Meatloaf with Mashed potatoes.

The gelatin helps keep the meatloaf more moist and keeps it from splooging out grease onto the pan.

• 1 onion, diced fine
• 2 tsp garlic, minced fine
• 1 tsp dried or 2 tsp fresh thyme
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1/4 c steak sauce or 3 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 c dried bread crumbs or crushed crackers
• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 lb ground pork
• 1 tsp unflavored gelatin (optional)
• salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste

Topping:

• 1/4 c ketchup
• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp vinegar
• salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Sauté the onion until translucent and add the garlic and thyme right at the end and cook until fragrant. In a medium bowl, mix the egg, onion mixture,  and steak or Worcestershire sauce. Add the breadcrumbs, beef and pork,  gelatin salt and pepper and mix until just mixed. Don’t overmix or the meatloaf will get a funky texture.

Place the meat mixture on a cookie sheet and form into a rough square about 2 inches thick.

For the topping, mix all ingredients, and spread over the top of the meatloaf.

Bake for 1 hour.

16 oz prepared red cabbage with apple bits

Mix everything except the cabbage and paprika in a bowl. Knead until every item is distributed evenly. Place cabbage on bottom of baking dish. Sprinkle paprika. Spread meat mixture on top of cabbage. Cover and cook in oven for one our at 350 degrees. Forty minutes in, feel free to drain. With ten minutes left, cover with sauce.

Sauce for meatloaf

• 4 tablespoons minced onion
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 4T of brown sugar,
• 4T vinegar,
• 2T Worchestershire Sauce
• 1 teaspoon basil leaves

Simmer everything in a small sauce pan and stir constantly. Serve with meatloaf.

• 3 russet potatoes
• 4 garlic cloves
• bay leaves
• sprig of thyme
• vegetable stock
• salt
• black pepper

I made these because I didn’t have any butter.

Boil some water. Add salt, bay leaves and thyme. Quarter potatoes and place in boiling water. Boil until you can squish a piece of potato between your forefinger and thumb, easily. Make sure to use tongs and cold water before attempting to handle the hot potato. While the potatoes are boiling, cook the garlic in a little bit of oil to soften. Once the potatoes are cooked use either a large fork or a potato masher or a wooden spoon or whatever works best for you. Add the garlic and slowly add stock while mashing. The potatoes will fluff up and absorb the moisture so just add more stock as you mash until you reach the desired consistency. Salt and pepper to taste.

• 6 cups crumbled cornbread (to be cooked prior to this)
• 4 apples (cooking apples)
• 2 sprigs parsley
• 2 sprigs sage
• 2 sprigs rosemary
• 2 sprigs thyme
• 4 stalks celery
• 1 large yellow onion (2 small onions will work)
• 3/4 cup Half and Half
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 eggs
• 5 links Colosimo’s red wine sausage
• 8 tablespoons butter (this is a whole stick)
• 4 cloves garlic

Melt one stick of butter in a frying pan and soften your peeled cored diced apples and place these aside.

The purpose of the sausage is to help make a base for the stuffing. We can do this by slicing each sausage in half, then scraping the meat from the casing. Discard the case.  Brown the sausage like you would with ground beef. After the sausage is browned, add the sliced celery and onion. Cook until slightly tender.

Using your fingers, scrape the leaves from your sprigs of herbs and chop them finely before adding to the mixture.

Take your crumbled cornbread and mix with the apples. Blend the eggs with half and half then add to the cornbread mixture. Knead gently. Once this is all blended, mix with the sausage mixture by hand.  Make sure that things are moist enough to form into balls.

Roll into balls slightly smaller than your fist. You’ll only get one shot at shaping these correctly. Place into muffin cups in a muffin tin and bake at 375 for 20 – 30 minutes. For extra pizazz you can garnish each serving with a pecan or parsley or whatever you think would be good.

I may or may not edit this post in the near future for better readability.

• 1 loaf Italian sourdough bread, sliced and toasted
• 1 package dehydrated sun-dried tomatoes
• pear juice (or any kind of juice, wine or water)
• 2 cloves garlic
• 2-3 tbsp olive oil
• salt and pepper
• sliced onion (we did it raw, but I would try sauteing or caramelizing as well)
• sliced roast beef (leave out if vegetarian)
• cottage cheese
• thyme, oregano, cumin

Rehydrate the tomatoes by adding enough pear juice (or whatever) to barely cover them and microwaving 30 seconds or until soft. Mince the tomatoes with the garlic and add this back to any remaining juice. Mix in the olive oil and salt and pepper. Garnish the toast with the tomato mixture and the remaining ingredients and enjoy!

As a side note, I would maybe put this back in the oven under the broiler for a minuted to melt and brown the cheese. Also, I would suggest trying a variation with prosciutto and mozzarella cheese for the roast beef and cottage cheese, if you happen to have any lying around.

