April 30, 2013

April 12, 2013

The Meatloaf

Ok, I know what some people may think...

Meatloaf is boring...
Ugh! It's so thick...
It can be so dry...


NOT!!

I love meatloaf.  And to be honest, I make a meatloaf using the same kinds of ingredients I use for burgers...but to me, its sooo much better as a meatloaf.

What did I use? You should recall from my lasagna post that I used 1/2 lb each of beef & pork.  Well, here are the other halves.

1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground pork
1 egg white
breadcrumbs
1/4 onion
charred pineapple relish (Harry & David...get on it!)
2 or 3 petite carrots
Paprika
Cayenne Pepper
S&P
EVOO

I blended the onion - EVOO in my Ninja blender to make a little puree of it all.
I mixed together the meat, egg white & breadcrumb. 
Then I added in the puree and folded all of it together.
Then I turned it all over into an ungreased loaf pan.
Baked at 350 (or maybe 375) for...I don't know how long. I was reading while it cooked. I did baste it a couple of times using its own juices.
I ended up doing that one-handed because I had a ring on & totally forgot to take it off.
And the loaf pan I used was stoneware.

Here's the finished product:


I chose to baste it because I used the charred pineapple relish, which is sweet with a kick because its got jalapenos in it, and I wanted some of that to help the meat brown up all pretty-like.

Now, I have made this same meatloaf recipe using ground chicken and ground turkey.  The only difference is that I use a little bit more oil, because ground poultry doesn't have as high an oil content as ground beef or pork. Even lean ground beef or pork has more oil in it than ground poultry.

I have also made it using other kinds of relishes.  I love Harry & David so I keep their relish in stock as much as I can. I have used their Vidalia onion relish & their pepper and onion relish.  It's all good!

So that was this week. Who knows what will be done next.

TTFN!!!

I Got Bit

So, imagine this:

It's the hottest day of the year so far.

The chill (and snow) of Winter is gone.

You're in the time where you don't need the heat, you can go without air conditioning & you might need a fan.

And you get bit.............by the cooking bug.

That's what happened to me this week folks. And I'm now just realizing just how long this week was because it felt like I cooked last week.  But it was Monday...and today is Friday.

Anyway, the first thing I cooked was a deconstructed lasagna.  I've never cooked lasagna before, primarily because it just seemed like too much work.  But a few months ago I saw someone on Food Network do an un-layered lasagna & they just broke up the lasagna noodles & put them in the baking dish. NO LAYERING.  So I decided then that I would do one like that.  I hadn't had lasagna in years so it was the perfect way to do it so that I could cook it myself and manage what went into it.

So, as I have said before, I measure nothing. Here's what I used (off the top of my head because I did this 4 days ago):


EVOO
1/2 lb ground beef
1/2 lb ground sausage
1/2 onion
garlic
oregano
basil
S&P
reduced fat ricotta
fresh parsley (mixed in w/the ricotta)
1 jar of Ragu tomato sauce (tomato & basil, I think)
large fusilli pasta
some pasta water used to loosen up the sauce

I cooked the meat, & added the seasonings, then added the onion & a pinch of salt & couple grinds of pepper, waited a few min & added the garlic. Once the onions were translucent I added the Ragu. Then I mixed the ricotta and parsley in a bowl and added a little salt to that and stirred that into the mix.  Then I drained the pasta & reserved about a cup of the pasta water.  I added that to the sauce to get a consistency that looked decent to me. Then I folded in the pasta and let it cook a little on the stove top.

Then I poured it into a baking dish, topped with shredded mozzarella & Parmesan cheese & baked until the cheese melted.

Here's the finished product:

 

 
And it is mighty tasty!!! Since I used beef & pork, I can't share this with my mom, so I froze about 2/3 of it & the remains of the other 1/3 is in my fridge right now.
 
 
Next post:  Meatloaf