October 21

Meatloaf and other Comforting Things

Menu

• Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 1 tablespoon oil
  • 2 cloves garlic (minced)
  • salt & pepper
  • .25 cup ketchup
  • 2 tablespoons brown sugar (packed)
  • 2 teaspoons vinegar
  • 2 slices bread
  • 2 tablespoons parsley (cleaned and chopped)
  • 1 teaspoon thyme (cleaned and stemmed)
  • 1 large egg
  • salt & pepper
  • 1.5 teaspoons mustard
  • 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • hot sauce
  • .33 cup milk
  • 1.5 pounds beef
  • 1 medium bell pepper
  • 7 slices bacon

  Instructions

  We start off by chopping our onion finely, yielding ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons. We put our sauté pan on medium heat and add the oil. We add the onions and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Meanwhile, we mince our garlic cloves, sprinkled with a little salt. When the onions are softened, which takes about 5 minutes, we add the garlic and cook for another minute. We dump the mixture onto a plate and spread to cool. We quick chill in the fridge while we get the rest of the ingredients ready.

  Next, we make the glaze. We mix the ketchup, brown sugar, and vinegar in a medium bowl. We set this aside.

  To make the bread crumbs, we tear the slices of bread into small pieces and add to the blender. We grind up, making about a cup of fresh bread crumbs. We only use ½ cup plus 2 tablespoons - the rest the kids eat. We mix our fresh bread crumbs with the parsley and thyme in a medium bowl.

  We pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees.

  In another medium bowl, we mix the egg with a teaspoon of salt, freshly ground black pepper, Dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, a few drops of Tabasco, and milk.

  In a large bowl we add the meat, reserving a small piece to make a mini-meatloaf for the kids. We add the egg mixture to the meat along with the herbed fresh bread crumbs, the cooked onions and garlic in the fridge, and then mix well with a fork until nicely blended. The mixture is nicely moistened so we do not need to add any more milk.

  We turn the mixture out onto a piece of wax paper and, with wet hands, pat into a loaf 9 by 4 inches. We make a mini-meatloaf for the kids, without the filler ingredients since they are particular about onions and herbs. We wash our hands well.

  We cover a wire rack with foil and prick in several places with a fork to let out the oil. We place the rack in a large sheet pan which is also lined with foil. We cut the pepper crosswise into slices, removing the ribs and seeds. We spread the slices, overlapping, onto the rack. We put the meatloaf on top, and the mini-loaf next to it on the rack. We wash our hands again. We brush both loaves with the glaze and then arrange 6 pieces of bacon on top of the large loaf, crosswise, and 1 piece of bacon on top of the mini-loaf lengthwise, tucking them under loaves.

  We bake the large loaf until bacon is crisp and is cooked through, 160 degrees, about 1 hour and 10 minutes in our oven. The mini-meatloaf only takes about 40 minutes. We cool each for 10 minutes and enjoy.

• Roasted Potatoes
• Roasted Acorn Squash [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • 1 medium squash
  • .5 tablespoon butter
  • 1 tablespoon brown sugar (packed)
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup
  • salt & pepper

  Instructions

  We preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

  We rinse and pat dry the squash. Carefully, we halve crosswise, then scoop and discard the seeds. We slice a small bit off the ends to keep level and place, flesh-side down, on a parchment lined cookie sheet.

  We cook for 30 minutes, turn with tongs, prick the insides with a fork, and divide the glaze ingredients in the two halves. We sprinkle with salt and pepper and continue to cook for another 30 minutes until tender.

  We cut the squash halves in wedges and serve.

• Quick Pickled Cherry Peppers [View Recipe]

  Quick View

  Ingredients

  • .5 cup vinegar
  • 1 clove garlic (cut in thirds)
  • .75 teaspoon salt
  • 2 whole peppercorns
  • 12 medium cherry peppers

  Instructions

  In a small pot, we bring the vinegar, garlic, salt and peppercorns to a boil. Meanwhile, we rinse the cherry peppers and slice the stems off (the top part of the pepper). When the liquid is boiling, we add the peppers and cook for 8 minutes over medium heat, turning every few minutes until softened. We should have used triple to quadruple the liquid ingredients so the peppers would be completely submerged and we would not have to turn them but we were low on vinegar.

  When the peppers have softened, we cover, remove from the heat, and set aside to cool for 30 minutes.

  We refrigerate the peppers and their liquid in a resealable plastic container for a few hours to chill and will store them up to a week.

  When it is time to stuff them, we scoop out their seeds and fill with a marinated cheese mixture. On another night, we might seed and add them to dishes for a nice heat and pickled flavor.