Meatloaf I (p. 512), Meat Loaf Sandwich (p. 183), Thousand Island Dressing (p. 576), and Cabbage, Potatoes, and Ham (p. 263)

Meatloaf is something that I never really liked growing up. But the recipe looked fairly easy and I figured it was time to make something I wasn't really looking forward to. Unfortunately, there is actually a fairly significant list of recipes I'm not looking forward to and I have to sprinkle them throughout otherwise I'm afraid that I'm going to have a year of eating gross foods (granted, they might be better than I expect--terrines were on that list and the terrine on Top Chef looked pretty tasty, so I could be wrong). Mom always made meat loaf when I was growing up and I never really liked it--likely because she always jammed it full of onions and I don't really care for onions unless all the flavor is cooked out of them.

I made Meatloaf I (p. 512). It's a simple meatloaf recipe.

First step--mix beef (it specifies both chuck and round but I just used the generic ground beef from CostCo), onions, bread crumbs, catsup, parsley, eggs, tyme, salt, and pepper.



Mix it with your hands! It's so gushy--this part always reminds me of being a little kid and playing with play-doh (I LOVED play-doh!). The parsley isn't very well cut up--I really want one of those herb strippers from Williams-Sonoma because I get pretty bored with chopping parsley pretty quickly.

Stuff the meat mixture into a loaf pan. The recipe says to "mound" the mixture. I'm not sure how you are supposed to do that so I didn't really worry about it. Amusingly, after I raved about this recipe to my mom and she made it, she mentioned the same problem.

See...my lack of sniping the parsley means I have tiny bushes in the landscape of my meatloaf...



Bake it for until it's 160 degrees--and use your meat thermometer! It is supposed to "pull" away from sides, which it did.




How was it? REALLY good. I mean REALLY good. As someone who doesn't usually like meatloaf, this was DAMN good. I don't know why--there is nothing at all special or odd in the recipe. It must be the proportions. But it was just amazing. Mom said hers was great too when she made it so I have to put this on the "you should make immediately" list.

To optimize the meatloaf, I decide to make a Meat Loaf Sandwich (p. 183) for Josh. The bad part of this was that the second ingredient is either green goddess or thousand island dressing, neither of which I had. I decided to make Thousand Island Dressing (p. 576) so I could finish the sandwich recipe.


This recipe was really easy. Mix mayo, chili sauce or catsup (I used half of each), one hard-boiled egg, pickle relish, onion, chives (I used freeze dried), parsley, salt, and pepper.




The dressing was really tasty--much better than any thousand island dressing I've ever had out of a bottle. So far, the dressings in TJOC are perfection!

Back to the sandwich...

Bread, lettuce (I think I used spinach), onion, some meatloaf, and the dressing (which isn't included in this picture).



Josh said it was extremely tasty and went back for seconds, so if you make meatloaf, seriously considering making a meatloaf sandwich with your leftovers.

Cabbage is wonderfully cheap in the fall/winter so I decided to make Cabbage, Potatoes, and Ham (p. 263). The first step is to simmer some smoked ham hocks in some water




A cabbage is then added (trimmed, cored, and quartered...I still don't know how to core a cabbage so I just cut out the middle) and some potatoes (the recipe says quartered but I cut it into slightly smaller chunks).





The vegetables are then simmered for a while and drained, leading to...




So how was it? Really good! Not as good as the green bean, ham, potato mixture that I made a couple months ago...but still really good. And cheap! Good for the bad economic times :)

This is going to be another example of posting several blogs at once, so make sure to read them all! I'm also going to try to update the index, too.

