A Comforting Dinner

An early winter's storm is supposed to roll in

tonight, so it seemed a good time to serve some

comforting Midwestern fare.

First up was a meatloaf.

This time around I purchased about 2/3 of a pound of

ground beef,

1/2 pound ground veal and

1/2 pound ground pork.

To this I added:

1 minced celery rib (cleaned and trimmed)

1/2 carrot finely shredded (peeled first, please)

2 garlic cloves, grated

1/4 cup onion, grated

1 teaspoon dried Herbes de Provence

1/2 tablespoon kosher salt

2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

4 teaspoons Sycamore Falls™ Original Style Barbecue Sauce

50 grinds black pepper (about 1/2 teaspoon)

1 egg

1/2 cup bread crumbs

Mash the meat together with a fork* together

in order to avoid over mixing the meat.

*Or as Sandra Lee would say, "fork it."

Twit.

Add in the other ingredients.*

*I wouldn't recommend this method as one should

rather attempt to mix the ingredients as equally as possible.

I did this just for demonstration purposes.

Do as I say, not as I do.

Mix well with a fork.

Remember, your patience will be rewarded.

Shape and turn out into a baking dish.



Cover with more barbecue sauce.







Now on to the second dish.



I picked up a package of Klondike Medley™ potatoes.



I also have onion, bacon, salt and black pepper.






Here we have Peruvian purple potatoes,

red skinned potatoes, Yukon potatoes,

onions and bacon.








I urge you to seek out these Peruvian beauties.



They really don't taste any different, but they are lovely

on the plate.

I roast them with onion, salt and pepper in a 400 degree oven
for 1 hour,

adding the bacon for the last half-hour.






Finally, we have the Brussels sprouts.



I have had a hankering for these lately,

but unfortunately, it is difficult to buy them

- at least in limited quantities -

at our local stores.



I purchased three sprouts, but had to remove several

outer leaves due to mildew.

I also have bacon, sugar, salt and black pepper.









I have found through trial and error that I best like these

beauties when their leaves are exposed so that they

are exposed to the heat and can be caramelized.



This is tedious work,

but I find that I like to do my prep work for dinner

earlier in the day.



It is somehow restful for me.




After the bacon has been mostly cooked through,

the Brussels spout leaves are added to the pan.



Then the sugar, salt and pepper are added.





This is cooked until the sprouts are lightly caramelized.

And dinner is served.

I'm a happy Foodie.

Mini Meatloaves and a Very Good Meal

The Foodie Daughter had recently asked for meatloaf with a twist. Well, doesn't she know me well? I think I can rise to this challenge.

First of all we will begin by making mini-meatloaves. Then we will be covering each meatloaf with bacon. What's not to love?

Then I move on to one of the Foodie Daughter's favorite side dishes - pea salad.

For the next side dish I cut a few stems of flat leaf parsley (Italian parsley).


Just so you can get an idea of the size of these leaves, here is a quarter. These are some serious parsley leaves.

I chopped the parsley before adding them to a couple of tablespoons of softened butter.

Here I have a medley of mixed baby potatoes.

They were cleaned, and cooked in the microwave for several minutes until soft.

Then the herbed butter was stirred in and salt and black pepper were added to the mix.

Once the desired temperature of 160 degrees was reached, the mini meatloaves were removed from the oven and the meat was allowed to rest.

I decided to let my meatloaf rest on my plate.

Can I eat yet? Please?

At least can I eat the potatoes?

Okay, why haven't I made this again?

Let's Talk Turkey - Roulade

I finally broke down and bought a real meat mallet and I was itching to try a recipe that actually required the use of said mallet. But what to make? Well, we haven't had turkey in a while, so I bought some turkey cutlets that I could play with.

As often happens, I simply could not find a recipe for turkey roulade that I liked, so I made up my own recipe. Come along and watch the fun.

Let's see: we have three turkey cutlets, some Dijon mustard, 2 pesto portions, thinly sliced deli ham, and provolone cheese slices. Since my daughter loves her mozzarella cheese, I used that for her turkey roulade.

Place a turkey cutlet between plastic wrap.

Then pound away. See how letting a bit of aggression out works?

Spread some Dijon mustard on the cutlet.

