Mini Meatloaf

I know this is going to be really cheesy, but I make meatloaf in muffin tins. Rachael Ray suggested it, and I have to admit it's very practical. Not only does the meatloaf cook a whole lot faster, but it's easier to portion off and easy to freeze and thaw. Not to mention very kid-friendly.

Sometimes I get in a slump as far as creative food goes, but I think it's important to still make sure you're getting those standards down really well, too. Meatloaf is one of those, and I don't think I ever made it until I was well into my adult life. I probably had children before I made meatloaf. It's never seemed that exciting, probably because ground beef in general seems like one of the least exciting ingredients out there. But if you're looking for comfort food, this always fits the bill. Don't we all love to sit down at our mom's house and take a few bites of meatloaf? No? Well, she must have had the wrong recipe.

(By the way, those are mashed potatoes in the picture. Can you have meatloaf without mashed potatoes?)

Before I decided on meatloaf muffins, I tried the other two options: baking in a loaf pan and free form on a cookie sheet. I liked the free form better, honestly, because you get a browner crust and the glaze cooks up nicely, but I was willing to give these up in favor of the convenience of muffin tins. If you haven't tried it this way before, I recommend giving it a go, especially if you have small children around. Still, I recognize that there's a time and a place, and it may not be so elegant if company is coming. In such cases, I recommend baking the meatloaf on a sheet pan that has been covered in aluminum foil, baking it in a 350° oven for 1 hour, until a meat thermometer registers 165°.

It's very important when mixing a meatloaf together to mix it as little as possible. The more you knead the mixture, the denser the loaf will become. If you treat it gently, you'll have a very tender loaf, more delicate than you're used to. That doesn't mean it will fall apart; the eggs and bread crumbs should keep that from happening.

My husband's favorite reason to have meatloaf is so he can make a meatloaf sandwich for lunch the next day. He prefers it on white bread with mustard. Not very often, of course, but good when you get it.

(I need to interrupt myself here. My daughter, Emily, is 8 years old and loves to experiment in the kitchen. Apparently David, who is 3, has picked up the idea, because he just mixed together chicken, peanut butter, Craisins, salt, and fresh raspberries. I wonder if he'll eat it!)

Oh, my very favorite thing about having meatloaf was always my mom's glaze. Hers was sweet and ketchupy, almost like candy. I like that sweetness against the meat, but I've found through trial and error that I only like it in the glaze; leave the sugars out of the loaf for me. We like our glaze to have a good kick of vinegar in it, too, and cider vinegar seems to work best for that. Don't skimp on the glaze, either; that's like serving ice cream without the hot fudge sauce. Good luck!

Meatloaf
makes about 18 muffin-size loaves

1 1/3 lb. lean ground beef (93% or thereabouts)
1 lb. ground pork
1 1/2 T. olive oil
1 medium to medium-large onion, chopped
6 large cloves garlic, minced
4 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 1/2 T. fresh thyme leaves (about 1 1/2 t. dried)
1/3 c. ketchup
1 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. *Worcestershire sauce
2 eggs
1/3 c. milk
1 1/4 c. fresh white bread crumbs (about 2 slices, torn and thrown in the blender)
Kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Glaze:
2/3 c. ketchup
3/4 c. brown sugar
2 1/2 T. cider vinegar

Preheat the oven to 425°.

Heat the olive oil in a sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the onions and a pinch of salt, then cook, stirring, about 4 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another minute, then add the tomatoes, thyme, and another pinch or two of salt. Cook, stirring, 5-10 minutes, until the tomatoes are cooked down and the mixture is fairly thick. Taste for salt. Cool for about 5 minutes, while you prepare your bread crumbs and throw everything else together.

In a large bowl, combine the two meats, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire, eggs, milk, bread crumbs, six or seven turns of pepper, 2 t. salt, and the cooked tomato mixture. Using clean hands, gently knead the ingredients together just until thoroughly combined. If you'd like, at this point you can fry a bit of the mixture up in the sauté pan to test for salt, but if the tomato mixture was salted correctly you should be just about right.

Combine all the glaze ingredients.

Spray the muffin pans with non-stick coating, then fill each cup just to the top with meat. Using a spoon and half of the glaze, coat the tops of each of the loaves. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven and quickly coat with the remaining glaze. Turn the oven on to broil, and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes, then remove, using a fork. Serve.


