In honor of William and Kate’s wedding, my post today is British themed. Some of you already know this, but for those of you who don’t, I spent 4 years living in England. Receiving an overseas assignments was one of the best perks of being in the military. It was so incredibly exciting, I had never lived abroad before and I couldn’t wait to immerse myself into the English culture.
My family and I moved into a thatched cottage in a little village called Wretham (also known as East Wretham). So small in fact, that it did not have a school. We lived too far away for my daughter, Leah (from Leftovers at Lunch), to attend the American school on base. I enrolled Leah in the school in the nearby village of Great Hockham. The school was tiny, they had multiple grades in each class. Leah loved it, soon she made friends. The other students were thrilled to have an American student in their school.
(Images scanned from a card made by Carol Slattery)
One of Leah’s friends invited her to their house for tea. I couldn’t believe it, I was besides myself, a real live English family inviting Leah over for tea. I immediately began coaching Leah on how to drink tea, the proper etiquette, etc. (I did my research before moving to the UK). Leah was excited to go to her friends house but was dismayed “Mom, I don’t even like tea”. I assured her with enough cream and sugar she would be able to tolerate it. I instructed her not to be rude and to drink/eat what was put in front of her. I mean really, they are British and are quite proud of their tea.
After school the next day she went to tea, and in a few hours she was dropped back home. As soon as she arrived I informer her that dinner was ready and that I wanted all the details about having a proper tea, you know with the British family. That’s when Leah shocked me, “Mom, we didn’t have tea at all, we had dinner”. What? How could that be? How do you invite a child over for tea and give them dinner!
Leah was pleased, after all she didn’t have to fake liking tea. Me? I was confused. After asking around a bit, I discovered that the phrase “Tea Time” has evolved to another way of saying dinner time. Tea time is still tea time, unless it’s around dinner time that it’s dinner that may involve a cup of tea, but not necessarily.
While living there, I also discovered why the Brits love their tea, it’s because their coffee is so awful. It’s not that I didn’t ever get a good cup of coffee, I did when it was served privately at someone’s home or at a high end restaurant. Mainly, it was just awful, so I started drinking tea. Good tea, like really, really good tea. I started drinking it every day, a fresh pot as soon as I got home. I was brand conscious and only used PG Tips or Typhoo. Personally I prefer PG Tips, I think it may have to do more with the cute shape of the bag than anything else.
To make a perfect cuppa tea you should:
Use a teakettle with a whistle. Why? Because you only want to heat the water until just before boiling. How it works: as the water heats up and evaporates into steam, the steam builds up, when the pressure is high enough the whistle blows warning you that your water is ready. Without that whistle, you will likely forget the water is on and boil your water (which compromises the taste and is way too hot to drink).
Use fresh cold water in your teapot, not the half pot of water you left in there the day before (although I have been known to do that…what a risk taker!). Pour some hot water into the pot and swirl it around to warm the pot. Place one or two teabags in the pot and pour the water over it, stir it a couple of times then cover it. Use a tea cozy to keep it warm and let it brew 3-5 minutes depending on how strong you like yours.
Serve in teacups with demerara or raw cane sugar and cream. I recommend the demerara because of the rich brown sugar flavor it adds.
If you are having an afternoon tea, it’s nice to accompany it with biscuits (oh how I miss McVitie’s Digestives), or a small sandwich to tidy you over till dinner. When I picture light sandwiches with tea, naturally the traditional cucumber sandwich comes to mind.
I used to love ordering the Prawn Sandwich at the Dog and Partridge in East Wretham, it was one of my favorite so I definitely wanted to do a prawn type sandwich and I wanted to include cucumber.
(photo from the internet)
To honor the tradition of the English and to represent the newest generation; for Prince William and Catherine’s wedding, I created a Prawn and Egg Salad Sandwich with cucumber. Okay, I confess, it was partly to use up my Easter Eggs.
I made a manly ‘Prince William’ version with toasted sourdough and tomato slices.
And a dainty ‘Catherine’ version with no crusts and cucumbers.
Note: another thing I had to get used to, all shrimp are called prawns in the UK.
Did you notice the fabulous tea towel I was using? My dear friend Linda from England sent it to me, and just in time for the wedding! I had to put the towel on the floor to get a full picture, naturally the dogs got curious.
She is so wonderful, and Linda, I promise I’ll send you these Made in Montana soaps….(I provided a picture as proof that I really do have them).
