12/29/12

Making Sexy Meatloaf... is hard.

Hey kids

Last month the hubs took me out to Cracker Barrel and decided to venture out and have Meatloaf and it was surprisingly very good. Ever since its been lurking in my mind and I've been pondering about this mystery meat.

Meatloaf is something I've read about in books and it seems to be a staple dish in most American households... yet I had no idea how to make it. Search Google and there are tons of recipes BUT I was severely reluctant to just use a random strangers recipe. I had to find a real person who enjoys this load of meat.

After a several inquires my friend Stacie sent me her mother's recipe. Unfortunately for the nitpickers --the recipe does not have any measurements. I faltered a bit in creating the dish but the below are the true encounters of my experiment  I'm adept at creating sexy dishes but I'm gonna have to think outside the box to create a sexy meatloaf.

**As a precaution I didn't use the entire meat, I decided to freeze the raw meat/veggies for another day**

Stacie's Mom's recipe. "Meat loaf doesn't sound appealing, but please believe me when I say it BANGS every time my mom makes it. HARD, trust me." -Stacie 



1. In a bowl combine ground turkey with ground beef
2. Add garlic powder
3. Add onion 
4. Add salt
5. Add pepper **I was accidently generous with this**
6. Add packet of Lipton’s soup to season it
    a. You can use Lipton’s beefy onion, or onion mushroom ** I used onion mushroom**
7. Chop fresh garlic **I used 2 garlic cloves**
8. Chop onions **I used ¼ cup of red onion**
9. Green bell peppers **I used ¼ cup**
            a.  you can mix ALL with the raw meat. 
10. Add Italian bread crumbs (not crackers) **I was overly generous with this**
11. Add egg **I used 2 eggs** 
12. Stir all the above ingredients together  
13. Place in bread pan and put in the oven
14.  Cook at 325F or 350F until you don't see any pink, about an hour.
15. Once it cooks combine tomato paste, and Hunts four cheese pasta sauce together, and drizzle it over the finished meat loaf.

Now here is where it gets difficult…. 

•Stacie said “Follow this recipe. You also have to know how to perfectly season the meat loaf. Don't overcook it and make it dry.” 

I forgot direction #15. I put the meatloaf in at 325F and only for 20 minutes. I took it out and combined the tomato paste and the pasta sauce. 

Put the loaf back in the oven for 15 more minutes. It was looking very watery and because I put the paste/sauce on the meat I couldn’t tell if it was pink. AND it looked quite watery. 

So the husband said to put it back in for 15 MORE minutes. 

So all of that was 50 minutes of cooking at 325F.

 I took it out it looked like it was solidifying, and I upped the temperature to 350F ... and I put it in for 20 minutes, saw that it was solidifying a lot more, put it in for 10 more minutes... It looked okay so I put it on for 10 more minutes. 

The hubs still wasn't satisfied with the liquid content so we let the meatloaf sit in the oven for 10 more minutes... please note the top of the loaf was sufficiently cooked (burned). 

I think the big issue was that I added the paste/sauce too early. 

So next time I make meatloaf I'll follow the directions to the letter. Because this is annoying!!!!! 

The husbands thinks that it taste like meatloaf it just looks like meat for spaghetti
Per Stacie’s suggestion: I made 2 sides.
  • Garlic mashed potatoes (I used pre-cooked bag of course, using almond milk as a substitute for regular milk, and sprinkled in parsley, salt, and garlic powder) 
  • Corn – for the corn I sprinkled olive oil, roasted coriander and black pepper over the corn while cooking it on the stove) as sides. 
My thoughts, combine the sides w/the meat and it taste like Shepard's Pie. Oh and next time I'm only going to use Turkey instead of Beef. 
Bon Appetite. 


After that headache I figured I’d class dinner up with a glass of Merlot. 



PS. So Christmas in Rhode Island was excellent ... once I finish being lazy I'll post some pictures, upload a video about the trip.... and yes I still have yet to upload my Thanksgiving-ish.