1. Cucumbers with Cream and Mint
2. Vermouth Seared Scallops topped with Salsa Verde
3. Squid and Leeks in Red Wine

The first item, Cucumbers with Cream and Mint I copied out of The Art of Simple Food. This was actually the last item I chose for dinner. Sometimes I work my menu backwards, choosing the main course first.

Cucumbers w/ Cream & Mint

• 2 cucumbers
• 3 or 4 sprigs of mint
• 1/4 cup of heavy whipping cream
• 1/2 juiced lemon
• splash or two of olive oil
• sprinkling of sea salt
• dash of cumin

I am just estimating the ingredients I used for the Cucumbers with Cream and Mint. Slice the cucumbers into 1/8″ slices and sprinkle with sea salt. In a separate container mix the cream, olive oil, mint, lemon juice (this reacts with the milk and gives it some body after stirring vigorously), and cumin. All that needs to be done once the sauce is ready is toss in a bowl. I can tell you that the cumin added quite an interesting and delicious dimension to this dish.

• 2 lbs squid
• 2 lbs leeks
• 2 or 3 sprigs of dried thyme
• 3 or 4 pinches of dried oregano
• 2 bay leaves
• 8 cloves of garlic (I was lazy and used minced garlic)
• 2 healthy pours of red wine
• several small pulls of water
• healthy dash of cayenne
• splash of lemon juice
• parsley for garnishment

Five pounds of food

I cribbed this recipe from the Amateur Gourmet’s Squid & Leeks in Red Wine who in turn cribbed it from Richard Olney’s Simple French Food. I had been wanting to try squid for a while and I was impressed. If you know how to clean your own squid, you can pick it up for ninety-nine cents per pound.

Clean your leeks, there will be dirt in them. I like to cut them in half to separate the green and the white then I cut each of those halves in half lengthwise and then in half crosswise once more. I clean them after cutting lengthwise to allow the water better access to rinsing the insides. While you are playing with the leeks you will want to warm the oil. All of it. After the leeks are rinsed and ready, give them a good turn in the oil and some salt for a few minutes, five or so will do.

While the leeks are softening we want to slice the squid into 1/4″ slices. I kept the little squiggly parts, I wasn’t afraid to eat them. The next step is somewhat of a juggling act but juggling in the kitchen is one of my favorite passtimes. Place the leeks somewhere safe and start cooking the squid. This may take a while because we are going to cook them until all the water has evaporated. This is where I diverged from the previous two incarnations of this recipe. I didn’t have any flour and I did not salt the squid while cooking.

At this point I added the oregano and thyme. After a couple quick stirs I added the garlic and let things sit just long enough for the garlic to start sweating. Here I started pouring in the wine, just a little bit at a time allowing the liquid to come to a simmer before adding more. In between pours of wine I splashed some water in with the ingredients and dropped a couple of bay leaves into the mixture. I was feeling adventurous this night and I felt that a lot of cayenne was in order. I am so glad that I used a generous amount of cayenne here. During the meal it didn’t quite overpower the other flavors and left quite a warm after taste that was somehow pleasantly mellow.

Wait until the liquid is simmering, I took heed from the Amateur Gourmet and used a very low heat, then add the leeks back into the pot. Adam cooked his for an hour and a half longer, my cook time after this point was probably just shy of an hour. This made over four pounds of food and everyone got seconds. At the very end of the cook time I added a splash of lemon juice. Since I didn’t have any croutons I reduced the rest of the liquid to a yummy syrupy sauce that I drizzled over the squid and leeks, then topped with parsley.

• 1/4 cup vermouth
• 1 lb scallops
• olive oil
• sea salt

The scallops are pretty simple. It’s the Salsa Verde that took more effort but I will have to post that recipe tomorrow.

Heat the oil until you can hold your hand over the pan for no more than a few seconds. You only need enough to just barely cover the bottom of the pan. Salt the scallops lightly just before placing them in the pan. 1 lb of scallops fit into my frying pan just fine. Let them sear on one side for six or seven minutes, this will pretty much cook them all the way through. Flip the scallops over, at this time there should not be any liquid left in the pan. The direct heat will add just a bit of color to the other side so quickly pour the vermouth into the pan. After a few moments  most of the vermouth should be gone and you can pull them off the heat.

Top the scallops with some Salsa Verde and enjoy. I will post the recipe for that soon.

• One half a box or bag of spaghetti noodles
• One can of roasted diced tomatoes
• 3 garlic cloves
• 1 pearl onion (I ran out of regular onions)
• Thyme
• Butter
• Packet of Crushed Red Pepper left over from Pizza Night
• Packet of Parmesan Cheese left over from Pizza Night

You can probably guess what happened next. The key difference may have been that I started the garlic and the thyme and onion in the butter before dumping in a can of roasted diced tomatoes. Thank goodness I had some leftover ingredients from when my friends bought pizza. Cheap. It’s all about the recycling yo.