Please excuse me now, while I watch all the wedding hoopla while enjoying a perfect cuppa tea and my dainty sandwich.
Recipe
Prawn and Shrimp Salad Sandwiches
3 oz. cream cheese, softened
1/3 cup mayonnaise
1 cup finely chopped hard boiled eggs (about 3)
1 cup finely chopped cooked shrimp (apprx. 1/2 lb.)
2 to 3 green onions, finely diced
1/3 cup finely chopped water chestnuts (optional)
1/4 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper or more to taste
8 slices sourdough bread (crusts removed or toasted)
Sliced cucumber or sliced tomato
Mix cream cheese and mayonnaise until homogeneous. Stir in eggs, shrimp, green onions, water chestnuts (optional), salt and pepper. Blend well but don’t over mix. Serve on toasted sourdough with tomatoes, or crust-less sourdough with cucumber.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter. I spent most of mine cooking, that is improvising my cooking. I also had some drama, not too serious but scary (more on that in a moment). I failed to plan for Easter (that’s not the drama I’m talking about). I more than failed to plan, I didn’t even give it a thought. It’s not that it snuck up on me; I knew Easter was right around the corner, but I just didn’t get it done, the planning that is.
My grandson and not daughter were visiting us on their Spring Break, all my energy and planning went to their visit. After they left it was back to work for me and I that’s how I came upon my situation of having nothing planned.
I wasn’t worried, I keep a well stocked kitchen; I foraged my freezer, pantry and refrigerator and actually put out a decent Easter meal. We traditionally have ham or lamb but I didn’t have any of those things. No matter, it wasn’t about what we had, it was about being and feasting together.
When my grandson, Alligator, was visiting we colored duck eggs. Since I’m lucky enough to have fresh duck eggs supplied to me on a regular basis, I thought how much more fun it would be to color big eggs. Go big or go home.
We got this cool little kit that you put the eggs in and then spin them. It kind of gave the eggs a tie dyed look.
Alligator was good for about four eggs and then his 3 year old attention span flew the coup (I hope you laughed at that). Naturally mom stepped in and finished the job; I think she may have enjoyed it more than Alligator.
After they left for Salt Lake I was left with a bunch of colored eggs. I needed a starter for my meal, so I looked back to my early days when deviled eggs were vogue, they are still a family favorite. We’re not exactly vogue anyways, so they suited us just fine.
Before we got too far into the Easter day, we decided to take the dogs to the dog park (here’s the drama part). On our way there, the Summer pup decided to ‘Summersault’ out of the truck while we were driving.
STOP! STOP! STOP!
That was all I could muster. I was watching in the side view mirror, horrified that my little dog was being drug down the street (she had a leash on that was hooked to the inside of the truck). I saw her get behind the tire and thought she was going to die for sure. McGyver stopped as fast as he could. We ran out into the street and snatched her up right away.
A nice gentleman in a red pick up with two large dogs in the back, stopped behind us and blocked traffic. I don’t know who you are, but thank you.
Summer was bleeding from various places, a quick check told us nothing major was wrong. We took her home and gave her a bath to clean out the road/tire grime and to get a good look at her injuries. She ended up with a black eye, fat lip, split toe (no stitches needed) and plenty of road rash.
After her bath, she couldn’t wait to hit the floor and try to rub all that good smelling dog shampoo off of her. Please pay no mind to my carpet that needs to be vacuumed. I certainly didn’t have time to vacuum if I didn’t have time to plan for an Easter meal.
We ended up with some drama but also a reason to be really thankful for; our Silly Summer Dog was okay and I didn’t die of a heart attack watching the whole thing!
Summer is modeling the “As seen on TV” Total Pillow.
Back to the deviled eggs. My inspiration came from shrimp cocktail, a timeless appetizer in our family, also. I mixed up my egg filling with a little horseradish sauce (cocktail part) and topped the eggs with a butterflied shrimp. Cocktail shrimp meet deviled eggs. They fell in love immediately and gave birth to a bunch of deviled shrimp. Not really, but that would be cool if they could!
(Chicken Egg compared to a duck egg)
I used only three eggs because there were only three of us. Actually I did that because McGyver would eat them all in one sitting if I would have made more and the consequences would have been, ahem, odiferous. In other words it wasn’t just portion control, it was self defense.
