Meatballs again - this time with sauce. I'm not letting Ikea beat me you see!

I've been away on work for a while and havent been able to update my blog. I could have posted on auto-scheduling but I was just plain lazy. Anyway.

I know that I mentioned previously that my son likes the meatballs at Ikea. I also know that I mentioned that he prefers just the meatballs without the sauce or lingonberry jam that Ikea serves. You must realise though that he said this about a year ago and I guess that times change and tastes change too.

Now he says that he also likes the meatballs with sauce -just like how they serve it at Ikea. Ditto said my daugther.

My son explained that "Daddy's meatballs are nice but the one's from Ikea are quite nice too."

My daughter went on to say, "I like the... that kind of sauce... you know at Ikea... they have that light brown kind of creamy sauce."

Can you see the the smoke coming out of my ears? Like in the cartoons? And can you hear the sound of the train blowing its horn as the smoke came out of my ears??!!

I couldn't very well let my children grow up thinking that Ikea's meatballs are better than mine. No way! I had to try to make this blasted sauce that they seemed to like so much. I admit, I tried making a brown sauce once by cooking a roux till it became brown - but no, it wasnt well received.

This time, I reckoned on making a sauce out of the drippings. You see, I bake my meatballs before taking them out and giving them a quick 'toast' in a hot pan. Baking the meatballs yields a lot of drippings and this would be precisely what would give the sauce a lovely flavour.

I reduced the drippings over high heat for a while and then added in a tbsp of flour to make a roux. Then I added in some milk and cooked it till it thickened up slightly, added in some Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper and I had a lovely sauce that I reckoned would put the Ikea sauce to shame!

The kids had to give their seal of approval though and I waited with almost bated breath as they dipped their meatballs into the sauce and then ate them. My son declared the meatballs and sauce BETTER than Ikea while my daughter gave me a 10 out of 10 for both - she's into scoring my meals nowadays! They both liked the sauce so much that they added it together with the Mushroom and Spinach Pasta I had cooked.



I'm always happy when my Children enjoy a good homecooked meal but this time I got an extra bit of satisfaction knowing that I had beaten Ikea at their own meatballs!!!