Boston Meatball Takedown - Swedish Meatballs

Two weeks ago, I got an email from a guy named Tim about this thing called a "Takedown".  He'd found my blog somewhere, and invited me to participate in a Meatball Takedown that would be doing on June 30th at the Armory in Somerville.  I though it sounded fabulous, and knew my friend Ann would be into it since she's Swedish (so she obviously loves meatballs), and thus team "Thor" was born.  Ann was SO excited about putting together something similar to her grandma's meatball recipe - we were going to do Sweden proud!  These meatballs are juicy, authentic (with a few twists), full of flavor...and worth the work!

There were really no rules...just make 225-250 meatballs and have them at the Armory 30 minutes before the 2pm start.  We decided baking everything Sunday morning would be too rushed, so Ann and I got together Saturday evening to put everything together.  Without giving away Ann's family recipe, I will tell you this...they included ground beef and pork, bacon, spiced pecans, and a ton of spices.  :)  Pretty cool, hunh?

Swedish meatballs are served with brown gravy and a dollop of lingonberry sauce (you can buy it here).  It really is a must and will make the meal!  YUM.

We got to the Armory, plugged in our electric skillet to reheat the meatballs we'd made the day before, and got our table set up.  We decided to "Swede-out" and had SO much fun making our table decorations.  There was a poster full of things Swedes love and jokes on IKEA, a tablecloth that looked like Sweden's flag, Swedish Fish garland, and blue and yellow sparkles!

In addition to being fantastic cooks, everyone participating was SO nice.  We lucked and ended up with some fantastic 'neighbors' that made the afternoon even more fun.  In addition to the Swedish meatballs we brought, there were several classic Italian meatballs, meatballs with mint, short-rib meatballs, Mexican meatballs that were served with a squirt of tequila, Bulgogi meatballs, chicken meatballs that were deep fried in waffle batter, Aibondigos meatballs, and a Thanksgiving-style meatball (turkey and stuffing ball in a cranberry sauce).  That's just a few...it was seriously crazy!  Everything was SO different, which made the event a ton of fun.  We served meatballs for 1 hour and 30 minutes straight, with the crowds slowing down around 3:30.

Here are some shots of other participants and their yummy food!

Matt Timms - the mastermind behind "The Takedowns"

Since Paula Deen has been fired from so many of her gigs, she had to resort to showing up at our meatball challenge.    These meatballs were "guaranteed to give you type 2 diabetes".  Ouch!

And of course, some of our sweet friends who came to taste our goods!

Unfortunately, we didn't win the takedown, but we still had a "Swede-tastic" time.  I hear there will be an Ice Cream Takedown in August, so if you're in the Boston area, you should definitely do it!  We'll be there with bells on!

Even if you don't live in Boston, you should still check out TheTakedowns.com - he does competitions in other cities too!