The Humble Meatloaf Always Pleases

This is slightly fancier than my mom's old recipe, but it calls for the topping of ketchup, mustard and brown sugar she always used.  I took this meatloaf, served cold, to a party last night and folks gobbled it up.  Nice and firm, it cut neatly and easily into small portions.  


I always buy ground beef at the butcher counter, because you can't be too picky.  85% lean yields a tasty meatloaf.  I used marjoram and thyme instead of the sage.  Pick the herb(s) you favor.  Used part scallions, part regular onion.  The cupboard yielded only panko bread crumbs, so I used that. 

Not only do you go to war with the army you have, you often cook with the ingredients on hand.  


This was the first dish I learned to make.  My dad learned to expect it when my mom couldn't cook.  BTW, I substituted cilantro for parsley, being too lazy to go out and cut parsley in the rain. 


Meatloaf tastes good with baked potatoes,  almost any veg. and a green salad.    Sauteed cherry or grape tomatoes (with garlic and herbs) are always a colorful side dish, should they be on sale.   Carrots, also give great color.  Remember, we eat first with our eyes. 


Here is where you'll find the recipe:  Better Homes and Gardens Meat Loaf
I think the recipe was around when God was a boy.   Enjoy.  


The Cheeseparer

Happy Chinese New Year

Ah, the year of the dragon!  We celebrated in style.  Most years we celebrate the Chinese New Year chez Cheeseparer, a long family tradition dating back to when Nixon went to China and was served chicken and walnuts.  The Chicago Tribune printed a recipe.  So delicious we make it to this day.  Simple, too.


This year we went with Szechuan cuisine, with Gong Bao Chicken and Spicy Szechan-style eggplant. Yummers.  To cool the palate I made a salad out of iceberg lettuce and clementines, both on sale as was the chicken.  And we had rice, of course.  For dessert, something I hadn't made in years:  pineapple fritters.  Whole Foods had pineapples for $2.50 each, a great deal.  We had it in fruit salad yesterday and the fritters today and  there's enough fritter batter and pineapple for some breakfast fritters.  


Here is the recipe for the main course: Gong Bao chicken


The peanuts add lovely crunch, and the red pepper and the Sichuan peppercorns add heat, but it's not so hot you have to move the tissue box to the table.  There's enough left for a light dinner tomorrow.  My eggplant recipe was for 2 eggplants, so I cut it in half.  Both recipes called for ginger and garlic (both healthy seasonings) and I cut the garlic cloves and ginger root on the mandolin to get really thin slices. 


I always keep soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger,  and scallions on hand.  Dried red chiles and Sichuan peppercorns, too.     Rice, a given.  This means that with the inexpensive staples, we can have stir fry at the drop of a hat.   Shrimp, beef, and pork are good, too.  Whatever is on sale, with whatever veggies are cheap at the market.  


You know the drill. 

Celebrate the year of the dragon with your own Asian feast.  I use cast iron skillets instead of woks.

Saturday we're having goulash soup, one of our all time faves.  A little beef or  pork go a long way in soup, and it contains onions, celery, carrots and potato.  Bell pepper, too.  Sometimes tomatoes.  It's easy to eat our veggies when we cook in other cuisines.  

What cuisine have you cooked in lately?  


The Cheeseparer

Farmhouse Curry

Due to the power failure and having to cook all the defrosted chicken breasts, we missed a whole grocery shopping circuit.  This week the aim was to a) do a moderate diet week, calorie-wise and b) not break the bank.  So far so good.  Whole chickens were on sale for 99 cents a pound and I bought one and roasted it with cumin and citrus last night.  Most delicious with acorn squash and broccoli, all on sale.
Today I took the rest of the chicken off the bone, after putting aside a leg and a wing for lunch.  My curry is made with onions, an apple, fresh tomatoes, chicken broth and chicken (would you believe all on sale?) along with lots of spices including, natch, curry powder.  Our curry powder is hot! therefore I only use a fraction of what the recipe calls for.  In this case, 2 teaspoons instead of 2 tablespoons.  It still had a bit of heat.  Served with white basmati rice, sauteed bananas, and some leftover broccoli from last night.  Lots of lean meat and veggies, and great flavor with very little fat, not always the case.

