Seth's Favorite Meat Loaf

Seth's Favorite Meatloaf

Meatloaf:
1 cup Whole Milk
6 slices Martin's Potato Bread
1 pound Ground Beef
1 pound Ground Pork
1 cup (heaping) Italian 6-Cheese Blend
1/4 Teaspoon Seasoned Salt
3/4 Teaspoon Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
2 Tablespoons dried Parsley
4 Whole Eggs, Beaten
10 slices Thin/regular Bacon
Sauce:
1 1/2 Cup Ketchup
1/3   Cup Brown Sugar
1   teaspoon Dry Mustard
  Frank's Red Hot to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Pour milk over the bread slices. Allow it to soak in for several minutes.

Place the ground beef, milk-soaked bread, cheese, seasoned salt, salt, black pepper, and parsley in a large mixing bowl. Pour in beaten eggs. If mixture is too loose, add dry crumbs - just enough to hold the loaf together.

Mix the ingredients until well combined. Form the mixture into a loaf shape on a broiler pan, which will allow the fat to drain.

Lay bacon slices over the top, tucking them underneath the meatloaf.

Make the sauce: add ketchup, brown sugar, mustard, and hot sauce in a mixing bowl. Stir together. Pour 1/3 of the mixture over the top of the bacon. Spread with a spoon.

Bake for 45 minutes, then pour another 1/3 of the sauce over the top. Bake for another 15 minutes. Broil for a few minutes to help crisp bacon & caramelize glaze.

Slice and serve with remaining sauce.

Mac & Cheese Soup

I wanted to make Macaroni & Cheese soup for an Ecclesial meal. I thought the kids (young & old) would really like it. Just sounds like a good comfort food. So I went searching for a recipe. Surely there would be something good out there with all the millions of recipes on the web. Well, if there is, I didn't come across it.

So, it was time to improvise. I started out with a Paula Deen recipe for Cheddar Cheese Soup & went from there. The recipe below is what I ended up with.

This is a really good starter recipe - there are so many ways you can change this up & make it just a little bit different. We like things spicy in this house so if I was making it just for us I would have used some Pepper Jack cheese and more hot sauce/cayenne. You could substitute any number of things for the plain hot dogs: Jalapeno hot dogs, bacon, Lil' Smokies, Kielbasa, ham, etc.

Tomorrow will be the true test. I'm concerned about how much it will thicken up when it's cooled & reheated. I figure that's bound to happen so I have a couple ideas on how to fix it. But the most important thing to me is how well it goes over & how much is left over!

Corinne's Mac & Cheese Soup w/Hot Dogs

• 1 small onion, diced
• 2 ounces diced pimentos, drained
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 6 tablespoons flour
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 3 cups cream
• 8 ounces Sharp Cheddar, shredded
• 1/2 teaspoon mustard powder
• 1/8 teaspoon cayenne
• Frank's Red Hot to taste
• Salt & pepper, to taste
• 3 scallions
• 1 pound hot dogs, cut into 1/4" slices
• 4 cups cooked macaroni

In a saucepan, saute onion and pimentos in butter over medium heat for 5 to 7 minutes. Blend in flour. Cook & stir for about a minute; until well blended.

Add broth and cream. Cook & stir until it comes to a boil & thickens.

Add cheese and stir until melted. 

Add mustard powder, cayenne, hot sauce, scallions, salt and pepper. 

In frying pan, saute hot dog slices in small amount of butter until slightly browned. Drain.

Add hot dogs & cooked macaroni to soup. Stir to combine well.

Bang Bang Shrimp

Addictive "Candy From the Sea" as Seth calls them.

You can find the chili sauce & Sriracha sauce just about anywhere these days, including Super Walmart.



Bang Bang Shrimp

Seasoned Flour
2 Pounds large shrimp, peeled & deveined
1/2 Cup Mayonnaise
1/4 Cup Thai sweet chili sauce
Sriracha hot sauce to taste

Mix mayo & sauces. Refrigerate.

