Sunday in the kitchen

Do you have a Dutch friend? I do...and she's the very best. Not just because she's Dutch...she's beautiful and smart and so much fun to hang out with! And did I mention that she is Dutch? As in chocolate sprinkle sandwiches, and gouda cheese, and speculaas! I mean, who couldn't hang out with someone who eats chocolate sprinkle sandwiches! Who'd ever heard of such a thing?? I certainly hadn't in my mock-meat-sandwiches home. (I can't believe there was a time in my life when I actually ate mock chicken loaf sandwiches with processed cheese slices! Does anyone out there know what mock chicken loaf is? Wait...I don't want to know!) Then this whole exotic world of Dutch cuisine opened up to me when we became BFFs some 20-something years ago. I always looked forward to being invited over on New Year's Day for croquettes and oliebollen. And oh what I wouldn't do to get invited over for supper when meatball soup was on the menu! These memories all came flooding back recently when my father-in-law, who is also of Dutch heritage, made us meatball soup for Sunday lunch. It wasn't quite the same soup as I remembered from my high school days when my friend and I were inseparable, but it was pretty darn good. So good I had to try and make some for myself! I served it up with this delicious soda bread recipe. Eet smakelijk!

Meatball Soup
1 lb. ground beef 
1/2 C bread crumbs
1 onion
3 cloves of garlic
2 carrots, peeld and chopped
2 potatoes, peeled and chopped
2 stalks of celery
6 C soup stock
1 can of stewed tomatoes
4 large leaves of Swiss chard
Mix together meat and bread crumbs and form into meatballs. Fry at med./high heat in a large soup pot until browned on the outside. If you can do eggs, add an egg to the mixture - this will help hold them together better. Add onions and garlic and continue frying until onions are translucent. Add in potatoes, carrots and celery, before adding soup stock and tomatoes. Cover and simmer until vegetables are tender. Before serving, add chopped up Swiss chard to the pot.