Possibly the Best Meatloaf

My old favorite meatloaf is Holly Hobbie's Meatloaf.  I'm not kidding, I have loved it since I was a kid and cooking from the Holly Hobbie Cookbook!  I also love that it has carrots in it and a secret ingredient that I use instead of bread crumbs:  oats!

Last year, this Swedish Meatloaf became a pretty close second to Holly Hobbie's.  Today, I planned on making a meatloaf for dinner.  For some reason, I thought about combining elements of the two recipes:  the vegetables in Holly Hobbie's with the spices of the Swedish meatloaf.  I decided to use enough meat to make two meatloaves, one for the freezer, and made note of the ingredients I wanted to use.

Everyone in the family loved the results!  My youngest son, Sawed Off, even said that this meatloaf knocked hamburgers down to third place on his favorite foods list! Number One is looking forward to meatloaf sandwiches.  H-Bomb cleaned his plate!

Sorry I didn't take a picture, but without further ado, here we have:

Possibly the Best Meatloaf
makes two loaves, each loaf serves 4-5 hungry people

2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
1 medium onion, diced (about 1 cup)
3 carrots, peeled and grated
2 eggs
1 cup regular, "old-fashioned" oats
1 cup milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1 tablespoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

Combine all ingredients gently in a big bowl.  (I use my hands to mix it)  Mix until combined, but don't be too rough with it or overwork it.

Divide mixture in half, and put each half in a loaf pan, smoothing the tops.  I wrap one loaf pan with plastic wrap AND tin foil, label it and freeze it for later use.

The other loaf pan into the oven.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 1 hour.  Let cool slightly, then slice and serve.

Delicate Nut Crescents

Made these for the first time today. The dough was delicious and so were the cookies, made with toasted pecans. I sprinkled the cookies with powdered sugar, but sometime I want to try my idea of dipping the ends in chocolate.

Try the recipe and see what you think. I'm thinking these would be a good cookie to take to a holiday cookie exchange or to a tea but would not be a good cookie to send in a care package to a college student. Enjoy!

Delicate  Nut  Crescents

Makes about 60

1 cup butter at room temperature

½ cup granulated sugar

1 egg at room temperature

½ teaspoon vanilla extract or ¼ teaspoon almond extract

¼ teaspoon salt

2 ¼ cups all-purpose flour

¾ cup ground pecans, hazelnuts, walnuts, or almonds

Sifted powdered sugar or melted semisweet chocolate

1. In a medium-large mixing bowl, beat the butter with an electric mixer on medium-high speed for 30 seconds.

2. Add the sugar and beat until combined.

3. Beat in the egg, whichever extract goes best with the nuts you are using, and the salt.

4. Beat in as much of the flour as you can with the mixer.

5. Stir in the remaining flour and the ground nuts with a wooden spoon. Do not chill the dough.

6. Shape dough into short cigars, maybe ½ inch in diameter and two inches long. Curve into tight crescents as you place on ungreased baking sheets about an inch apart. Even without leavening, cookies will expand during baking.

7. Bake in 375°F oven for about 8 minutes or until edges are firm and bottoms are lightly browned. Remove cookies from pans and cool on a rack.

8. When cookies are cool, either sift powdered sugar over them or dip one or both ends of each cookie in melted chocolate and allow chocolate to set completely while cookies rest on rack or waxed paper.

NOTE: Rich, shortbread-like cookies. Dough handles beautifully. May want to toast ground nuts. However, if you do, stir constantly over dry heat and take care not to burn them; burning can happen in a blink of an eye and make the nuts unusable in cookie dough. Allow toasted ground nuts to cool completely before adding to dough.

Taste & Create: Profiteroles

***Taste & Create is a fabulous monthly blog event 

in which participants are randomly paired off 

to choose and prepare a dish from their partner's blog. 

 If you'd like to join us, please email me at 

cowgirlmin07 [at] gmail [dot] com for more information!  

We'd love to have you.**

For the December/January Taste & Create event, I was paired with Hannah of Bright Palate. It didn't take me long to decide on her Profiteroles with Vanilla Bean Pastry Cream and Butterscotch Sauce. However, it did take me a long time to make it!!  Sorry, Hannah.

I fell in love with Profiteroles in France, and ate as many of them as my stomach could handle after sumptuous dinners and bottles of wine.  Each time, they were served with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce.