Coat shrimp with seasoned flour. Reserve leftover flour mixture.

Place shrimp on a single layer on a baking sheet. Refrigerate for at least one hour.

Just before deep frying, coat shrimp with flour mixture for a 2nd time.

Deep fry at 375º until shrimp are cooked thru - about 2 minutes.

Pour sauce over shrimp & toss gently.

Buffalo Wings

This recipe is based on a famous restaurant's wings. They use an owl for a mascot. :-)

These wings are THE best. They are good leftover, reheated in the toaster oven, but they are never better when they are freshly cooked & tossed in the sauce.



Hooter's Buffalo Wings

Seasoned Flour
24 chicken wing sections
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup Frank's Red Hot
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

Coat chicken wings with seasoned flour.

Reserve leftover flour mixture.

Place wings in a single layer on a baking sheet. (I cover the sheet with foil & use wax paper to separate the layers if there is more than 1 layer of wings.) Refrigerate coated wings for at least an hour.

Coat wings in flour mixture a second time right before frying.

Deep fry wings in two batches in 375º oil for 9 - 12 minutes. Drain on paper towels.

Meanwhile, in a saucepan, heat butter, hot sauce, pepper, & garlic just until butter melts. Keep warm.

Drain cooked wings on paper towels.

Place wings in a large bowl, Pour warm sauce over & toss to coat.

Seasoned Flour

Where have I been? You might be wondering that.

Sometimes I cook too much & it takes awhile for Seth to catch up! That's what happened last week with Lasagna & Beef Stew leftovers.

We'll be having a get-together here on Thursday evening for anyone who wants to stop in and see Lauren. And Richard, and Mike & Shannon, and the newest member of the family: Samual-Wyatt. (No, that is not a typo.)

So far the menu is looking like this:
Zuppa Tuscana
Buffalo Wings
Bang Bang Shrimp
Mini Pigs in a Blanket
Mini Mac & Cheese Cupcakes (hoping that Lauren & Richie will love these.)
Chicken Fries

There are other things on my list but these are the "must haves".

I'm going to post a master recipe for seasoned flour. I mix this up in a large batch (5 lbs of flour) & store it in an airtight container so I don't have to mix it every time I need it.

Seasoned Flour

1 cup flour
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp cayenne

Hold on to this recipe. You will need it to make Buffalo Wings & Bang Bang Shrimp.

Lasagna Day

Pot Luck Dinner at Meeting today.

We had a nice variety of dishes. Everything pretty much fell into the Comfort Foods category. It's that time of year, isn't it?

The Crispy Kale was a huge hit. I made it once before for a bonfire at the Isbell's but I guess that some people had never tasted it.

I brought 2 different lasagnas. The Chipotle Lasagna was more popular by a long shot. The Hoagie Lasagna is good but it didn't have the same appeal as the Chipotle based on the leftovers.

The Chipotle Lasagna came from Allrecipes.com. I did make a couple changes. You will see that it calls for zucchini. For some reason, I can't bring myself to buy zucchini. For one thing, I'm not a real big fan of it unless it's in bread. For another thing - zucchini makes me think of the thing that people grow too much of in their gardens & then try to get rid of it by passing it on to others - even if they have to leave it on your porch in the middle of the night! Lastly, the zucchini that I see in the grocery stores around here look unfamiliar to me - they look so small compared to what I'm used to seeing.

Most of the time I used dried herbs rather than fresh - for the convenience & because I waste too much of the fresh stuff because I don't use it fast enough.

Also, the recipe calls for 1 chipotle chile in Adobo Sauce. I used a whole can & it was not spicy, as you might expect. My Chipotle in Adobo Sauce brand of choice is La Morena. There is a picture of a Senorita on the label.

Here's the link to the recipe:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Loris-Spicy-Chipotle-Lasagna/Detail.aspx

Th Hoagie Lasagna recipe is from Mr. Food & is so simple. I guess the recipe title should be Grinder Lasagna up here in New England. I understand why these sandwiches are called subs but someday I'm going to have to research the terms Hoagie & Grinder.