Interesting item: one of my eggs looked beige or lightly tanned next to the other eggs. I scoured the internet to see if it was okay to eat. I discovered that sometimes the iron in your water can cause the reaction or sometimes there is a small blood clot in the yolk and when you boil it, it leaches into the white and discolors it. I cut the egg in half and sure enough, there was evidence of a little blood clot. I used the egg and the yolk and made sure that McGyver ate them (I was a little grossed out by it). I’m happy to say that he did indeed survive, heck, he didn’t even notice.
Has anyone ever had an off color egg?
Recipe
Note: Chicken eggs can easily be substituted, I’m not sure but I think you may be able to double the amount of eggs depending on their size.
Deliciously Deviled Duck Eggs
3 duck eggs, boiled and peeled
2 tsp. mayonnaise
1 tsp. horseradish sauce
1/8 tsp. dry mustard
1/8 tsp. kosher salt
few grinds of black pepper
1/4 tsp. minced fresh rosemary
Smoked paprika
6 shrimp, cooked, peeled and butterflied
Cut peeled eggs in half long ways, using a small spoon scoop out the yolk into a medium bowl. Using a fork, mash the yolks until they resemble fine granules. Mix in the mayonnaise, horseradish sauce, dry mustard, salt, black pepper and minced fresh rosemary until well blended and creamy.
Pipe or spoon into the egg whites. Sprinkle with smoked paprika and top with a butterflied shrimp.
I’m going to take you back a few decades. My first introduction to a motorcycle came from my dad. Back in the mid 70’s, my dad had purchased a BMW and put a side car on it. I believe that is how he justified it as a family vehicle to my mom.
My most vivid memory of the bike was when my dad took me to school in it. I remember that the inside of the sidecar had a bar in it, I used to grip the bar and pretend that I was steering the bike. Vroom, vroom, turn to the left, turn to the right, it was an exhilarating feeling. It was also a good thing that my dad did not drive the bike like my pretend steering.
When my father pulled up to the school, it seemed like every kid turned and looked. They all ran up to the bike “wow, that’s cool” they chimed time after time. I earned some serious cool points and had all the boys following me for days. That is probably the last time I earned cool points and had boys following me around. Unfortunately a drunk driver hit the bike while my dad was driving it and totaled the bike. My dad was fine but he never replaced the bike.
I didn’t have much to do with bikes after that; a couple of outings on mini bikes and at 18, I drove a bike down our quarter mile stretch and that’s it. I joined the military and my life went on, without another thought of a motorcycle.
Then one day, as a divorced single parent I met a guy, I liked him and we started dating. He had a 1999 Harley Davidson Fat Boy. I remember my first ride with him, I was wearing jeans and a winter coat and a helmet he had just bought me; if I didn’t have newbie written all over me, I don’t know who did. The ride through the Eifel region in Germany was exhilarating and it brought back those sidecar memories with my dad. I couldn’t wait to ride with him again.
Bird rode with an amazing bunch of people; probably the best people I’ve ever met in my life. Riding with them was a blast; I never had a bad time. As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. Bird and I didn’t last, and with his departure, away went the Fat Boy rides also.
After our separation, I would hear a motorcycle buzz by and my heart would skip a beat, I would yearn to get on a bike and feel the wind in my face, listen to the rumble of the mufflers and explore the world on an open road. The camaraderie that goes with riding in a group was also gone, no more having a few beers after the ride and talking about the adventure. It was a sad time for me, not so much because the relationship was dissolved; it was because I wasn’t out there riding.
Then there it was, the ‘aha’ moment, I knew what I needed to do. I made a promise to myself that I would learn to ride my own and never have to wait for a guy to give me ride. However, learning to ride my own was going to have to wait till I returned to the states, I was determined; I would wait and learn and then ride my heart out.
Fortunately, in the mean time, McGyver wooed me and for the next two years I rode two up with him. Not only that, but I got to ride with the same group of friends that Bird and I had rode with (a little weird but it was all good). I told McGyver of my desire to ride my own, he encouraged me. He also took every chance he could to prepare me.
McGyver coached me about riding, pointing out what riders were doing right and what they were doing wrong. He explained to me how to pack a bike and what to pack. He educated me about the parts and the care of a motorcycle. I was involved with every part of riding, except the driving part. But I knew that was just a matter of time.
Then the time finally came, a move back to the States. As sad as I was to leave Europe, I was excited to learn to ride my own. My first order of business was to sign up for the Motorcycle Safety Foundation beginner course; the local classes were full, but I was not to be deterred. I had waited two years to learn to ride. Instead, I signed up for the course offered at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. It was a 45 minute drive each way for 3 days, but that was nothing compared to waiting for two years to ride my own.