12/21/12

Adventure on Standby

930am:

So i had this uber lovely post created about my upcoming trip to NYC. Yet due to weather & American Airlines weve been HAD. We missed our connecting flight. This is a first experience for us. Yay. Im not as perturbed as i thought but i am perturbed...if that makes any sense.

No flight until evening tomorrow and with no family in Chicago, i guess well hole up in a hotel and eat pizza.

And apparently they dont give vouchers for hotels O_O!!! At Dulles they do.

So now we are sitting in Chicago a bit bummed playing the game of "call my name" for Standby. Wouldnt it be our luck for only one of us to make the plane....

11: 12am:

We are ANTSY! So ready to go! On standby for a different flight to Laguardia and our original flight was to Westchester County Airport. Our rental car will hold for us until midnight unless were delayed further..... so now we wait to see if well get on the flight.. the only missing item is our checked bagged

Three things i learned thus far:
flight attendants battle over jump seats to LA.
Christmas traveling is insane and utterly irrational.
Either way were gonna have to hustle to figure out manuvering from Laguardia to HPN....and what an adventure that will be

11:45am:

Foiled again! We are now on our third plane for standby

12:15pm:

The third time is the charm :) 

Idk if were still doing NYC tho. :(

Updates soon.


12/17/12

xoxo Gossip Girl Season Finale

My running commentary as Gossip Girl ends....

"The only who wears a hoodie." -Georgina Sparks.

Sheesh.

So its Dan...ugh... Really its Dan. ...

Not Dororta? Not Jenny?!

I guess....... I mean ... but.. siiigh... its Dan. I kinda figured when last week's episode when Dan told Rufus he's been working on his entrance to  the Upper East Side.

But Serena's fine with it.

I'm more excited that Chuck & Blair are married.. but I needed a bigger splash.. and I love their wedding outfits. I'm glad Serena looks blah.

So Gossip Girl is dead.

BUT WAIT... the writers said WAIT until the last 10 minutes...as I sit here watching the Carrie Diaries (maybe I'll check that out in the Spring).. I'm wondering who REALLY is Gossip Girl. They tied this up way to neatly.... wayyy to neatly.

Maybe it was Lily.. and what happened with the Lily/William/Ivy story?? Please don't tell me William get's Lily.. Rufus get your woman back... but I need this Gossip Girl to continue.

sigh.. what the heck man!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and why is Jack being so helpful??? There are so many tie-in's that I just want to fix... know... sigh I just might be really sad that Gossip Girl is ending.

I've been watching GG since its inception AND read the books first..

FIVE YEARS LATER??? umm they better make this a movie.

and did anyone Graduate from College??

awww they had a son! I love it. yay for a momentary return of Jenny & Eric!....

so Dan marries Serena.. whatever.. Lily gets with William.. I guess... Who the heck is Rufus with? Georgina with Jack?....

So now there's a new GG... hmmm I guess I'm excited they grew up but I noticed Nate didn't have a date.... and I kinda missed the bit about the Ivy League.....

It feels weird. 6 years. wow. No more Blair & Chuck or Lonely Boy/Serena.

I'ma miss them. But I guess its time to grow up. Goodbye to my favorite characters Queen Blair & Chuck Bass.



12/12/12

The Struggle: graduate assistantships

So no one told me the hardest part of graduate school is seeking out assistantships. Mind you the degree of difficulty to spell assistant correctly. My eyes ache from scouring KSU's departments, offices, and when I call... of course I've missed the deadline or they have none, or its filled, or they have no idea.

Imagine trying to convince an undergraduate that I am saying it right and no I don't want you to transfer me. I'm waiting on several phonecalls..but I'm mostly in awe that there is no centralized website listing all the grad-ships

Weird.

I was so happy a week ago to be accepted now I'm wondering what the heck did I just do? School doesn't start till January and I already feel like a headless chicken. Well time to go make more calls/read The Hobbit.

Signed,
No longer anticipating my masters.