Add the ham slices...

Next, the nice pesto...

And finally add the cheese.

Roll tightly and place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. This helps the roll to hold its shape and I didn't need to tie the roulade.

Now we cook. I seasoned with salt and black pepper before searing the roulades on all sides.

At this point, I put the pan in the oven and let the turkey roulades finish cooking. Once the internal temperature reached 165 degrees, I pulled them out of the oven and covered for 5 minutes. Notice that the turkey roulades stayed in a nice roll all through the cooking process.

I think we have a winner. The pesto and Dijon mustard added a nice bite to the roulades, while the ham and cheese added more flavor to the turkey.

Meanwhile, I got busy with a side dish. I had been wanting to try a turnip dish, but knew I would have to sneak it into my unsuspecting family's dinner.

Clockwise from left we have a turnip, red potatoes, a carrot, a russet potato, vidalia onion, some freshly dried rosemary and the remaining red onions from my garden (they were supposed to grow up to be scallions, but they apparently decided to skip that step).

This was also a great way to clear out my produce bin.

What a colorful mix. Add salt and pepper and toss with olive oil. Bake for one hour in a 350 to 375 degree oven.

After 30 minutes I added some sliced crimini mushrooms and returned the pan to the oven.

Hee, hee. No one even asked about the turnips. I'm good, oh yeah.

Beans, Take Four

Another day, another way to cook some of my seemingly never-ending supply of home-grown green beans. My husband's friend also gave us some lovely potatoes from his garden, so we'll incorporate those in tonight's dish too.

Here we have the home-grown potatoes, some home-grown green beans, a store-bought shallot and two slices of bacon.

First I trimmed the ends of the beans and blanched them as usual.

Meanwhile, I cleaned the potatoes and cut them in bite size pieces before placing them in water to prevent discoloration.

Drain the potatoes and green beans and pat dry before tossing with the bacon and 1/2 of a shallot that has been sliced lengthwise.

Add kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper. I also tossed in the extra sprig of fresh rosemary and a couple of thyme stems that were left over from the pork loin that I was also making for tonight's dinner.

After about an hour in a 350 degree oven, the potatoes and green beans are ready to serve. Hmm, some of the green beans were more well-done than others. Note to self: should have turned the pan.

Oh well, it was still good and it was a nice combination. In fact, my darling daughter liked it so much that she claimed the remainder of the dish for herself.

I can't wait for... that watermelon fizz. Er, no. That's not it. I can't wait to see what kinds of green bean dishes Rosie Hawthorne comes up with for me.

Thanksgiving Day Treats

A couple of days ago, I promised an update on the preparations for Turkey Day. Your patience has finally been rewarded. My lovely daughter finished classes prior to Thanksgiving break and immediately set to work in the kitchen.

Kelley has the ingredients ready for pumpkin muffins. Our friend, Jen, graciously gave us this recipe.

Kelley begins the mixing process. Can I tell you that she is very meticulous about everything being just right?

She's mixing in the flour - slowly.

Now Kelley has decided to add cinnamon to the mixture.

After making 2 dozen mini muffins, Kelley makes some regular sized muffins.




The finished product. So tender and moist. What a terrific recipe!

Kelley is using all the space available for her mise en place for Snickerdoodle cookies.

The Snickerdoodles are being mixed together.




Kelley uses the classic method to shape her cookies. Meanwhile, I roll the balls in a cinnamon sugar mixture and place them on the baking sheets.




The cookies are baked to perfection.

Earlier, Kelley made a coffee cake. I missed the chance to document the process. This too was delicious and was eagerly devoured. My daughter made all of these dishes from scratch. I'm so lucky.

What was I doing during this time? Besides taking pictures, I acted as sous chef, readying ingredients and cleaning up after my daughter. Aside from that, my husband had volunteered my services to the bank where he works as they needed a bow for a 5 foot diameter wreath. As my first job included bow making - hundreds of bows - I am quite good at this. There are 30 ten-inch loops in this bow with 6 tails. This bow had to be made in two stages as my hand was cramping quite badly.

Later I prepared a garlic studded standing prime rib roast. The roast apparently got tired after cooking because it fell over.

Roasted Yukon Gold Potatoes accompanied the beef.