This recipe is from The Artist's & Writer's Cookbook, a volume I acquired in the early days of marriage, and the particular recipe is by Anthony Powell, whom I later knew as the author of A Dance to the Music of Time.  The book is long out of print, but it turns up here and there in various used book places. Artists & Writers Cookbook at Amazon 

We have enough curry left for tomorrow, so I have got 6 entrees and 1 lunch out of a $4.00 chicken.  Not bad.  And both meals were delicious.  Later on in the week we have some lean porkchops and 2 baskets of Brussels Sprouts, then some steak tips with carrots.  Iceberg lettuce was also on sale, along with the pork chops and Brussels sprouts.  I'm trying a new recipe with toasted pecans and dried cranberries.  Sounds yummy.

In the morning when I come downstairs the house will still smell of curry.  Indian food rocks! 

The Cheeseparer

Green Eggs and Ham

We're having ordinary eggs and ham tonight.  An 8 oz. ham steak is a wonderful thing to have in the fridge or freezer.  They are frequently on sale.  For the two of us, I just fry up the steak and scramble some eggs.  If you have more than two, chop up the ham (not too finely) and toss it in with the eggs.

To make the meal a little special, yesterday I made some bacon and cheddar muffins.  Took half to a housebound friend, and popped the rest into the freezer for tonight and the future.  We also have a "special" salad of tomatoes, avocado and artichoke hearts, all purchased on sale as was the ham, the cheddar and the bacon. 

Ocean State Job Lot, in the New England area, has a wonderful food section with  lots of cheap stuff like imported pasta, artichoke hearts, capers, ethnic foods and all sorts of delicacies.   We shop there often.   They even have white asparagus and great imported saurkraut at bargain prices.

We got our flu shots today.  Did you get yours yet?    Many of the drugstores and even Walmart  are offering them to walk-ins.  Getting the flu and spending time away from work is not what you want to do.  I know of several people who have been laid off because they got sick.  Give yourself every advantage and stay well.  That also means eating plenty of fruits and veggies.  I buy bags of frozen berries and thaw a few out every morning for my cereal or on top of cottage cheese.  That and a glass of o.j., and you're on  your way to  5 produce helpings.  You can always have a few cherry tomatoes and carrot sticks for lunch--maybe some items from the olive bar. 

Didn't mean to preach.  Don't you get weary from being preached at concerning your diet?  Some of the foods recommended for weight loss make be gag at the thought.  I am not really a tofu fan, although it is o.k. is soups and stir fry (if there is a bit of meat, too).  Soup is a great way to get some extra veggies.  So warming on a winter day.  We woke up to snow on the ground this morning, but my nasturtiums seemed unfazed.  Had already picked some  coleus to root indoors and the four o-clock seeds (from the old plants) to use next summer. 

The scrounger as well as the cheeseparer

Salade Niçsoise, a dieter's dream

Tastes and colors both terrific!

Tonight, on a 90 degree day in New England, we ate a cold supper of Salade Niçoise.  I had ambition to grill some tuna, but the store didn't have any, which made me think it was probably twenty dollars a pound and this would be neither a cheap nor a frugal meal.  So I bought some nice Italian tuna in oil--it has a great flavor and I drain as much of the oil off as I can.
Procedure:  line a big platter with lettuce leaves.  In the middle, put two cans of Italian-style tuna in oil, well drained.  Surround the tuna with vegetables dress is an oil and vinegar dressing.  We had:  green beans, tomatoes, red pepper, olives, artichoke hearts and garbanzo beans.  And two hard-cooked eggs.  Potatoes are traditional, but I must have put them in the wrong grocery cart.
I served this with bread sticks, and we had guilt-free seconds and there is enough left for lunch.  All in all, a satisfying find.
 From it's name, I assume the salad comes from Nice.  We ate it many years ago on the Rivera, and it was a crazy lunch with a whole bottle of wine (yikes) and many female topless diners.  Well, you know.  France is France.

I lost another pound and must behave this week because we're having a dinner party on Saturday with a high carb salad/veg and homemade chocolate ice cream.  
We've been eating fruit salad with oranges, cherries, raspberries, and peaches and I can't tell you how good it is.  Everything on sale, of course. 
The lettuces in the garden will soon be eating size and we are already munching on the fresh herbs.  Tomatoes and cukes coming along.  Flowers pretty.  Mosquitoes hungry and plentiful.  Our little Eden does have its varmints.


Aloha! 


The Cheeseparer