Caramel Cupcakes (p. 738) , Quick Caramel Cake (722), and Caramel Icing (p. 792)

I'm going to do something I never do...I'm going to post these two posts as today and yesterday even though I cooked them weeks ago. Why? (I'm editing these to show that they were made weeks ago--I hate falsifying blog posts!). After I spent the whole day cooking (the dishes in these two posts) I started feeling absolutely terrible. And that is how I've been since and how I feel still. I have had more tests and specialist appointments in the last two and a half weeks then you could imagine. Apparently, it's either my kidneys or my gallbladder but the problem isn't solved yet and I can't stand for long enough to cook (and I was doing so well!). How am I going to do Thanksgiving? That's something for Percoset and I to worry about but it WILL happen. Thanksgiving is one of the best holidays for a LOT of TJOC recipes to get knocked out!


I decided to make cupcakes and thought I would try TJOC's baking recipes out again. As many of you know, I typically love baking, but I don't love baking at high altitude.

Looking over the cupcakes I decided to make Caramel Cupcakes (p. 738) which means that I have also made the Quick Caramel Cake (p. 722) because it's the exact same recipe (remember, sometimes TJOC reads like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure novel). Compounding this is the fact that the QCC tells you to make the Lightning Cake (p. 722) using brown sugar instead of white sugar and add nuts. So really, by making the one recipe, you have cooked through three of the recipes.

Everything should be at room temperature, so I set out the milk, eggs, and butter, and let them warm to room temperature.




This is a one-bowl cake so the dry ingredients (cake flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt) are added and then the eggs, milk, and vanilla are added to the same bowl.




I don't know why I wasn't using my Kitchenaide but I used a hand mixer for the recipe. Next, the butter is mixed in. I adjusted everything in this recipe--I used more flour and milk and less sugar and baking powder, although it's still a bit of a crapshoot when it comes to adjusting for altitude.





The batter is beat for a while.



I folded in some chopped pecans at this point.

And the batter is dolloped into the cupcake pans!







On to the icing...the recipe recommends Caramel Icing (p. 792). Reading the recipe I realized that this is pretty much candy, so bring out the candy thermometer!

First step, combine brown sugar and heavy cream and stir, over heat, until dissolved. Cook until about 240 degrees. It already looked like caramel to me!

It goes from this:





To this:



Angry! As always with candy, DON'T STIR IT!

Remove it from the heat and float butter on the top. Then cool until 110 degrees.




This takes forever, so be prepared.




Eventually, it's cool enough. Add some vanilla and beat until cool, thick, and creamy (very vague, I hate directions like this). I beat it until it looked like this:



At this point, the butter was not soaking in at all. I've never made caramel's...is it normal for the butter to just leak around the candy? And if so, what's the point of adding it?

And the cupcakes are frosted!



How were they? First off, ugly. These cupcakes are not attractive, so don't make them for the annual bakesale. The cake part tasted like a fat cookie and the icing was more or less candy. So if you like big cookies frosted with candy, these are TOTALLY the cupcakes for you.

Sorry sorry sorry and the coolest gadget

Sorry guys! I've been really really sick lately so I haven't been cooking :(

In the meantime, you can play around with my favorite web gadget...and I promise to post this weekend. Be sure to post what interesting things you find!

I just edited the date on this so it's going to show up as three weeks earlier than it used to--imagine you are Marty McFly!

Popularity of names starting with JESS

Buttered Egg Noodles (p. 329)

If I was placing recipes in themed groups, Buttered Egg Noodles (p. 329) would fall in the category of "do you really need a recipe for this dish?" Come on, egg noodles, butter, a little cheese on top, and there you have it.


Take some egg noodles, boil and drain.



Melt a stick of butter (you could use the microwave but I used the pasta pot).





Pour the butter over the noodles (or in my case, add the noodles to the butter), add salt and pepper, and there it is.



How was it? Really good but it's buttered noodles--there isn't much to the dish. Great for kids, those low on money, and when you are lazy and don't feel like cooking.

I know it's a short blog but there isn't much to say about a three ingredient recipe! I've posted about four blogs today (all backdated) so make sure to check them all!

Eggs in a Basket (p. 196)

Continuing along in my quest to make quick meals from TJOC, I decided to stick with the egg chapter and made Eggs in a Basket (p. 196)

This is another simple recipe (which, in turn, means a short and simple blog).

