Foodie break, meatloaf Wellington

Back to the very old cookbook I found, it resembles my Mom's book I grew up with.  

I love meatloaf, and I know in this modern era, we are not supposed to love red meat.  I confess, I do, and many times I use ground turkey, at least for 50% of it, but then, once in a while I just like the total red meat thing (sorry vegans and vegetarians everywhere), but I grew up in a household where my Dad loved meat for meals.

This recipe for Meatloaf Wellington is delicious and we loved it.  Easy to prepare and very elegant looking for a company dinner, or just a Sunday dinner.  You can impress in-laws with your cooking skills because it looks beautiful on the table.  The recipes from this book don't take a long time to prepare, so they are ideal for working people who want something on the table in no time, especially after a day of work.  

Meatloaf Wellington:

1 can (10 1/2 ounces) condensed cream of mushroom or golden mushroom soup

2 pounds of ground beef, or 1 pound beef and 1 pound ground turkey

1/2 cup of fine dry bread crumbs

1/3 cup finely chopped onion

1 egg, slightly beaten

1/3 cup of water

1 teaspoon salt (if desired)

1 package of refrigerated crescent rolls

Mix thoroughly 1/2 cup of soup, beef, bread crumbs, onion, egg and and salt.  Shape firmly into loaf (8 by 4  inches); place in shallow baking pan.  Bake for 1 hour at 375 degrees F.  Spoon off fat.  Separate one package of refrigerated crescent rolls; place crosswise over top and down sides of meatloaf, overlapping slightly.  Bake 15 minutes more.  

Great with a tossed salad, green beans or mashed potatoes.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. 

Bon Appetite! 

Foodies; recipes from an old cookbook

These colors, signs of the times, 1960's

I found a great cookbook at a rummage sale and I bought it because my Mom had this book, among many other cookbooks.  I grew up with some really cool recipe books and Mom loved to experiment with recipes.  Some turned out well and were a hit while some............Meh........take em or leave them.

Sounds like fun to me, Bobbie's pad?  Hmmmmmmmmm

Fondue is a Swiss, French and Italian dish.  It became quite popular in 1960 in America............fondue dinner parties sprung up all over the place, in homes and restaurants.  

This is an inexpensive fondue recipe, my husband does not like fondue but I do. (I do..........rhymes)

A little time travel.  Looks like Chelsea Clinton!

*Cheese Fondue*

1/2 cup of dry, white wine (starts out good already)

1 medium clove of garlic, minced (you can open fresh garlic easily by taking your cutting knife and smashing the clove on your chopping block underneath your knife)

4 slices of natural Swiss cheese, torn into pieces

2 tablespoons of flour

1 can (10 3/4 ounces) of Cheddar cheese soup

French or Italian bread cubes

In a saucepan or fondue pot, simmer wine and garlic.  Combine cheese and flour: gradually blend into wine.  Heat until cheese melts; stir now and then.  Blend in soup: heat, stirring until smooth.  Spear bread cubes with a fork, fondue fork or wooden skewer (toothpicks work too) dip cubes into fondue mix.  Makes 2 cups.

* You can also dip bite-size pieces of cooked franks, cocktail wieners, lobster, shrimp, or artichoke.

You can have a 'sip and dip' party.  Invite guests to sip and dip, serve wine, or beer and if you have a fireplace, this is a wonderful dish to serve in front of a crackling fire.

Come on, ya gotta love the hair!

OK  This can burn Real easy too, stir, stir, stir!

Easy and economical dinner recipe

This is a delicious supper we like to have once in a while.  It is easy and so economical to make.  We like to have a baked potato and a small salad or green vegetable with it. 


Recipe:

1 can of flaky biscuits.............bake according to directions on can

1 pound of lean ground beef

2 or more cans of vegetable beef condensed soup

1/4 to 1/2 cup of water.......depending on how many cans of soup you use

Brown the ground beef in a skillet, drain if needed.   Combine two, or more (depending on how many you plan to feed) cans of vegetable beef condensed soups with the browned hamburger, mix, stir in the water and heat until bubbly.

This mixture is delicious poured over the biscuits or even over the baked potatoes.  

We love this dish at least once a month and it never goes to waste, never any left overs. 

Enjoy!


You can make your own biscuits but I like to use canned biscuits.  

Mostly Midwestern Thing

When we lived in Indiana, I always noticed two things on the menus whenever we went out to eat.  One was grits, the waiters and waitresses would always ask: "Would you like fries or grits with that?"  I'm not a big grits fan, even though my grandfather loved them for breakfast, but the other item on almost every menu, I did grow to like quite a bit.  That item was pork tenderloin sandwiches.  This is something Steve grew up with and almost always ordered each time we were out.  I never knew much about pork tenderloin sandwiches, but in Indiana's defense, whenever I'd ask for gravy on my french fries, I got funny looks, must be that one is mostly an Eastern thing.  So I guess we are even.  Here is our recipe for pork tenderloin sandwiches.