I took the course and did well, except for the slow small turns. A crazy eight inside a box, are you kidding me? I never did master it; ironically I still have problems with it. Fortunately in the state of Illinois, if you passed the MSF course, you just had to bring your card in and your license would be endorsed. Whew, no second test needed.
Have you ever got an urge or a craving that you just couldn’t let go? The only way to shake it is to go ahead and make/eat it? I don’t know why I got this urge to make cupcakes. I normally don’t enjoy baking. Perhaps it was the Food Network challenge I recently watched? Not sure if that’s here the idea came from but there it was, implanted in my mind and it wasn’t going anywhere until I did something about it. I very specifically wanted to make blackberry cupcakes. Again, I have no idea why, I can’t even fathom where that thought came from, but there it was, and it wasn’t going away.
My original thought was to make a plain white cake mix and stick a whole blackberry in the middle and top it with blackberry frosting. But I wasn’t sure if a whole berry surprise would work. I searched Google for a Blackberry Cupcake Recipes and I found an enticing one at Confections of a Foodie Bride, you can find the original recipe here. Her recipe seemed better then my idea so I rushed out and got the necessary supplies. Cake flour, check. Powdered sugar, check. Fresh Blackberries…no where, nada, wasn’t going to happen. Not to be deterred, (I mean I had to make these cupcakes) I bought fresh frozen blackberries hoping they would suffice.
When it comes to baking, I follow the recipe, I really am not comfortable enough to deter to far from the original. I set out my milk, eggs and butter early in the morning so they would be room temperature and the butter softened as recommended. Once the blackberries were defrosted, I pureed them and stained the seeds out. This was labor intensive and made quite the mess. I was thinking about purchasing a food mill some where during that time…I was also starting to wonder why I wanted to do this so bad.
I carefully measured ingredients, mixing in separate bowls, adding the dry to the wet in increments. Preheated my oven, lined my cupcake pans (a did a mixture of mini and regular). Filled the liners 3/4 full and baked with an occasional peek. The timer was set to the minimum time and the cupcakes were tested for doneness before removing from the oven.
Here’s where disappointment set in. I must have done something wrong. My cupcakes did not rise up nicely. Oh they rose enough to spread over the top of the pan and turn golden brown and crunchy. Crunchy, is not a word one should use to describe their cupcakes. Did I over mix them? Did I fill them to full? Was my butter not soft enough? Was it *gasp* the frozen blackberries? Maybe I should have sifted the dry ingredients together instead of being lazy and just whisking them together?
With a heavy heart I removed the cakes, I broke off the crunchy bits and fed them to the baby boy who deemed them delicious tasting even if they were crunchy. After hearing his report that they were edible although not beautiful, I decided to press on and make the frosting.
The frosting was a snap to make and came out perfect! I’m no stranger to making a good frosting (it’s usually atop boxed cake mixes). I had some decorators tips, and thought that with a nice fancy bit of frosting on top, no one will care if my cakes weren’t perfect. I didn’t have any frosting bags so I used a zipper top plastic bag. Time for another disappointment. I managed to frost 1 cupcake and then I busted my bag, I tried a second bag and the same thing happened. Time to throw in the towel; I got out my frosting knife and just smothered them in a not so pretty way.
I managed to get one nice cupcake, of which I took my photo. Actually, I wasn’t going to post this recipe at all, but…I brought them to work and everyone adored them. So much so, that I have a request to make them for an upcoming baby shower (the colors are perfect for a shower). Plus I’m sure Confections of a Foodie Bride didn’t have issues and I decided that I’d love some feedback.
Can someone please tell me where I went wrong?
Recipe(source from Confections of a Foodie Bride)
Blackberry Cupcakes
3 6oz packs blackberries
1/3 cup milk, at room temperature
6 large egg whites, room temperature
2 tsp lemon juice
2 1/4 cup cake flour, sifted
1 3/4 cup sugar
4 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
12 Tbsp unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), softened
1 recipe Blackberry Buttercream Frosting, recipe follows
Preheat oven to 350 degrees and prepare two muffin pans with liners.