*Pronounced [worse - stir - sure]

Training Meals, part 4: Salmon and Stuffed Zucchini

A short time ago, when we were out of charcoal, there were only two options for me when I stopped at the store: Kingsford Matchlight and Kingsford Charwood. The Matchlight was not a consideration for me. Supposedly, it's very easy to light this charcoal, but it's coated with lighter fluid, so your food may end up tasting like gas. Besides, we have a chimney, which solves problems with lighting your charcoal.

I bought the Charwood. According to Kinsford, it is "natural lump hardwood charcoal." It also mentions that Charwood burns hotter than regular charcoal, which really just means you get to eat faster. Okay, it also means you have to be careful if you need to cook slower, like having a hot side and a cool side (which my husband performed brilliantly on Sunday with pork loin chops). Anyhow, we love it. I especially like it for the effect it has on salmon.

I purchased some fresh Alaska sockeye salmon and, after the charcoal was ready, it took about 10 minutes for a large piece (about 2 lbs). A smaller piece or larger fire would result in a shorter cooking time, but this was just fine. I'd salted it and Mark threw some fresh thyme on top, then he grilled it skin side down with the lid on. The result was a very smoky salmon with a nice hardwood flavor to it. And the cold leftovers I had for lunch today were still full of that smoky taste. I highly recommend it.

As for the zucchini, well, that's another story. That comes from a suggestion Rick Bayless makes in his cookbook Mexican Kitchen. (My copy of that book is very well-used, by the way, to the point that the seam is completely falling apart. I wish it was available in spiral-bound!) I've kind of changed the sauce around (though the original is also very good), but the zucchini recipe is similar to what he has written. If you have the book, you'll see the original idea is listed after his Essential Simmered Tomato-Habanero Sauce. This is one of my favorite side dishes, and it's delicious and hearty enough to have by itself for a lunch. The corn is sweet and tender, the cheese is creamy, the zucchini tastes so fresh, and the tomatoes brighten up the whole dish. It's such a great combination. You'll probably have more sauce than you need for the zucchini, but it's great on rice, too. Here, then, is the recipe:

Stuffed Zucchini

2 T. olive oil
1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 lbs. fresh, local tomatoes
1 15-oz. can tomato sauce
2-5 serrano chiles (depending on taste), sliced in half lengthwise
Kosher salt

3 medium-sized zucchini
2/3 of an 8-oz. block of cream cheese (or thereabouts),
3 ears corn
1/2 slice bread, blended into crumbs

For the sauce, heat a medium saucepan over medium high heat and cook the onion in the olive oil until tender, 5-10 minutes. Roughly chop the fresh tomatoes and add them to the onions. Cover and cook for one or two minutes, then smash them up with a potato masher. Add the tomato sauce and chiles (2 will be a pretty mild sauce), then simmer on medium-low, partially covered, for about 30 minutes. Taste for salt.

Preheat the oven to 400°. Cut the corn off the ears and combine with the cream cheese. Microwave on high for 1 minute, until well-combined, then add the bread crumbs and taste for salt. Slice the zucchini lengthwise and scrape out the centers to create a boat-like structure. Lay them in a baking dish and sprinkle with salt, then fill with cream cheese mixture. Bake for about half an hour, until the zucchini is fork tender.

Serve with a generous amount of the tomato sauce.

My Vegetable Garden

This may not be the most exciting post for all of you, but it is one of my favorite topics. I love my garden. It is right outside my back door, very convenient to my kitchen, with all the herbs growing just off the patio (so I can access them on cold, rainy, or snowy days).

Every growing thing in my garden is potential for something splendid and delicious. I love watching it all grow, picking each tomato as it ripens, canning the excess for the winter. Here's how it's doing today:

This is my rosemary. I'm hoping it will grow large enough to withstand the cold this winter. My first winter here in Boise my rosemary survived, but my second it didn't.


If you've ever been to any remote parts of the West, you may have noticed that sage grows very well here. I certainly have more than I need, but at least my chicken never feels lonely.


My favorite of all herbs: thyme!! The perfect herb for any savory dish, and I have plenty of it! It's so good with meats, tomatoes, cheese, vegetables.


Leeks have been my poorly-maintained experiment this year. They're so inexpensive to buy as starters, and so expensive to buy as produce, so they were worth it. I should have thinned them out about 3 months ago, though, so we'll see what happens when they're ready in another month or two. One of my friends always plants leeks because she loves to put them in her stuffing at Thanksgiving.


