Bat Out Of Hell - Meatloaf Ring filled with Peas and Corn

This is less of a recipe and more of a suggestion.  When I threw it together earlier this week, I was feeling grim, and only the thought of spoiled meat propelled me forward like a bat out of hell.  I measured nothing, nor did I take even one diddly photograph.

More metal sculpture, no meatloaf

If you've ever made a meatloaf, you know it is an inexact science.  Which kind of ground meat are you using, and what is the fat content?  Are you using large or jumbo eggs?  Heinz or DelMonte ketchup?  (If you're not using Heinz ketchup, we have nothing to say to each other.)  Meatloaf is one of those dishes that can't be precisely measured, nor tasted while preparing it.  You need to rely on look and touch, along with memory of what worked well for you last time.  While I never make meatloaf the same way, there are some basics I can always go back to.  Ground beef, no pork, veal, or poultry.  Grated onion.  An egg.  Heinz ketchup.  Matzo meal.  Kosher salt, black pepper and granulated garlic.  Meatloaf is never an elegant dish.  It is a Mom's dish, one of the best ways to feed a family without pulling every spice out of your cabinet or having to construct a mise en place for Iron Chef Morimoto.  Meatloaf is the kind of dish you eat when your jaws are tired from talking too much in court or when you are recovering from extensive dental work.  Those are also the times you serve the meatloaf with mashed potatoes.

Swirling Doodle

Chelsea Doodle

This meatloaf is a little bit fancier than that, but not by much.  It was heartwarming, but not boring.  It was pretty, but not precious.  It had good flavor without blowing off the top of your head.

Meatloaf Ring filled with Peas and Corn

1 1/2 pounds ground market beef
1/2 onion, grated
1/2 carrot, grated
1 jumbo egg
3/4 cup Heinz ketchup
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
kosher salt, black pepper, granulated garlic - to taste
1 envelope Lipton's Vegetable Soup & Dip mix (crush the unopened envelope to break up the contents a bit)

Heinz Balsamic Vinegar ketchup
3 slices bacon, cut into quarters

1 cup each frozen green peas and corn

Your favorite recipe of mashed potatoes, from 4 large potatoes (I made mine with sour cream, horseradish, and chives.  Just an idea.)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Combine the first eight ingredients in a medium bowl. Using your hands, mix well, incorporating all the ingredients.  Wet your hands with some cool water to work the meat mixture.  Pat the meat down into the bowl, cover the bowl with an aluminum baking dish, and turn over so the meat falls into the pan.  Using your hands, form the meat into an even ring with a center large enough to hold the peas and corn.  Wet your hands one last time and smooth the meat, closing any cracks.

Squirt a good amount of the balsamic vinegar ketchup on top of the meatloaf, and smooth all over the meat.  Drape the bacon slices at even intervals all around the meatloaf ring.  Place in the preheated oven and bake for an hour, until the meat is cooked through and the bacon is starting to render and crisp.

Cook the peas and corn according to package directions, drain, and add a bit of butter and salt.  With a large spoon, remove excess cooking liquid from the meatloaf baking dish, with extra care to the center of the ring.  Spoon the peas and corn into the center of the ring, and pile mashed potatoes on either side.  And for God's sake, take a picture!

Way Past Midnight Musings - Crockpot Beer Brats

January 17, 2015 - Here it is 3:36 AM, and I cannot sleep.  Instead, I am in the kitchen, slicing onions and peppers and opening a package of Johnsonville beer bratwurst.  I am wide awake, and indeed it is my own fault.  I should known better than to skip the Melatonin, to stay glued to my iPad, to read the news, to listen to music, all when my body and mind need so desperately to unwind.

Crockpot Beer Brats

1 large onion, halved and sliced lengthwise

1/2 each of red, yellow, and green bell peppers, sliced lengthwise

1 package of Johnsonville Beer Bratwurst, each brat cut on a long diagonal into 4 slices

1 - 15 oz. can German potato salad

2 tablespoons each white vinegar and water

sugar, kosher salt, black pepper

parsley flakes

Add the onion, peppers, and bratwurst to a 4 quart crockpot.  Add the German potato salad.  To the can, add the vinegar, water, sugar, salt and pepper.  Swish the liquid inside the can to catch any remaining sauce. Pour this into the crockpot.  Sprinkle parsley flakes over the top.  Cover and cook on low until 10:00 AM, or approximately 6 hours.  Stir well and season to taste with salt and pepper.