Puree blackberries in a food processor or blender. Scrape into a fine mesh sieve set over a bowl. With a rubber spatula, work the blackberries through the sieve, leaving seeds behind. Remove 1/4 cup of puree for the frosting. Your mileage may vary but you should have ~2/3 cup of blackberry puree leftover.
In small bowl, combine puree, milk, egg, lemon juice, and mix with fork until well blended. In bowl of stand mixer, add sifted flour, sugar, baking powder and salt and mix to combine. Continue beating at slow speed and add butter. Mix until combined and resembling moist crumbs.
Add liquids and beat at medium speed for about 1 minute or until full and evenly combined. Stop mixer to scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for 30 more seconds. Fill cupcake liners ~3/4 full.
Bake for about 20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center cupcake in each pan comes out clean. Let cupcakes cool in pans and then transfer to a covered plate.
Yields 24 cupcakes
Adapted from Cook’s Illustrated Classic White Layer Cake
Blackberry Buttercream Frosting
2 sticks butter unsalted butter, softened
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp almond extract
5 cups confectioner’s sugar
1 Tbsp meringue powder
pinch of salt
1/4 cup blackberry puree
Cream butter and extracts until smooth. Mix in confectioner’s sugar, meringue powder, and salt and beat 2-3 minutes on high. Add blackberry puree and beat for an additional minute. Adjust consistency, if desired, with additional confectioner’s sugar or water.
Is everyone as excited about grilling as I am? The weather is warming up and so is my grill. I love to grill so much so, that poor McGyver has slowly been cut off from the job. I couldn’t help myself, there is just something about standing next to the grill, drinking a beer and turning the food every now and then. Maybe it’s that primal instinct? Maybe it’s just the beer? I don’t care what it is, I love I t!
I did make a resolution this year to let McGyver grill/cook more…let it go, Rhonda…let it go (I have a teeny tiny control problem when it comes to cooking). I do promise that I will stand by my resolution, but not until I get a little grilling fever out of my system.
This year I bought a 1/4 of a cow, yep that’s a lot of grass fed beef, scored locally from our center physician at work (who happens to own a cattle ranch). With all that beef to choose from, what do I choose to grill? Pork. A freezer full of beef and I could think of nothing but pork and pineapple and mango. I’ve got some serious spring fever for a girl who just watched snow fall for the last couple of days.
Snow was not enough to stop the spring fever, it certainly paid off. The pork was tender and flavorful and the pineapple/mango salsa was sweet and spicy…just how I like it. I had plenty of leftovers; the next night they were transformed into porkalicious tacos!
The pork can marinade all day if you like, makes it nice and easy. Marinade the pork loins, put them in the fridge, go for a ride and come back for a nice cold one and start grilling. I also recommend making the salsa ahead of time so all the flavors have time to bloom.
Recipe
(Note: The instructions are for a gas grill)
Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Pineapple and Mango Salsa
Pork & Marinade:
3 to 4 lbs. pork tenderloin, silver skin removed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 lime, zest and juice
1/2 tsp. kosher salt
1/8 tsp. crushed red pepper
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
3 cloves garlic minced
Mix olive oil, lime zest, lime juice, salt, crushed red pepper, and garlic. Put tenderloins and marinade in a zipper top plastic bag. Marinade for 30 minutes at room temperature and up to 24 hours in the refrigerator. Turn the grill to high heat and brown all sides of the tenderloin(s) until nice and brown, about 10 minutes. Finish cooking on indirect heat at 350F for about 20 minutes more or until pork reaches 155F. Remove pork and let rest 10 minutes prior to slicing. Serve with Pineapple Mango Salsa.
Salsa
1/2 fresh pineapple , diced
2 mangoes, diced
1/4 cup red onion, finely diced
1 lime, zest and juice
1/2 to 1 jalapeno, seeded and minced
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp. kosher salt, or more to taste
Mix all ingredients and refrigerate at least one hour prior to serving.
FYI, You don’t have to be a biker blogger to participate. I’m excited to see where and how creative everyone gets.
Maybe you would like to join in with this…..
A Bloggers Centerline Day, or ABCD, will take place on Sunday 1st May 2011. The plan is to inspire as many bloggers as possible to go outside and take a photograph of themselves on this day, wherever they are in the world. The photo can be creative, arty, contain more than one person, be in any type of location and can contain anything else you like. It must however contain the centerline of a road and at least part of you, the blogger.
There are 5 rules….
