Just call me Chaviva

I managed to make an incredibly, amazingly delicious dinner this evening, so I decided I had to share. The recipe came out of one of the cookbooks I'd checked out from Chicago Public Libraries, and I seriously regret not putting down which book it was. I'm pretty sure, though, that it was the World of Jewish Cooking. The main dish was Klops -- Eastern European Sweet-and-Sour Meatballs, which I paired with a small salad and leftover potato kugel (always delicious!). Here is the dish uncooked:

The pride and joy of this meatball situation was that I managed to melt the sugar WITHOUT burning it. This is the second time this week that I was able to cook something difficult without screwing it up (the first being the salmon from several days ago). I'm actually starting to like cooking. Interesting, eh? So in that dish there you have the meatballs (made with matzo meal), and the sweet-and-sour sauce with tomatoes and onions and other delicious things. After an hour and a half of cooking (yes, this seemed like a lot, but really they came out perfectly), they looked like this:
I wish I could describe to you how delicious these meatballs were. I have plenty left, of course, which delights my senses. The sauce looks a lot thicker than it actually was. I'm not sure if the sauce was meant to be thicker, but either way, it worked perfectly -- the meat absorbed the flavor perfectly, making for some juicy, succulent meat. There are some recipes for klops on the interwebs, but seeing as I had such success with my version and since it came from an amazing cookbook (all were amazing, but I'm 99 percent sure it's the World of Jewish Cooking one), I'm going to stick with mine.

If you're interested in the recipe, let me know and I'll type it up and send it your way. It's sweet, it's savory, it's comfort food! Not to mention, all and all not so bad for you either!

With less than 24 hours to go until the end of Pesach, I have a LOT of leftover kosher l'Pesach food -- matzo meal, potato starch, matzo, matzo farfel, etc. Luckily, matzo meal is as good as bread crumbs and potato starch is a good substitute. Not to mention I plan on making these meatballs every couple of weeks, so hopefully I can use up the leftover matzo meal.

But I'll admit. I'm ready to get back to my frozen waffles and English muffins and grilled cheese sandwiches.

Chag sameach!