Hoagie Lasagna

32 ounces ricotta cheese
2 Eggs
1/4 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 26-oz jar  spaghetti sauce
3/4 Cup  Water
1/2 Pound deli ham, cubed
1/4 Pound deli salami, cubed
1/4 Pound pepperoni, cubed
9 uncooked lasagna noodles
12 ounces shredded Mozzarella cheese (3 cups)

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350º. Coat a 9"X13" baking dish with nonstick spray.

In a medium bowl, combine ricotta, eggs, and Parm.

In another medium bowl, combine spaghetti sauce & water. Spread 1 1/2 cups of sauce mixture in baking dish. Stir meats into remaining sause mixture.

Place 3 noodles over sauce in baking dish. Top with 1/3 of cheese mixture. Spoon 1/3 of sauce mixture on top. Sprinkle with 1 cup Mozz.

Repeat layers 2 more times, ending with Mozz.

Cover tightly with foil & bake 1 1/2 hours. Remove foil & bake 5 more minutes, or until cheese is bubbly on top. Let stand for 10-15 minutes before cutting.

Best Stuffed Mushrooms

For me, I often think about the person or people I'm cooking for when I make a particular dish. That's where the love comes in.

Certain recipes always make me think of a certain person. For instance, I always think about Ethan Pride when I make Buffalo Chicken Dip in a Bread Bowl. I think about Shannon Deane when I make ribs. I think about Mike Deane when I make mini Pigs in a Blanket. Peanut butter stuff and shrimp things make me think of Frank Locke. Jalapeno Poppers make me think of Gary Schlageter. I could go on & on. You get the idea.

When I make these Stuffed Mushrooms, I always think about Bonnie Locke. (One of my closest friends and Lauren's "Ahh Bee" (Aunt B).

These babies contain no meat so they're vegetarian-friendly. I made a boo-boo today & forgot to add the chives to the cream cheese mixture so they got sprinkled on top. And this time I used Progresso Italian Panko Bread Crumbs instead of regular bread crumbs. I love those Panko crumbs! I think Bonnie will be happy with the results when she tastes them tomorrow. :-)

Here's a trick to clean a large quantity of mushrooms. You've probably read that you shouldn't get fresh mushrooms wet because they absorb the water. Wrong!!! They are not little sponges! Here's what I did today: removed the stems from the mushrooms. (Just rock the stem back & forth gently until it separates from the cap.) Then I put the mushrooms in a cheapo plastic bag, added several cups of water & kinda tossed them in the water. Like a mini mushroom washing machine set to gentle cycle. Dumped them into a colander to let them drain a little. Then laid them out on a kitchen towel (opening side down) to dry them off after their bath. They fit on half of the towel so I covered them with the other half & lightly dry off their tops before putting them on the baking sheet.

The thing that makes these Shrooms so great to me? You see that cayenne pepper in the recipe? It'll give you a nice little unexpected bite on the back of your tongue. Try 'em, you'll love 'em!


Best Stuffed Mushrooms

16 ounces whole fresh mushrooms (to 20 ounces)
1 Tablespoon vegetable oil
1 Tablespoon minced garlic
1 8-oz pkg cream cheese, softened
1/4 Cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 Teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 Teaspoon onion powder
1/4 Teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 Tablespoon chives
Italian bread crumbs

Instructions: Preheat oven to 350º.

Clean mushrooms & discard stems. Set aside.

Heat oil in large skillet over medium heat. Add garlic & lightly fry, taking care not to burn it. Turn off heat.

Add remaining ingredients to garlic & stir until well mixed. When mixture is cool enough to handle, place it in a zip-loc bag.

Arrange mushrooms on baking sheet. Cut off small corner of bag - make hole just large enough to squeeze mixture into mushroom caps. Fill each cap. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Bake for 20 minutes or until mushrooms are hot & tops are starting to get lightly browned.

Toldja the photos were bad!