Rule 1 – the picture must be taken on 1st May 2011. Rule 2 – the picture must be of yourself, and you must be a person that publishes a blog. You can include whatever else you like in the picture, including other people if you wish. Rule 3 – the picture must include the centerline of a road. Rule 4 – you should publish the picture on your blog on 1st May 2011, along with a few words about the picture and why you chose that location or pose. Rule 5 – when you have posted the picture on your own blog, put a comment on USA Tour on a Harley and include in that comment the address of your own blog post containing your own picture.
Gary France will then pick his favourite photos and publish these as being the winners. There will be a prize of $100 awarded to the overall single winner, as chosen by Gary.
In order to get this event known as widely as possible, please copy and paste this posting onto your own blog, including the title. Please do that today!
As a reminder to yourself to take the photo and post it, put an entry into your diary for 1st May 2011. Let’s see if we can get as any people to join in as possible.
Meatloaf can be boring and mundane unless you are a Rockstar named Meatloaf. Some of us grew up eating meatloaf or “meat surprise” as we called in grade school. A slice of some kind of meat topped with ketchup served on a tray with instant mashed potatoes and green beans. The only thing that could make the meat more edible was by covering it with more ketchup and trying not to think about what might be in it.
Of course some of us grew up just listening to Meatloaf and watching him in cameos like “Rocky Horror Picture Show”…I’m just sayin’…not confessing, so don’t judge. I didn’t grow up with “Mom’s Meatloaf” which I’ve heard could be good or so horrible that it could scar you for life. My main experience was the school cafeteria, and it never really left a good impression on me. So much so, that I’ve rarely made meatloaf in my life. I’ve tried a few recipes that were amazing like Alton Brown’s Meatloaf recipe, but generally speaking meatloaf was just never that good. However, I didn’t want my childhood memories/previous experiences, cloud my culinary adventurism; I decided to experiment and make a meatloaf worthy of posting about (and eating).
Meatloaf’s main ingredient is ground beef, the “duh” factor. After some thought, I realized that meatloaf is similar to a burger and/or a meatball, but baked in the oven. With that thought in mind I started thinking about what I loved about a good burger. One of my favorite varieties of burgers is the BBQ bacon burger. So I had the flavor in mind…now to make it.
With that in mind I set out to make a meatloaf that would not bring back childhood school lunch memories but set a whole new bar for the humble meatloaf. I believe that bacon is the only meat that really makes any other meat taste better, so I was sure to use bacon…plus I was aiming for a BBQ bacon hamburger thing anyways.
Meatballs are often made with the addition of ground veal and/or pork. The addition of ground pork/veal makes the meat more tender and add some depth of flavor. I opted for the less expensive way and used some ground pork. To keep it a bit lighter I used panko bread crumbs versus traditional bread crumbs. I used some spinach, because I had it, and I thought it would add some nice color. I decided against mixing all the ingredients together because it would not be as interesting as “stuffing” the meatloaf. It would have been easier but not as appealing to the eye. We eat with our eyes first, appealing was a must do on my list. Another thing my school lunch meatloaf did not do!
I’m happy to report that the experiment was a success! I ended up with a beautiful and tender meatloaf that was reminiscent of a BBQ bacon hamburger. So much so that I would have been quite happy to slice it and put it between two hamburger buns!
Small confession…part of my motivation came from shopping at my favorite kitchen store, Pizazz. I bought a pan especially designed for cooking meatloaf. Naturally, I had to justify the purchase by making a meatloaf of my very own. It’s a nifty little piece that has a perforated pan that fits inside of the loaf pan. It made it very easy to lift the meatloaf out of the pan, leaving the fat/juices behind. It was easy to slide out of the inner pan, so my meatloaf held its shape and sliced beautifully. Not only that, it held to my rule of being multifunctional and that I could use it as a bread pan without the insert.
Recipe
BBQ Bacon Stuffed Meatloaf
1 lb. bacon, divided
1 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 large onion, chopped finely
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch fresh spinach, chopped
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups BBQ sauce divided
1/2 tsp. smoked sea salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
Preheat oven to 375F. In a skillet over medium high heat, cook bacon until browned but not crisp. Drain bacon on paper towels, set aside. Pour off all but 1 tbsp. of fat. Cook onion and garlic for 2 minutes over medium high heat. Drain and set aside. To the hot pan add the spinach, cook until wilted and set aside.