This is a crockpot version of a super easy recipe I've been making on top of the stove for at least 30 years.  I guess I'll find out sometime tomorrow if this version works.

IT WORKED!!

For the most part, the potatoes broke up and gently melted into the sauce, which is what I was hoping for.  I think I would love this dish over my homemade spaetzle.  That's a tomorrow task, along with the chicken. Tonight we eat out.  Whoo hoo.

And now from the Feeling Sorry For Myself Department: For all my positive talk about the advantages of getting older, I live in (sometimes) silent fear of the side effects.  Whatever the direct cause - menopause, fibro fog, the early glimmerings of inevitable senile dementia, or even my worst nightmare, Alzheimer's - my mind just ain't what it used to be.  My memory, my cognitive abilities, my mental energy, all of these seem to me to be ever-so-slightly impaired.  I am half the woman I used to be, and I'm not just talking about my weight.  I find certain tasks more difficult to complete, especially in a timely manner and I don't like that.

So I guess all that stuff about getting older being a liberating experience is just so much false bravado.  Sure, I like getting senior discounts when I'm booking cruises and hotel rooms, but that's hardly a fair trade off for aging brain cells.

Or maybe this is all just the damn fibromyalgia playing with my emotions.

Somehow, It's Friday - Crockpot Eggplant Parmesan

January 16, 2015 - Somehow, it's Friday, and I have a long weekend ahead of me.  I would jump for joy, but that would set off a chain reaction of angry nerve endings and aggravated muscles.  If I could jump for joy, I would have continued in taekwando; sadly, I can do neither.

With my backache and foggy brain, I am struggling to complete a project here at my desk, and my slowness is making me unhappy.  I brought lunch - some of the eggplant parmesan - so I could keep working without having to pick up food outside.  I am taking a short break to swallow some Advil and clear my head.  The eggplant is delicious.  I am no vegetarian, but this dish could make me forget meat, at least temporarily.  Possibly until dinner time.

My little shawl is starting to take form.  As the rows get longer, the color changes will become more dramatic.  Eventually, they will become long enough that the color changes will defuse again.  Should make for an interesting finished piece.  Knitting during TV watching has been pleasant. Except when the Magic are playing, because then I've got to stand up and holler at the screen.

Back to work at my desk.  Those Advil did not go down well, and I cannot guarantee they will stay down.  What a completely craptastic day.

One thing - maybe the only thing - that was kind of good was lunch.  I'm back into my crockpot phase, and this time I adapted my eggplant parm for long cooking.  It came out so good, I surprised myself.  From a preparation standpoint, I loved not having to bread and fry it first.

Crockpot Eggplant Parmesan

2 eggplants (long rather than wide shaped), peeled, sliced lengthwise into 8 slices each
roasted garlic olive oil
Italian flavor bread crumbs
1 - 24 oz. jar spicy marinara sauce
about a pound of different Italian cheeses - I used sliced provolone, shredded mozzarella, grated Romano, and shaved Parmesan - basically the contents of my cheese drawer.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.   Brush some of the garlic oil onto a rimmed baking sheet.  Lay out half the eggplant slices and brush with more of the oil.  Sprinkle on bread crumbs, then turn and repeat.  Place in the oven and bake until the eggplant begins to soften and the crumbs turn medium brown.  Remove from the oven, turn the slices over and bake. Repeat with the remaining slices.

Place a small amount of the sauce in the bottom of the crock.  Layer with 4 of the eggplant slices,  ladle on one-fourth of the remaining sauce, then cover with one or two of your chosen cheeses.  Repeat until the eggplant is used up, ending with a sliced cheese layer.  Cover and cook on low for 4 to 5 hours.  Check after 4 hours for the doneness of the eggplant, then add only as much time needed for it to be done the way you like it.  It should still be a little toothsome.

You can serve this from the crockpot or carefully move to a baking dish and slide into the oven for a few minutes to brown the cheese slightly. Either way, this is an awesome dish.

(No, I did not bother to salt the slices - I always look to buy "male" eggplants, which have less seeds and are therefore less bitter.  Male eggplants do not have a "dimple" in their bottom rounded end.)

Shake Your (Metal) Booty - Chocolate Mint Birthday Cupcakes

January 15, 2015 - Some days are from hell and others are all right.  I would have to say that today didn't suck.  I got stuff done.  I had a few bad moments, and at the end of the day I lost my will to run by Publix for eggs, but I got stuff done. And now it feels good to be home because frankly, I'm running out of steam.

