The Best Meat Loaf

First of all, this happened today...

This was sometime after me throwing up blood and before deciding that the day was worth living in (you know, take a shower, get out of your pjs, try to eat something- again).  We put on Sesame Street for Abby and she crawled up into my lap and told me she was my baby and to rock her.  Then she just let me snuggle her for a good 15 minutes (this from a previously uncuddly child.  Really!  Even as an infant!).  I guess it gave me the boost I needed to get going and make the awesome meatloaf I have posted below. Of which Abby ate exactly NONE!  Her loss!

A few things about this meat loaf:  I have adapted it into some kind of combination from Joy Manning's Almost Meatless cookbook and from America's Test Kitchen's "Classic Meat Loaf" recipes.  It calls for tofu in addition to the meat.  I love this because it not only keeps our meat consumption lower, tofu is cheaper than ground beef, and it keeps the meat loaf super tender and moist.  If you make this for a man in your life you may not want to tell him about the tofu til after he tastes it.  Believe me, you don't notice the tofu at all.  Jeremy (my meat-loving man) called this the best meat loaf south of the North Pole.  So if that's not a recommendation for you, I don't know what is! So, without further ado...

Best Meat Loaf Ever

Adapted from Almost Meatless and America's Test Kitchen

Notes: The mushroom step is optional and I have skipped it before but it really does add a nice meaty "umami" taste to the meat loaf and also ups the vegetable count.  I made a double batch of this tonight but only had 1 lb of tofu and it was still delicious.  So, if you're not a fan of tofu and are still feeling wary of its presence you could reduce the percentage and just add more meat.  But seriously, why?  Like I said, it's cheaper and makes the whole thing more tender... so, up to you.

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons butter or bacon fat (you could use regular oil, but I think the salt in butter or bacon fat helps brown the onions better/faster cause they release their juices)

about 10 small mushrooms or equivalent amount portobello mushrooms

1 onion

2 medium carrots

2 cloves garlic, minced or put through a press

1 lb tofu

1/2 lb ground beef (I use sirloin 90/10 meat to fat content)

1/2 lb ground pork

2/3 cup crush saltines or quick oats or bread crumbs (I used gluten-free bread crumbs- just some Udi's bread I toasted and whirred in the food processor)

2 eggs

1/2 cup whole milk/yogurt

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 1/2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme

1 teaspoon dried parsley

1 1/2 teaspoons Sriracha sauce (or slightly less hot sauce.  It won't make the meat loaf spicy; it just adds another layer of flavor)

1 1/2 teaspoons dijon mustard

A few slices of bacon (This is optional. Anytime I mention making meat loaf without the bacon topping Jeremy either gives me a look like I should be committed to an insane asylum or he gives me his wounded puppy dog eyes.  I compromised and only put 4 slices of bacon across the top.  It's those little compromises that make a marriage work, ya know?)

Glaze:

1/2 cup ketchup

1/4 cup brown sugar

4 teaspoons cider or white vinegar

Directions:

1.  Add 1 tablespoon of the bacon fat or butter to a hot pan and saute the mushrooms til they have released their juices and have started to brown on the edges.  Transfer mushrooms to food processor and process until ground up.

2.  Switch from the blade in the processor to the shredding disc and shred the carrots (no need to take the mushrooms out. It's all going to get mixed together anyway)

3.  Dice the onion into small pieces. Add the other tablespoon of bacon fat/butter to the skillet and cook till starting to caramelize.  Add the crushed garlic.  Cook till fragrant.  Add the carrots and mushrooms.  Cook long enough for the carrots to just start to soften (this won't take long).  Take off the heat and allow to cool a bit.

3.  Meanwhile, in a medium bowl whisk the eggs, milk, and seasonings together.  

4.  In a large bowl mix the tofu, beef, pork, and breadcrumbs together.  (I like to use my hands to mix.  You may want to take off any jewelry from the wrist down... just a reminder.)  Add the veggies, incorporate.  Add the milk/egg/seasoning mixture, incorporate. You will now have an amalgam that looks something like this:

5.  Preheat oven to 350.  (I use a toaster oven so it doesn't take long.  You may want to do this a bit earlier if using a larger oven.)  Line a pan (at least 9x9) with foil to make cleanup easier.  Place a rack on top.  Like so:

Sorry it's blurry

 Place another layer of foil on top (so your meatloaf doesn't fall through) and poke holes in the foil so that excess fat can drain out to the pan below (this is more important if you're using a higher fat content meat).

 6. Put your meat loaf mixture on the foil and pat out to an even thickness (about 1 1/2- 2 inches thick).

7.  In a small sauce pan mix together your glaze ingredients and brush on your meat loaf (reserve the extra).  Place bacon strips (if using) on top.