I originally planned to make Hannah's Vanilla Pastry Cream, but the Butterscotch Sauce just didn't appeal to me at all, so I planned to substitute some type of chocolate sauce.  After mixing up the choux pastry for the profiteroles, I sort of lost my ambition for mixing the pastry cream, (and washing all the pans and bowls associated with it!), so I decided to use vanilla ice cream instead.  If you're feeling ambitious, by all means follow the link above or below and make her vanilla bean pastry cream, or you could make Julia's Crème Pâtissière, which likely has the same amount of stirring but perhaps less dishes.  ;-)

My husband and I celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary the other night, and I had made some chocolate-orange liqueur truffles, which we all know is just ganache that's slightly shaped and coated with cocoa.  I decided I'd use some of the ganache I hadn't gotten around to shaping, microwave it gently to soften it and use it as a topping for the profiteroles.  I added a little more cream before microwaving to loosen it up a bit, next time I'll just make it specifically for the profiteroles and a thinner mixture from the start.

My dough scoops were a little bigger than golf balls, so my profiteroles were generously sized.  I accidentally turned the timer off during the baking at 425 degrees, but they turned out just fine.  I ended up baking them for 20 minutes at 350 degrees at the end, and they were perfect, just keep an eye on yours.

Profiteroles

From Bright Palate, who originally adapted it from Ratio 

Choux pastry
Yield: About 20 profiteroles

1 cup water
1/2 cup/1 stick unsalted butter
1 tablespoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 scant cup flour
4 large eggs

Note: The choux pastry can be baked immediately once it’s cooked on the stovetop, or refrigerated for up to a day before baking.

Preheat oven to 425. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper, tin foil, or silicone liners.

 In a medium saucepan over high heat, bring the water, butter, sugar, and salt to a simmer. Turn down the heat to medium, add the flour, and stir rapidly. As you stir, the dough will pull away from the sides of the pot. Continue stirring for another minute or two to continue cooking the flour and cook off some of the moisture.

Take the pot off the heat and let it cool slightly, a few minutes - it should still be warm to hot. Stir in the eggs rapidly, one at a time. It will take a few seconds of vigorous stirring for each egg to be incorporated. You can also use a standing mixer or electric mixer: transfer the dough to a bowl and mix in the eggs one at time.

Spoon golf-ball-sized portions of the dough onto the baking sheets. Bake for 10 minutes, then turn oven down to 350 and bake for 10 to 20 minutes longer.

Taste or cut into one to judge its doneness: it should be airy inside and not too moist.

To assemble:
Slice each profiterole in half. Place a dollop of ice cream or pastry cream on the bottom half and sandwich with the top half. Spoon chocolate sauce over the top.

***Visit Taste & Create to see what everyone else has made this month!***

 

Pineapple Cake

This month my assignment for Secret Recipe Club was:

Dagny of Whisked Away.

Right away Dagny's Breakfast category pulled me in.  I noticed lots of cakey things...coffee cakes, muffins, fruit breads...and quickly decided to make this Pineapple Cake.  And I only needed two ingredients from the store!


This is a fairly quick and easy cake to pull together, I was interested to see how cooking the pineapple before adding the cake batter affected the outcome.  I didn't seem to have a ton of cake batter, so was a little concerned how it would all turn out (not too easy to spread over the pineapple/brown sugar liquidy mixture).

I should not have worried!  The cake crept over to the edges while baking and covered all the pineapple.  I was surprised given the butter and my nonstick pan that any pineapple stuck to the pan at all when I turned it out, but it did.  I just smoothed it back into the cake, which I suppose is easier than fitting the round slices back into their places on the cake.

This is a beautiful cake, different than a traditional pineapple upside down cake, but with similarly delicious flavors.  I know I will be making it again! 

Pineapple Cake

Via Whisked Away, originally adapted from Food and Wine Magazine

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 cup crushed pineapple, juices drained

3/4 cup granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla
 1/2 cup sour cream
 

1 1/4 cup all purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter an 8-inch or 9-inch round cake pan.  Sprinkle the bottom with 2 tablespoons of the brown sugar.

In a large skillet, combine the remaining 3/4 cup of brown sugar with the 1/2 stick of butter and the vanilla  and cook over moderately low heat until the butter is melted. Add the pineapple and cook over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat and pour mixture into bottom of the pan.

In a bowl, beat 1 stick butter with the granulated sugar.  Add the eggs and vanilla, then the sour cream.  In another bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  Add to the wet ingredients and beat until smooth.

