he demanded MEAT. After I offered him a menu of carnivorous choices, he picked Swedish meatballs (courtesy of Tyler Florence) and a coconut lime gateau recipe that I found in my British cookbook, The Cook's Companion by Carole Clements. Ben may have his faults, but the boy does have good taste.

I tried to lessen my load by dividing and conquering the dinner's different components. On Sunday pre- Julie and Julia/crepes, I mixed up the pork/beef, spice, herb, etc. meatball mixture. Post- brunchfest, I rolled them into shaped and cooked four pounds of meatballs up. It was a full three pan affair. Mmmm.


Monday morning, I whipped up the coconut lime gateau and christened by newly acquired star pan (thank you Wes!). After surviving pre-grad class spazzing and snarfing down a sizable meal back at my roost, I concocted some coconut butter cream frosting and decorated the cake. Better still, the frosting stayed together!

With nearly all the prep done, I simply put together a quick sauce Tuesday night, added the meatballs, and let it all warm through. The result: Savory Swedish meatball success (great leftovers too) and a much-loved cake (not bad looking either).

So far, next TND remains undecided, but with a long weekend ahead, I'm hoping to make something extra-exciting ( :

Cupcake update: I rewarded myself with Lavender Moon's peanut butter devil's food cupcake after my first grad class. Mmm.. lots of peanut butter frosting, moist chocolate cake, I liked it best of the bunch. I still want to try their lemon curd filled vanilla bean though....