Using your hands, gently mix the ground pork, ground beef, beaten eggs, panko, 1/2 cup BBQ sauce, the cooked onion and garlic mixture, salt and pepper until well blended. Lay out a piece of parchment paper and spread meatloaf mixture evenly across parchment paper. If using a loaf pan, spread the mixture to no wider than the pan.
Spread a thin layer of the BBQ sauce over the meat mixture, leaving a 1” border on all sides. Cover with the bacon strips. Chop remaining strips for garnish, set aside. Sprinkle cooked spinach evenly over the bacon. Using the parchment paper, carefully lift one end and roll the meatloaf up sushi roll style. Place in a loaf pan or on a cookie sheet. If placing on a cookie sheet, be sure to seal the ends.
Bake for 40 minutes. Cover with BBQ sauce and return to the oven for 10 to 20 minutes more or until the meatloaf is cooked well done. Let cool 15 minutes before slicing. Garnish with remaining chopped bacon and serve with extra BBQ sauce.
I’ve had a grueling week, worked at least 70 hours and lost my sanity more than once. The only thing keeping me hanging on, is the fact that the temperature is rising and knowing that riding season is not far off for those of us in the Northern Tundra.
Here are a few pictures that I found on the internet that I found bizarre, interesting and maybe disturbing in some cases.
How many friends of your friends are clamoring to go for a ride with you? If you owned this bike, you can take them all on the same bike, if you want.
Did my plumber finally buy a bike?
Ape hangers can look cool, but seriously? Sometimes more is just more and not better.
If you are going to dream big, build big; but it will cost you $300,000. How do you drive that thing?
Here’s an unusual bike with a great purpose. A totally accessible bike for a wheelchair confined person, built by Boss Hoss. How cool is that?
Maybe the sign should read “Missile Parking Only”?
What a fatty…I’m talking about the tire of course.
This bike makes a statement, I think the rider makes a bigger stranger statement.
Don’t let the words banana and granola lure you into believing that there is anything healthy about these muffins. The chocolate chips are a good clue that these muffins aren’t exactly healthy, add the butter and sugar, well, you get a great tasting, high calorie, and high fat muffin.
Don’t get the wrong idea, these muffins are totally worth it. Just don’t eat the whole dozen at once. Moderation is the key, especially for an over the top recipe. I made the muffins, not for myself, but for a bake sale to raise money for our local rec league wresting team. They sold in no time and got a resounding thumbs up!
Like most of my recipes, they start with a necessity to use something up. Some ripe bananas and the end of the granola cereal box were my main inspiration. In addition, I had a huge bag (purchased from Sam’s Club) of Ghirardelli chocolate chips in my freezer. As someone who does little baking, any opportunity to throw some chocolate chips into a baked good to reduce my stock, is a good idea.
Resist the temptation and leave your last 2 or 3 bananas, let them get ripe and make these muffins. You won’t be disappointed! Come on, I know you want some!
Recipe
Banana, Chocolate Chip, Granola Muffins
1 1/2 cups plus 2 tbs. all purpose flour, divided
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (2 or 3 bananas)
3/4 cup white sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 plus 2 tbs. butter, melted and divided
1 1/2 cups granola, divided
1/2 cup chocolate chips
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1/8 tsp. cinnamon
Preheat oven to 375F. Lightly grease 12 muffin cups or line with muffin paper liners. In a large bowl, mix together 1 1/2 cups flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. In another bowl, beat together bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter. Stir the banana mixture into the flour mixture until moistened. Then stir in the granola, and chocolate chips. Do not over mix. Spoon batter into prepared muffin cups.
In a small bowl, mix together brown sugar, 2 tbsp. flour, cinnamon and melted butter. Then stir in 1/2 cup granola. Sprinkle topping over muffins and gently press into batter.
Bake in the oven for 18 to 20 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of muffin comes out clean.
Today it’s all about the bling. I’m definitely a girly girly, I love jewelry. How much do I love jewelry? So much so that I started making it myself, not so easy, but fun. Even though I make jewelry I still love to buy it, honestly sometimes its cheaper to buy than to make. I’ve hand picked out loads of jewelry from one of my favorite sites Etsy for your viewing/shopping pleasure. If you’ve never visited Etsy, you’re in for a treat.
Before we go onto the eye candy, I’d like you to pop on over to The Many Thoughts of a Harley Girl. Stephanie is having a “vote for your favorite beard” contest and my very own McGyver is a contestant. Of course I am biased and think he has the best biker beard ever, help me prove that his beard is a winner!