Spoon the batter over the pineapple mixture and spread it evenly. Bake for about 40 minutes, until the cake is deep golden. Let cool for 5 minutes on a rack. Run a knife around the edge of the cake, invert it onto a plate and remove the pan. Replace any pineapple that may have stuck to the pan. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Sesame Chicken

I decided since we don't have a Chinese restaurant in town (I know, I can't believe it either!), I would search for a good recipe for Sesame Chicken.  I decided to try a recipe posted on about.com.  I didn't change the marinade for the chicken, which turned out fabulous.  I did make a few changes to the sauce, which I will note below, namely reducing the sugar by HALF.  Of course I couldn't find chili paste, so I had to improvise.  Please follow the link above for the original recipe.  I feel like the sauce needs a little something extra, not sugar!  When I identify it, I'll let you know.

For now, this recipe satisfied the cravings of three out of four family members.  Unfortunately, Sawed Off is the one who LOVE LOVE LOVES Sesame Chicken, and he did NOT love this rendition.  So the work continues to bring you a Sawed Off-approved Sesame Chicken.

However, if you're in the mood for Chinese, and don't have delivery, make this instead.

Sesame Chicken
Adapted from about.com
Serves 3-4

3 whole boneless chicken breasts  (ours were about 1 pound each)

Marinade: 
2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon dry sherry
a few drops of sesame oil
2 tablespoons flour
2 tablespoons cornstarch
2 tablespoons water
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vegetable oil

Sauce: 
1/2 cup water
1 cup chicken broth
1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 tablespoons chili sauce
a few drops hot sauce
1 clove garlic, minced

2 tablespoons toasted sesame seeds, for garnish
 3 1/2 - 4 cups peanut oil for deep-frying

Lightly toast the sesame seeds and set aside.

Cut the chicken into 1-inch cubes. Mix the marinade ingredients and marinate the chicken for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Meanwhile, make the sauce.  In a saucepan, mix together all of the sauce ingredients. Bring sauce to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn the heat down to low and keep warm while you are deep-frying the chicken.

Heat the peanut oil.  When oil is hot, add the marinated chicken pieces a few at a time, and deep-fry until golden brown. Drain on paper towels. Repeat with the remainder of the chicken. Just before you are finished deep-frying, bring the sauce back up to a boil.

Place the chicken on a large platter and top with the sauce. (I didn't use all the sauce)  Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with rice, if desired.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Delicious made with creminis, also known as baby portobellos.

Cream of Mushroom Soup

Serves 4

5 cups sliced fresh mushrooms or about 1 pound

1/2 cup finely chopped shallots or about 1 very large

1/8 teaspoon dried thyme or 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme

2 cups chicken or vegetable broth or a 14-ounce can

3 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

1 cup half-and-half

1 tablespoon sherry

1. In a 4-quart heavy saucepan, cook mushrooms, shallots and thyme in chicken or vegetable broth.

2. Using an immersible blender, regular blender, or food processor, purée the mixture, leaving some chunks in it. Set aside.

3. In the saucepan, melt the butter. Whisk in the flour until smooth.

4. Add salt, pepper, half-and-half, and mushroom purée.

5. Stirring constantly, bring soup to a boil and cook until thickened.

6. Add sherry and then adjust seasoning to taste.

NOTE: If using an immersible blender, then leave mushroom purée in pan and do Step 3 in a different, smaller pan. Then do Step 4 without adding mushroom purée. Then add white sauce to mushroom purée and continue with recipe.

Creminis, also known as baby portobellos, are delicious in this soup.

Indian Style Chicken and Lentils

My assignment for the Secret Recipe Club this month was:

Danielle of Mostly Food & Crafts

Danielle has lots of delicious recipes, but I was craving something quick and filling.  Her Indian Style Chicken and Lentils fit the bill!  It ended up taking longer because of my darn lentils, but it was still delicious

Here's the recipe.

Indian Style Chicken and Lentils
recipe adapted from Mostly Food & Crafts

8 chicken thighs
salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 cups chopped onions
3 garlic cloves
minced 1 jalapeno, de-seeded and chopped
2 teaspoons garam masala
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1 1/2 cups lentils
1 large carrot, peeled and cut into chunks
2 cups chicken broth

Season chicken with salt and pepper. In Dutch oven, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-high heat and brown chicken, 4 to 5 minutes per side.  Remove and set aside.

Chop together onions, garlic and jalapeno and set aside.


Heat remaining oil in pan; saute salt, garam masala and cumin, about 1 minute.  Stir in onion mixture and cook, stirring, until browned, about 6 minutes. Add the lentils and carrots, stirring to coat. Stir in chicken broth and 1 cup of water.  Add chicken back to pot and bring to a boil.