Ah, the reason I garden. I love garden-fresh tomatoes. No other tomato compares to the ones that ripen completely in your garden, and then are consumed that day. Makes you just want a cheese and tomato sandwich, doesn't it? Well, except that orange tomato needs another day or two. So much potential. By the way, I have about 8 tomato plants in my small garden this year. My favorite tomato as far as flavor goes is definitely the brandywine, though I've had some other organic tomatoes that are excellent. Most of our tomatoes go into homemade canned salsa, which usually lasts until the next tomatoes are ready for canning. Of course, we make fresh salsa, too, while the summer lasts.


Don't you love these beauties? My grape tomatoes have a mind of their own, though. I didn't plant any grape tomato starters this year, and I have 3 full-size plants growing back there. Sometimes they take over the garden, but I didn't mind this year, as I planted significantly fewer items, knowing I have a new baby to care for and a house on the market.

So, not pictured are the chives, dill, basil, French green beans, and the huge tomatillo plant that managed to grow on its own, even though I last planted tomatillos two years ago. Crazy. Still, gotta love that green salsa!

We're making a fantastic dinner tonight, by the way, and I can't wait to tell you all about it tomorrow!

Raspberry Crème Brûlée

I really like crème brûlée. If you've ever had it at a good restaurant, you know why. It's creamy, slightly sweet, silky smooth, creamy, crunchy on top, rich, and creamy. It's a very simple dessert as far as ingredients go, and I've noticed that occasionally someone tries to dress it up by selling "raspberry crème brûlée", or blackberry, or something else that is not just cream. I actually quite like berries, too, and often serve them on top of my crème brûlée, but I've always wondered how they'd taste inside. Rather, I've always wondered if it's worth it. The dessert is so perfect as it is, would the berries make it even better, or would they dilute the quality that makes it so divine?

Thus far, I've never ordered a raspberry (or other flavor) crème brûlée. Too chicken I'd be disappointed. But I thought it was high time I get a real answer, at least as far as my taste goes. So after we picked all those beautiful berries for jam, I took a few of the leftovers and quickly went to work.

Crème brûlée isn't difficult to make, as long as you can tell when it's done, and I've been doing it for years. The first time I had it, actually, was at a restaurant called The Grand Old Ranch House in Moab, Utah on my honeymoon. I later called and the chef gave me the recipe, and I'm so glad I had the guts to do that, since the restaurant no longer exists.

Anyhow, like I said, it's not difficult to make, and it only requires a few ingredients: cream, egg yolks, sugar, and vanilla. I prefer to use vanilla beans, but I don't always have them around, so this time I used vanilla extract (homemade, but I'll get into that another day). Sometimes I've used heavy cream, but this time I used whipping cream (slightly less heavy), and had much better results. The taste was still very rich, but it didn't leave that coating on your mouth the way extra-fatty foods can. I like the heavier flavor of heavy cream, so my suggestion would be to go for half of each in the recipe (1 c. heavy cream, 1 c. whipping cream). As for the eggs, I get them from a friend who raises her own chickens, so they're very fresh, vegetarian-fed, and free range. That's the best way to get eggs, if you have the option. Otherwise look for vegetarian-fed, free range eggs in the grocery store. There's a difference in flavor, and flavor is very important in a dish with so few ingredients.

For the raspberries, I simply dropped five fresh raspberries in each ramekin before filling it with the custard. The rest of the recipe is as follows:

Crème Brûlée

2 c. cream
4 egg yolks
2 1/2 T sugar + 2 T more for tops
1/2 t. vanilla extract, or seeds from half a vanilla bean

Preheat the oven to 350°. If your water bath will be in a stoneware pan, preheat that in the oven as well. Heat about 8 cups of water for the water bath and set aside.

Whisk together the cream, egg yolks, 2 1/2 T. sugar, and vanilla. Place four 4-oz. ramekins in your water bath dish, then fill them to the top with the custard. Gently pour the hot water into the water bath dish.

Bake until the centers are just barely set, like gelatin. If you use a preheated stoneware dish and hot water, this will probably take about 25 minutes. If you're using any regular 9" x 13" pan for the water bath, it may take 40-50 minutes. Remove to a rack and cool, then chill in the refrigerator until cold.

Sprinkle 1/2 T. sugar on each of the baked custards. Using a torch, burn the sugar until slightly brown, then chill 15 minutes, or up to a day, before serving. If you don't have a torch, you can do this under a very hot broiler, placing the custards close to the heating element and burning the sugar as quickly as possible. Be careful not to get them too hot, or you will end up overcooking the custard, destroying the smooth texture.



So, do you want to know what's better? The original, by far. I enjoyed the flavor of the raspberries, but they kept getting in the way of all the good bites of crème brûlée. I'll serve them on top next time.