Sunday, February 27, 2011

Meatloaf

Hi;

Sorry to be gone for so long. I've become a slave to my embroidery machine and have been working toward building my embroidery/crafty business to generate enough income to cook? All I know is I need to find a way to split my time between half food and half craft. Oh wait, then i'll need half mother, half wife, half driver, half soccer mom, half crochet gal, half Loopers! teacher, and half - shouldn't there be a moment for me in there?

I've also been featured on The Art of Crochet, or rather my gnomes have!



...they may be little but Gnomes keep you busy! I have a new 'line' of spring gnomes which I shall add to the loopersaustin page.

ANYway, that being said; with Connor's math pentathlon club on Monday after school and his soccer practice Tuesday and Thursday and social life on Friday that leaves Wednesday as the only day in a week we can eat at home! *there's not enough time to come home and then get back to soccer or life and it's after 8 till we get home and no one can wait till then to eat. You'd think I could cook Wednesday but that's husband's "night out with the boys" *you'll notice a serious lack of my night out with the girls, boys or anyone without the child in tow* anyway, Connor likes me too cook little things he loves like the fettuccine alfredo with shrimp or something out of the freezer on "our" nights so it's never really a cooking day.

So, for the next few weeks, i'll be cooking on Sunday for our Sunday night meal and that's it till the next weekend. I hate not being able to cook but I am going to try to figure some way around it.

In the meantime welcome to this week's one meal ... meatloaf. Ya, I have a hankering. So we're having meatloaf, mashed potatoes, steamed green beans and cauliflower with cheese and a crazy crunchy panko topping. mmm meatloafy!

I make my meatloaf with 1 lb each of pork and sirloin. I run it through the food processor a little with some saltines that I crush and soak in milk. I add some fried onions, soft not brown, a squirt of ketchup and mustard, some Worcestershire. I salt and pepper with a heavy hand. 2 eggs and as many breadcrumbs as it takes to make a barely cohesive blob and there ya go.

I always cook my meatloaf free form and on slices of bread. The bread soaks up all the excess grease and gets crunchy and soaked with beef fat but doesn't actually burn. Yeah break off a shard or two of that and tell me how much you love it!

I squirt a little ketchup and a little barbeque sauce on top and rub it on gently, a very thin coating that I then cover with strips of bacon. Trust me, if there's a way to add bacon that I can snack on while dinner cooks, I'm there. I cook it at 325 for an hour and a half (2 lbs loaf) with bacon slices on top so I can snack while I cook.

I made a tasty onion gravy to go with it all and it was rather yummy. Of course my attempt at a family dinner blew up, no one ended up eating and I threw most of it away but I'll say this, it was delish!



go make a meatloaf, they're yummy, cheap and I think better later in the week as a leftovermeatloafcheeseburger sandwich (one of Connor's favorites!) Just make sure you eat it with people you love, who love you back because that's the best way.

/enjoy




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