At this point Danielle says to reduce heat to medium; cook, stirring occasionally, until lentils are tender, about 25 minutes.  I guess my lentils (that I just bought at the store the other day) were older or something, because they took forever to cook.  after about an hour I finally just served up dinner with somewhat crunchy lentils because we couldn't wait any longer!  Such is life.  Just cook until lentils are done I suppose!

Pecan Shortbread

Recently received 20 pounds of unshelled pecans. This was my first use of them after shelling enough only for this recipe. Delicious and easy—if you don't count the effort to shell the pecans!

PECAN  SHORTBREAD

Makes 6 dozen

1 pound unsalted butter at room temperature

1 1/3 granulated sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1/ 2 teaspoon almond extract, optional

4 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups finely chopped pecans

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment, cream butter.

2. Slowly add sugar while mixing at low speed just until combined.

3. Add the salt, vanilla extract, and, if desired, almond extract.

4. Slowly add flour while mixing at low speed.

5. Add pecans and mix until the dough comes together.

6. Shape dough into three logs and wrap in plastic wrap. Or, shape into two flat disks and wrap in plastic. Chill for at least 30 minutes.

7. If using rolls of dough, unwrap and make ½-inch slices. If using disks, unwrap and roll ½-inch thick. Cut into 2 ½-inch squares using a plain or fluted cutter or cut into any shape you like. Place cookies on ungreased baking sheet.

8. Bake in 350°F oven for about 20 minutes or until the edges begin to brown.

9. Cool to room temperature before serving. Store airtight.

NOTE: Can try 1/3 brown sugar and 1 cup granulated sugar instead of all granulated sugar. Modification of a Barefoot Contessa recipe.

Penne Pasta in Chipotle Cream Sauce

Quick, simple, delicious, bistro-restaurant-quality recipe.

Penne Pasta in Chipotle Cream Sauce

Serves 6

1 pound penne pasta

3 tablespoons butter

2 shallots, minced

1 pound mushrooms, sliced

2 cups whipping cream

1/3 cup milk

2 teaspoons chipotle sauce or to taste

1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon freshly ground pepper or to taste

1 handful of cilantro, finely chopped

1.    Cook pasta al dente, according to package directions.

2.    Meanwhile, in a medium saucepan, melt butter over medium heat.

3.    Add shallots and mushrooms, and cook slowly, stirring often, until tender.

4.    Turn down heat to low, and stir in cream and then milk.

5.    Stir in chipotle sauce.

6.    Simmer sauce to thicken, stirring often. Add salt and pepper to taste.

7.    Drain pasta and then return to empty pasta-cooking pan. Add sauce to drained pasta and toss lightly to combine.

8.    Sprinkle each serving with a bit of cilantro.

NOTE: Bottles of chipotle sauce can be purchased cheaply at Mexican markets or in the Mexican section of well-stocked grocery stores.

Best way to finely "chop" cilantro is to put it in a cup and use one's kitchen shears to snip it finely.

Wonderfully simple and delicious dish. Great for company served with a green salad and apple juice and then lemon sorbet for dessert.

Easy Chicken Mole

Easy  Chicken  Mole

Serves 6

2 tablespoon vegetable oil, divided

1 ½ pounds chicken tenders or boneless chicken breast, cut into small cubes

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 14-ounce can chicken broth

1 10-ounce can diced tomatoes with chiles

¼ cup creamy peanut butter, ideally natural

1 ounce grated or chopped unsweetened or bittersweet chocolate

2 teaspoons chili powder

1 to 2 teaspoons honey

¼ teaspoon ground cinnamon

Salt to taste

Cooked rice

½ cup sour cream

¼ cup roughly chopped cilantro

1. Heat 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in large skillet over medium-high heat.

2. Add cubed chicken and sauté just until chicken ñis no longer pink in the center. Remove chicken from skillet and set aside.

3. Add another tablespoon of vegetable oil to skillet and sauté the onions until softened.

4. Add garlic and sauté another minute or two.

5. Stir in chicken broth, tomatoes, peanut butter, chocolate, chili powder, honey, and cinnamon.

6. Bring to a boil. Then reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. The sauce may be puréed with an immersible blender at this point.

7. Add reserved chicken to the sauce and simmer for 5 to 10 minutes.

8. Salt to taste. Serve over rice and top with a dollop of sour cream and a sprinkle of cilantro.

NOTE: You can use leftover cooked chicken and skip the first two steps.