I took these shots last week when the sky was blue and the air was clear. This piece, titled "Copacabana Wave" is the latest tenant on that particular cement block in back of my office complex.  The photo simply does not do it justice.

I did not see this particular sculpture until walking back to my car I happened to look up, and glad I did.  This evoked a whole range of emotions from laughing out loud and big smiles to WTF??, and "nice booty."

I am beginning to end my cupcake cycle, so here is one of the two easy recipes I worked on this week - chocolate mint birthday cupcakes.

Chocolate Mint Birthday Cupcakes

1 - 18.25 oz. pkg. white cake mix
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup canola oil
3 large eggs (I had to use 2 jumbos instead)
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
chocolate mint chips, optional

2 - 16 oz. tubs Hershey's Special Dark Frosting

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon pure peppermint extract

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Set up muffin tins with 24 paper liners. Combine the cake mix, sour cream, oil, eggs and 1 teaspoon vanilla in a large bowl.  Combine on low for one minute; scrape down the sides, then beat for 2 minutes.  Portion into the muffin tins.  If you wish, pleace 4 or 5 chocolate mint chips on top of each cupcake.  Bake for 18 to 22 minutes. Cool in the tins for 15 minutes, then remove the cupcakes to wire racks to cool completely.

Stir the frosting together with the extracts.  Frost the cooled cupcakes using your favorite method.  I like to pipe the frosting onto the cupcakes using a large star tip.  I also placed one chocolate mint chip on the very top of the frosting.

These were so good even I ate a whole one.  And most important, the birthday girl loved them.

Lovely Lemon Cupcakes coming to a blog post real soon.

Strolling Down the Chocolate Minty Mile

January 14, 2015 - It is so difficult to describe what it feels like.  It feels bad.  There are much worse pains, for sure.  It is just that these go on and on and on.  They make you tired.

I am so tired.

What makes it worse - or more weird - are the moments of  joy scattered in between the hours of  mind-numbing discomfort.  A good morning in court with our new judge.  A crazy happy greeting from my furry kids.  An order from the Fifth District Court of Appeals affirming a favorable ruling.  Sitting on the couch watching TV with my husband.  Laughing with my office peeps.  Listening to music.  Snapping pictures of Kissimmee street sculpture.  Exchanging Mel Brooks' quotes with my son.

Today I have the trifecta.  Pain from the back of my head to my lower back. Insane itching along my entire left arm and hand.  Constant movement in my feet and legs.  There's a little fibro fog in my head, but I can still function.  Sort of, anyway.

The eggplants are still sitting, unmolested, in my fridge while the lemon cupcakes shiver in frozen nakedness, still hoping I will cap each of them with a lemon frosting hat.  "Progress" is nothing more than a word of aspiration.

My back was breaking and then it wasn't.  The ibuprofen kicked in all of a sudden. (Insert smiley face).  Better living through chemistry indeed.  If only this blessed relief could outrun the inevitable exhaustion.

If only ... well, I may pay for it later, but I pushed forward to finish two projects that just had to get done.  The eggplant parmesan is all set up in the crock, but I'm leaving that in the refrigerator overnight and will fire up the crockpot tomorrow afternoon.  It should only take four hours, even coming right out from the fridge.  The other project involved cupcakes but not those lovely lemon jobs.  Those still wait to be properly dressed.

Tomorrow we are going out to lunch to celebrate a couple of January birthdays, including my friend Terry.  Usually, come Christmas I fill up a bag with all different variations of the chocolate mint theme for her, but this year I just did not make it.  So I baked some cupcakes tonight to help celebrate her birthday in chocolate minty style.  If nothing else, they came out awfully purty.

The cake is a basic white sour cream cake, made with a white cake mix, scooped into pretty pink paper and spotted with some chocolate mint chips.  The topping starts with Hershey's Special Dark frosting, mixed with some vanilla and pure peppermint extracts, and then piped extra high for a dramatic finish.  I just hope these taste as good as they look.

The eggplant is your basic layered parm with sauce and cheese, but I treated the eggplant a little differently with roasted garlic oil and Italian bread crumbs, then a short run in a 400 degree oven.  I also cleaned out my deli drawer of Italian cheeses, so no two cheese layers are exactly the same.

I'll type up the recipes tomorrow.  Right now I'm watching the Magic play the Houston Rockets.  It's been a nail-biter since tip-off.