Start with however many pork tenderloins you want to make.  Take each one, place it between plastic wrap and pound them until they are about 1/4 inch thick, the thinner the better.  

Place them in a bowl and cover them with buttermilk.  If you cannot get buttermilk you can use one tablespoon of vinegar to one cup of regular milk, that works fine as a substitute.  Let the meat soak overnight, if you can, or all day while you are at work.

For the coating you will need:

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1 teaspoon onion powder

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1 cup flour, depending on how many you need to coat

2 beaten eggs

1 cup bread crumbs, either seasoned or plain, your preference, (hint: Panko bread crumbs will make a crunchier end product).


Add all the spices to your flour mixture.  Take the meat, one at a time, from the buttermilk and dip each one in the seasoned flour mixture first, then the beaten eggs, and finally coat with bread crumbs. 

Fry each tenderloin in your deep fryer, electric frying pan or stove top pan until each side is nice and brown.  

Place each tenderloin on toasted french bread, toasted garlic bread or on a hamburger bun.  We like ours topped with ketchup, mustard and dill pickles.  You can also add lettuce and tomato if you like.  We serve them with steak fries on the side and you can use whatever sides you like. 

We usually saw these tenderloins on the breakfast menu with white gravy on the meat and a couple of eggs and toast on the side.  They are wonderful that way too.

It has been our dream for the past ten years to own a nice little diner, serving down home cooking.  In the Midwest I came to appreciate those small diners dotted along the highways and in small towns whenever we traveled.

I hope you enjoy this recipe. 

Meatloaf for two

I buy my hamburger at BJ's Wholesale by the tube.  This way I can come home, slice the tube into 3 or four round chunks, freeze them in foil and use each chunk as I need them during the month.  This is recipe for meatloaf for two, or three, depending how thin you slice it.  It can be hard to know what to fix for only two people.  We like this recipe very much. 

Steve always mixes it up for me because for some reason his meatloaf slices hold together better than mine.  This is a restaurant quality, delicious meatloaf that I can cook in my electric toaster oven.  Cooking time, about one hour on 350 degrees.  We serve it with mashed potatoes, any vegetable or salad, rolls and sometimes I make brown gravy for it.  Enjoy!

Recipe:

1 pound lean hamburger

1 small onion, diced

1 cup of crushed, canned tomatoes

1 egg

1/2 cup of bread crumbs

1 tablespoon ketchup

1 tablespoon of mustard

Mix all the ingredients together and shape into a loaf pan.  We use a metal bread pan which seems to work very nicely.  

hamburger, onions, egg and bread crumbs mix

With mustard, ketchup,tomatoes & seasonings.  Mix by hand until all ingredients are well mixed.

Place in loaf pan and glaze top (brushing) with mustard and ketchup.  Bake for about 1 hour.

Finished product, sliced and ready to eat. 

Enjoy!

What does it mean?

I was checking my blog views when I noticed the most viewed blog I have is entitled: Over Stimulated and Blogging.  That one has 79 total views.  My blogs average 8 views.  Now what does it all mean? The title meant I'd had too much coffee and was up late.  It means that 71, possible deviants, must have thought it meant something ominous.  If young girls do not think deviants crawl all over titles insinuating something provocative, well guess again.  I'm sure they (the naughty readers) were sorely disappointed because I talked about trying to decide if I should give myself a perm or not.  Too, too funny!  OK then, on with today's recipe.

Steve's almost famous biscuits and gravy:

You will need one half package (a whole package of you want a large amount) of ground sausage.  Steve gets the tube kind. One tube, more if you need them, of country style biscuits.  We like the big flaky kind.  You can make your own homemade biscuits if you are that ambitious. 

Start baking biscuits while the sausage is frying.

 While frying the sausage, add Italian seasoning, ground black pepper and flakes of red pepper.  Cook sausage until nice and brown. 

Into the sausage, stir four to five tablespoons of margarine and allow to melt.  Sprinkle 1/4 to 1/2 Cup (depending on the portions you want) of all purpose flour over the sausage and melted margarine.  Stir and allow the flour to coat the sausage and allow the flour to turn a light brown.  (This is the base for the rue or thickening of the gravy.)  Turn the sausage mixture on high and begin whisking in milk slowly and allowing it to become thick.  Continue pouring milk and whisking the mixture until you have the desired amount you will need and continue to stir until mixture becomes thickened.  You may add salt and pepper to taste and your gravy is now ready to pour on to the finished biscuits.  

Add an egg on top and WOW a hungry mans breakfast.