First, cut holes out of a couple pieces of sandwich bread. I used a glass, which worked well, but a biscuit or cookie cutter would also work really well. Keep the holes!




Melt some butter in a skillet and cook the bread for a little bit.




Then crack an egg into each hole. I had good luck with one egg, less luck with the other egg (stupid broken yolk!).




When the eggs begin to set, flip the bread.



Cook for a while and there you have it! TJOC says that kids really enjoy these and I'm sure that's true. Josh thought they were quite tasty and they were easy. They would be cute if you used a star or some other shape to cut the hole (you could even theme them--hearts for Valentine's Day and so on).




What about the holes? TJOC recommends toasting them in the skillet and serving them as well. Might as well not let anything go to waste! And I do love butter...

Scrambled Eggs (p. 198) and Happy Birthday Irma Rombauer!

Happy Birthday Irma Rombauer!



I can't recommend reading about Rombauer enough--it's really inspiring. She self-published TJOC in 1931 to make some money after the death of her husband. In 1936 the publication was picked up by the Bobbs-Merrill Company and a more comprehensive edition was released and the rest is history!



I make passable scrambled eggs--I will preface this blog entry by saying that even I know how to make decent scrambled eggs. Even so, I wanted to make breakfast burritos for dinner and figured I could knock out a TJOC recipe at the same time.


Scrambled Eggs (p. 198).

Combine a few eggs, some salt, a little cream, and bit of paprika. I measured it into the measuring cup so that I could have one less dish to wash.







Pour into a pan (with melted butter) and push the eggs around.




And you keep pushing the eggs around....





And push them around some more...



Finally! The eggs are done. The recipe says the eggs should thicken in about two minutes. It took my eggs CONSIDERABLY longer than that.

How were they? Well, they are scrambled eggs. Unless they are absolutely horrible, there isn't much to say about scrambled eggs. Although I think they are particularly good in a tortilla with some cheese, bacon, and hash browns. Nothing healthy about the combination, but delicious.




Of course, today was Halloween, my favorite holiday! This was the first time in years that I didn't get dressed up and go out on the town . I refused to have no holiday spirit in the house so Duchess got costumed up.

Duchess, Halloween 2008, in her pig costume:



And as a pop star:



She even got special treats--Doggie s'mores from Three Dog Bakery!



Happy Halloween from Josh, Jessica, and Duchess!

Fried Eggs (p. 196) and Fried Egg Sandwich (p. 182)

I've made the realization that the best way to knock out plenty of TJOC recipes in a month is to turn to TJOC when I'm hungry and look for a fast recipe. That was my method tonight. I decided to make a Fried Egg Sandwich (p. 182), which starts with the obvious first step of making Fried Eggs (p. 196).

This is one of those recipes of those recipes that 99% of people already know. So have I ever made a fried egg before? No. I don't like fried eggs, so I've never made one before, and it always seems challenging to make them without bursting the yolks.

The start is really easy--melt some butter in a pan (bacon grease would be even better but I didn't have any bacon) and crack two eggs into it (the recipe is for four eggs but I seriously doubt it will matter).





I wanted a firm yolk for the sandwich, so I covered the pan and cooked the eggs for a couple of minutes. Eventually, we got:



Fairly attractive! And the eggs are done--easy enough! On to the sandwich...

First step, toast an English muffin, add some grated cheese, and broil. A perfect job for the toaster oven (we have a really fancy toaster oven from my godmother and like to use it as often as possible, especially in the summer, because it doesn't heat the whole house).



I have to admit, I made two of these sandwiches, one the TJOC way and one the even easier way. The TJOC method:



My method--a Kraft single. Probably not quite as good but it cuts a couple minutes out of the recipe!

And there we had it:





How was it? Amazingly good and really really filling. Super easy--I think this is a great dish for anyone who doesn't have much time and doesn't want to make tv dinner.