8.  Bake for about 1 hour to 1 hour and 20 minutes.  You want the internal temperature to read 160 and bacon on top to be crisp.  About 10 minutes from the end of baking, heat up the glaze on the stove and allow it to thicken a bit.  Remove the meatloaf from the oven.  Brush the remaining glaze on top and return to the oven for the remainder of the baking time.  If the bacon has not crisped sufficiently (it was cut thickly or something) pop on the broiler and DON'T WALK AWAY.  Just give it about a minute and your bacon should be nice and happy.

Enjoy!  We had ours with sweet potatoes (no marshmallows please! Just butter, salt, and pepper- keep it pure!) and a green salad.

I invited my brother to join us for dinner but he sent his regrets.  His loss.  I guess walking from Pittsburgh (he doesn't have a car) was just too far for him.  Silly guy!

Blerg!

We take our morning sickness seriously around here.  If there's not blood in the vomit, you're not doing it hard enough.  If your toddler doesn't spend part of her morning making puking noises and running to "throw up" in trash cans, you're not doing it often enough.  Me?  Oh yeah, I'm doing it right.

In case you didn't figure it out from my last post, we keep it REALLY real around here!

It's not all bubbles and kisses

Well, today was a full one.  I took Abby out grocery shopping once Jeremy came home from work so he could nap.  I still sometimes forget that everything takes about a bajillion times longer when you're doing it with a toddler.  A toddler with a strong mind of her own.  She wasn't bad or anything.  She was really very sweet but you can only do so much to rush a 2-year-old through aisles of new and exciting things.  Especially when that 2-year-old is Abby.  It's ok.  I wasn't in a hurry.  But I didn't expect the shopping to take us over three hours!  Needless to say, Abby got hungry as the afternoon went on.  No problem.  We were in the grocery store after all.  I picked up a small thing of blueberries that were on sale, found a bathroom to rinse them off, and offered them to her.  She was hungrier than I thought.  She finished off all 6 ounces of blueberries (please remember this as it has bearing later on) before moving on to two sticks of string cheese, and a slice of whole wheat bread.  Don't worry, I paid for all these things and I never offer her anything that is paid for by the pound.  Mothers of toddlers, don't pretend that you haven't offered your child something in the store just so you can finish your errand without the little thing dissolving into a pile of snotty, teary, hungry hysterics. :)  Once fed, we trotted meandered through the aisles finishing our list with Abby back in bright spirits and charming all the grandmotherly types we encountered.

I tell you this part of my morning simply so that I can tell you the real adventure of our day, which took place after bringing Abby home and putting her down for her nap.  Jeremy and I grabbed some food, chatted, and worked on a few chores around the house. When Abby awoke (or I should say alerted us to the fact that she was awake) it was with piteous whining and whimpering coming from her room.  This is not altogether uncommon, though she more often calls out "mama" cheerfully.  I decided that she could wait the 3 minutes it would take me to finish sweeping the bathroom so Jeremy could mop.  Believe me, had I known what awaited me upstairs I might have rushed a bit more, or better yet, sent Jeremy up.  When I went in her room my first thought was "gosh, the diaper pail is sure stinking up the place."  Then I saw my dear child, standing in her crib, pajamas unzipped, diaper discarded to the side and I thought "well, that's an interesting bit of experimentation." THEN I saw the crib with multiple pellets of damp poo seeping through the sheets and into her mattress pad.  At this point I said out loud "Oooooohhhhhh booooooooooooy..."  I don't remember saying this but Jeremy says he heard it downstairs and that was his first clue to keep his ear pricked should I call him for backup.  Abby looked up at me miserably, big welling tears in her eyes, just staying this side of panic and stated the obvious, "poopy" followed by "poopy, poopy, yucky, poopy."  At this point I still thought I could handle the situation on my own.  Then I reached out to pick her up, comfort her, and, for heaven's sake, get her clean.  Yeah, that's when I discovered that her pjs were soaking wet and that the poop in the crib wasn't all accounted for.  There was more poop down each leg of her pajamas, smooshing its way into the backs of her knees and the tops of her socks. Yay.  Let me be clear that this was not diarrhea (thank God), just regular poop.  This was when I decided the divide-and-conquer approach would be best and called Jeremy in to survey the situation.  We stripped our child and her bed and began clean up.  I'm glad to say that I still was calm enough and had the presence of mind to ask Jeremy to get the camera.  Oh yes I did!  I should warn you now that the following image is not for the faint of heart but it also bears saying that it in no way demonstrates the full nastiness of the situation either.  Oh yes, it was worse than it looks.  But it looks pretty bad.  You have been warned.

