Love That Meatloaf

NO! NOT THAT MEATLOAF!

THIS!




It's cold and rainy outside. It's a good night for comfort food, and what better comfort food than MEATLOAF? Not too many that I know of. So here's the deal tonight. I happened to have some left over ground deer meat blended with Italian sausage spices. I searched meatloaf recipes on Epicurious.com, and I found a buffalo meatloaf recipe. I thought, "what the hay. Why not use that? Venison, buffalo, it can't be too different, right?" Yeah I know, it can be quite different. But, the fat content may be similar, so I thought it just might work, plus the fact that one of the recipe reviewers used straight beef and loved the recipe told me it would be a go. So if you want to check out the recipe go here: Buffalo Meatloaf With Spinach and Roasted Baby Potatoes I have made some minor adjustments. First and foremost, the meat. I'm using a half pound of organic grass fed beef (all I can afford ....that stuff is ridiculously overpriced!) and a half pound of the ground venison "Italian sausage". I lowered the red pepper content since I'm serving it to my kids. I kept the spices the same, except for a little garlic powder being mixed in with the tomato sauce that I put on top ( instead of red pepper). Let's see, is that it? The only other changes were to the rest of the menu. I used fingerlings instead of the baby potatoes they called for, and since my kids, or at least one of them, has an issue with spinach, I steamed broccoli for them. I still sauteed spinach in olive oil and seasoned it with salt and fresh lemon juice and dinner was served. I will give you the family verdict asap!
Happy dinning!

La Chaparrita

We found a new treasure in Eureka. I've decided the best Mexican Restaurant Eureka has to offer is La Chaparrita. It's still not as good as Mi Rancho in Fortuna, but it's definitely a great restaurant. Check out this review from the Humboldt Review while you're enjoying some Barbacoa con Salsa Verde (Traditional lamb meat sauteed with green tomatillo sauce - and lots of cilantro) It went in sweet then slowly warmed the back of my throat with each new bite. It was addictive. I couldn't stop eating, and am still in pain from the amount of food I stuffed in my poor belly. If you're not a big eater, be prepared to ask for a box. Here's the review: http://www.humboldtsentinel.com/051202j.htm

Check them out at 210 4th St in Eureka

The Stolen Casserole

My co-worker, Ms. Hale from Rio "Dale" shared a great recipe with me a couple of days ago. It was one that included zucchini and that her kids liked. Right up my alley. It involved rice, zucchini (of course) and a home made cheese sauce ( including cheddar, milk and flour, very simple). Michale topped hers with fried okra and mentioned that sausage may be, no forget that, would be, good in it as well. So....knowing we had some type of sausage in our fridge at home, I called John and asked, "is that sausage in our fridge hot or mild?" Turned out it was hot.

So, knowing my kids like ham, I went with that. So here is my modified version of Michale from Rio Dale's recipe:

1 cup of rice...cook in chicken stock ( Michale puts it in layers uncooked in her version and covers the casserole in foil)
2 medium large zucchini's chopped
4 oz baby portobello mushrooms
1/4 oz reconstituted dried chantrel mushrooms
6 oz chopped ham
8 oz jarlsburg cheese
water from soaking dried mushrooms
half and half
garlic powder
(I'm guessing here, because I made it up on a whim and it turned out damn good!)
I cooked the rice. Put a thin layer down at the bottom of the casserole. Covered it with chopped zucchini mushrooms and ham, topped with a layer of rice and another layer of zucchini, ham, and mushrooms. Finally a layer of rice topped with the cheese sauce (Jarlsburg melted in half and half and mushroom water from the dried mushrooms (a 1/4 cup shaken with 2 tblsp of flour and added in for thickening, plus more for the right consistency). After that was poured over the casserole I toped it with Kettle potato ships (salt and pepper flavored) and baked it for 40 mnutes. It turned out great!

I think you could use a "cream o' " soup instead of a cheese sauce and come up with just as yummy of a recipe.
Well off to bed. Happy cooking!