Meatloaf, potato cakes, bacon & cabbage

I don't use a recipe for the meatloaf. It's ground beef, a pkg of lipton onion soup mix, an egg or two, ketchup, and a slice or two of bread torn into little pieces. Mix well. Put in a pan ( I have a cook's essentials loaf pan that has a shallower insert with holes in the bottom to let the grease drain away from the meat. Squirt some more ketchup on top. Bake 350 for an hour or until done.

The potato cakes I make are never as good as my mom's. I think part of the reason is that I don't use enough flour and they tend to fall apart a bit. There isn't really a recipe. Take your leftover mashed potatoes and add flour (we've always used self-rising). Shape into patties and fry. We eat them with ketchup.

I found the recipe for the bacon and cabbage at girlichefs blog here I thought it was pretty good I drained a little if the grease because it was really fatty bacon and it turned out fine. It makes a change from boiled cabbage. I also left out the caraway seeds because we didn't have any.

Bad Blogger Brownies

I said in my last post I would talk about the brownies I made. That was 2 weeks ago, as I mentioned in the title I am a bad blogger. So here we go 2 weeks late.

Kittencal's Extreme Chocolate Brownies

• 2/3 cup butter or margarine
• 1 1/2 cups sugar (reduce to 1-1/4 cups for a less sweeter taste)
• 1/4 cup water
• 4 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips, divided (24 ounces)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 4 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Set oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Grease a 13 x 9-inch baking pan.
3. In a heavy saucepan, bring butter, sugar and water to a boil, stirring constantly until the butter is melted and sugar is dissolved (about 3 minutes).
4. Remove from the heat, with a wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups chocolate chips until melted; cool slightly, beat in vanilla.
5. In a mixing bowl,whisk eggs, gradually add in the chocolate mixture, beating with a wooden spoon until completely mixed.
6. Mix together flour, baking soda and salt; add to the egg/chocolate mixture; mix well to combine.
7. Stir in the remaining chocolate chips.
8. Spread into prepared baking pan.
9. Bake for 35-40 minutes (don't over bake).
10. Cut into squares.
11. Note: If desired, chopped walnuts may be added.

36 brownies

I added all the chocolate at the beginning because I didn't read the recipe right. They had an odd taste on the first day which had faded by the 2nd day. I also halved the recipe. I would maybe try them again with and add the chocolate at the appropriate times. I also think they may have been a tiny bit overcooked.

Shepherd's Pie

I should probably start off with the fact that I don't like mashed potatoes. I ate them when I was young, with mayonnaise, I know that's unusual but that's how my mom ate them and she learned it from her stepfather and I have no idea why he started eating that way. Where was I? Oh yeah, I don't like mashed potatoes so it was stupid of me to try a recipe covered in mashed potatoes and think I would like it.

It wasn't all bad, I like the bottom part well enough. I think it would be good as a base for pot pie. I expect a lot of people would want to spice it up a bit but I liked it the way it was. The potatoes were a little softer that I expected, maybe I used too much milk when I made them but I think it was the egg that thinned it down more than I would have expected. I thought the egg would bind it together and thicken it a bit but I guess not.



I found the recipe at recipezaar. The link it here.

• 1 (22 ounce) package frozen mashed potatoes (or make your own)

• 1 lb ground beef
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 cup chopped carrot
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 tablespoon tomato paste
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons salt, divided
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper, divided
• 1 cup beef broth
• 1 large egg
• 1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

1. If you're making your own, prepare mashed potatoes; set aside.
2. Brown beef and onion in lg skillet over med-high heat for 5 to 6 minutes, stirring til beef crumbles and is no longer pink; drain and return to skillet.
3. Add carrots and peas; stir in flour, 1 t salt, 1/4 t pepper,& tomato paste.
4. Add broth, and cook, stirring constantly, 3 minutes or until slightly thickened.
5. Spoon mixture into lightly greased 7x11” baking dish.
6. Stir together mashed potatoes, egg, and remaining 1 t salt and 1/4 t pepper; spoon over beef mixture.
7. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes; top w/ grated cheddar and bake for an additional 5 minutes.

I also made brownies which I haven't tried yet so I'll post that later.

Slow Roasted Whole Chicken

The recipe is here The only changes I made were I used onion salt instead of the salt and onion powder and I only had the rub on the chicken 4-5 hours instead of 8-24. The rub didn't give it much flavor, I really should have let it sit overnight. It was tender, so tender it didn't slice well. It fell apart into chunks every time I tried slicing. It was a perfectly good roast chicken but I would rather have cooked on a rotisserie or on the grill.



The last 2 pictures are what it looked like when I removed it from the pan. If you want it to look nice you might want to cook it a little less because the breast and legs came off in one piece but the wings, sides and back fell into a million pieces.

Zucchini Bread with Blueberries

I found this recipe at here at Recipezaar.

• 3 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup oil
• 2 1/2 cups sugar
• 2 cups unpeeled grated zucchini (food processor works well)
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 3 cups flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 4 cups fresh blueberries or 2 cups frozen blueberries, thawed and drained

1. Add oil, sugar, zucchini, vanilla and almond extract to beaten eggs.
2. Sift dry ingredients together and add to batter.
3. Gently fold in blueberries.
4. Pour into 2 greased and floured 8x4x2" loaf pans.
5. Bake at 350° for 1 1/4 hours until inserted toothpick comes out cleanly.
6. Cool on rack and store in plastic wrap in refrigerator.

Makes 2 8x4 inch loaves

I did make a few alterations to the recipe. I used 2 cups of sugar instead of 2 1/2 and next time I might cut the sugar a little more. I used 2 1/2 c. of frozen blueberries instead of 2 because I didn't read the recipe properly, the 2 c. the recipe calls for should be sufficient. I also used self rising flour instead of all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt and it worked just fine. I made 1 loaf and 8 mini loaves. The mini loaves were done in about 20 min and the regular loaf took about 40-45 min. This is a really good recipe that everyone enjoyed and if you have kids it's a great way to sneak in some vegetables!