Me in all my pregnant glory holding my two-year-old in all her poopy  glory.  You know that's how we roll.

The pajama situation in the sink.

I know that might be too much for some people but again, I have to emphasize that it was much worse than it appears in the picture- here the clean up had already begun.  I would like to remind you of the 6 ounces of blueberries that she ate for lunch.  Yes, they made their first debut during what I am now calling "the incident."  Obviously a bath was called for (as well as a load of laundry).  Abby was completely freaked out that such a horrible thing could come from her own body and she was so powerless to fix the problem once it started.  She did enough freaking out for the three of us so Jeremy and I just laughed and took it in stride and tried to comfort her- oh how far we've come!  Her diaper, by the way, was completely dry (you know, the one discarded in the crib).  Closest we can figure, she probably took the diaper off BEFORE her nap, slept and peed in her jammies, awoke and had to poop, then totally freaked out.  So just another adventure in parenthood.  Some days you get bubbles and kisses and other days you get poop. On everything.  It's just nice to know I'm not the first and I won't be the last.  Besides, I have a great picture to hold over her head for decades to come.   You think you were embarrassed by those cute little naked bath pictures your mom took of you when you were two?  HA!  And yes, in 19 weeks we're adding another monkey to our circus (and I couldn't be more excited!).

Catching Up and Little Bits of Happiness

Wow. I haven't written anything since my first post in November.  But I suppose I can be forgiven seeing as I was still suffering from a good deal of pregnancy nausea at the time, we traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, and we hosted my whole family at our home for Christmas.  We enjoyed having my mom stay for two extra weeks bonding with Abby and giving us another set of hands around here to get things done.  We just dropped her off at the airport yesterday and Abby still keeps asking about "Hamma" (grandma).  When I told Abby that Grandma went bye-bye and if we wanted to talk to her we would have to use skype she ran to the computer immediately after we dropped Grandma off and asked to skype.  She's asked me several times today too.  Cute kid.

By way of recapping the last several weeks, I thought I'd just post a number of captioned photos that highlight some of our Christmas activities while sipping at my blackcurrent Ribena tea.   (I'll recap Thanksgiving later.)

Mmmmmm Tea.....

 Abby and I made our first batch of cookies (biscotti, to be precise) together in preparation for the holidays

 Abby enjoying the sunny weather and our Christmas pointsettia

 Some after-church family photos with Jeremy's mom.  Abby was not keen on the idea!

My family arrived on the 23rd.  Abby spending some morning time with Happa (grandpa)

 Giving Aunt Sarah a lengthy explanation on a topic of great importance

    

Opening presents!  And more importantly, PLAYING with them!

Seeing the lights at the Zoo and freezing our fingers off

Getting pretty before her birthday celebration with bows (and Uncle Daniel- I think he looks pretty too)

 Gluten-Free Chocolate birthday cake

Opening a present from her great-grandparents.  She was tickled pink!

 She got a new baby doll too!

 We hosted a murder mystery dinner with my family, my grandparents, and Jeremy's mom.  Sadly I don't have more pictures.  I think some others might though...

Going out for lunch.  Love these two!

Playing in the fountain after lunch

        

 Lots of time loving on Grandma.  This just makes me happy!

 More cake!

 Grandma was showing Abby how to slide her hand in the potholder and Abby said "Cook, no hot."  Apparently she has it all figured out already!

 A pretty common sight around here: Abby on the counter as we prepare dinner; in this case, gluten-free pizza.  Sorry, no after pictures as we were all hungry and there were important things going on (namely Downton Abbey).

 Banana Shake mustaches make me smile and should be captured for all posterity.

We had a few other adventures too.  We celebrated my birthday.  I got a sewing machine that has already been put to use fixing some maternity pants for me (thanks, Mom!) and putting up matching curtains in my living room (thanks, Peggy Lee, Jeremy, and Mom!).  Mom and I explored the Asian and Indian food markets in the area and found a plethora of gluten-free flours that I'm excited to try out.  We did lots of cooking and generally had a wonderful time!  We had an awesome doctor's appointment were we got to see this beautiful little thing: 

And we confirmed my suspicions that we are indeed having a BOY!!!

Now we are trying to settle back into a routine.  Abby is trying to get used to not having an adult fully at her disposal every second of the day.  I'm rediscovering my introvert self and resting a bit.  Next up: develop a better system/agenda for keeping up with the house and making the most of my time with Abby before "baby bruher" comes in and demands a new normal.  Cheers!