Category Archives: recipes

Eating, recipes

How could she not make a great meatloaf?

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Amy and I used the random number generator to pick this week’s Recipe Roulette meal from one of Amy’s Paula Deen cookbooks. Incidentally, I’m pretty sure that I thought it was Dean — not Deen — and I’d be willing to bet there are more than a few Paula Dean references to be found here.

Anyway, the RNG was in the mood for meatloaf. We’ve been known to take down a meatloaf, but I wasn’t all that excited by Paula’s Aunt Peggy’s ingredient list. It’s a pretty basic meatloaf, and I like my meatloaf to be a little spicy. I have to say, though: It’s an outstanding basic meatloaf recipe. It was moist, and the glaze had a nice flavor that was just a skosh away from being cloyingly sweet. (In other words, it was my idea of a perfect glaze.)

The moral of the story is, I guess, don’t judge a meatloaf by its lack of chipotle peppers. Or something like that.

Aunt Peggy’s Old-Fashioned Meatloaf
1 pound ground beef
One 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, tomato paste, onion, green pepper, oats, egg, salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the ketchup, brown sugar and mustard. Slather the glaze on top of the meatloaf and bake for 1 hour or until the meatloaf is firm and cooked all the way through. Serve hot.

recipes

Infinitely better than a porkchop

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I was tasked with choosing this week’s Recipe Roulette pick, and I think I picked a good one. Amy may disagree, though, because she doesn’t like to handle meat.

The flavors of the Gingered Pork Burgers were just as described: “Reminiscent of Peking-style pork dumpling flavors.” I’m not generally a fan of pork, but in dumpling-flavored burger format I enjoyed it quite a bit. Rockford said, “I like it. It’s got a good flavor.” And then he took another bite and forgot that I’d asked him a question. My in-laws joined us for our Gingered Pork Burger dinner, so I gathered their opinions for you as well.

“I like it a lot,” my mother-in-law said. “I could easily eat another one.”

My father-in-law — who doused his burger with ketchup — said, “The seasonings went together to have a sage-y flavor, but I’m not having any trouble. I’m down to two bites.”

I don’t know that I’d call them rave reviews, but I’d make them again. They were easy and tasty, and I’d say they’re relatively good for you. In relation to, say, this.

Gingered Pork Burgers
from “Good Housekeeping: Fast Weeknight Favorites”

1/4 cup light mayonnaise
1 tablespoon soy sauce
1 1/4 pounds ground pork
1/2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
3 green onions, chopped
1 tablespoon dry sherry
1 tablespoon finely chopped, peeled fresh ginger
1 teaspoon Asian sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 sesame-seed hamburger buns, split and toasted

Prepare grill for direct heating over medium heat.

In a cup, stir mayonnaise and soy sauce until blended; set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine pork, cilantro, green onions, sherry, ginger, sesame oil, crushed red pepper and salt until blended but not overmixed. Shape pork mixture into four 3/4-inch-thick burgers, handling meat as little as possible.

Place burgers on grill over medium heat and grill, turning once, 10 to 12 minutes for medium or until desired doneness.

Serve burgers with soy mayonnaise.

recipes

A more accurate title: Apples with a light caramel glaze

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Food Network, I’m losing confidence in you. Sure, your food looks delicious. But your track record lately has been less than impressive.

But Amy and I thought we’d give you another chance this week. So when I got my latest copy of Food Network Magazine, I had Poppy choose three random numbers. Then I lined those three numbers up, and voila! A page number! And the recipe looked like a great one. Caramel apples! How could they be bad?

They weren’t bad, really, but I wouldn’t call them caramel apples. It may well have been user error. The caramel would not stay on the apples. At first I thought maybe I’d tried to coat the apples too soon. But even after waiting several hours, it just slid off the apples.

But the caramel was wildly delicious anyway. I mean, I’m sure that it would have been, had I taken a spoon and scraped it from the parchment paper under the apples. Which I definitely would not have done.

Ahem.

Here’s the recipe!

Perfect Caramel Apples
from Food Network Magazine
2 cups sugar
1/4 cup light corn syrup
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
pinch of salt
6 apples
6 sticks

Mix 2 cups sugar, 1/4 cup light corn syrup and 1/2 cup water in a small saucepan. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring just until the sugar dissolves. Cook, swirling the pan (do not stir), until the mixture is light amber and a candy thermometer registers 320 degrees, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat; slowly whisk in 1/2 cup heavy cream, then 2 tablespoons unsalted butter, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract and a pinch of salt. Return to low heat and whisk until smooth. Let cool until the caramel is thick enough to coat a spoon. Insert sticks into the stem ends of 6 apples and dip the apples into the caramel, letting the excess drip off. Roll in toppings, then let cool on a parchment-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray.

Suggested toppings:
-crushed cheese crackers (gross!)
-salted peanuts and caramel popcorn (overkill!)
-diced crystallized ginger and toasted sesame seeds (no thank you!)
-chopped walnuts and dried cranberries (eh!)
-toasted shredded coconut and chopped macademia nuts (maybe!)
-crushed Oreo cookies and a drizzle of melted white chocolate (makes me wish the caramel had stuck!)