Lesson Learned

I have been working on baking and cooking more and more. This week I made Calzones for supper. I made the pizza crust and set in on the stove to rise. At the same time I turn on the oven to begin preheating it. My mistake...I did not realize that I set the bowl on the burner that vents the oven. I came back 20 minutes later to check my dough and then went on the split it and roll it out and the dough on the bottom of the bowl was baked. I was able to save most of the dough and toss the baked stuff before others walked in the kitchen, but I have learned my lesson... make sure the bowl of dough that is rising is not on the burner that vents the oven.

I am fairly new to the kitchen and I am an over all klutz. Mishaps seem to fallow me every where, yes even into the kitchen. This is nothing new to my family, I was really glad I was able to save most of it. I also did not burn any thing that night. That is a trade mark for me, I am so afraid of under cooking something and getting everyone sick that I tend to make sure everything I cook is well done. I did not burn these... I was very proud about that.

If you want some great recipes go and check out Home Ec 101. I get 3-4 of my meals a week from that site, yes some are repeats, but when you have children and you find a recipe they love it is a great thing.

Fearless Friday- Meatloaf Addition

Meatloaf, I always despised it as a kid. I there was just something about the look of it that made it unappealing to me. At some point I decided to try making it, let say about 5-6 years ago (yes that is the time I had to start cooking on my own). I first, second and well many attempts went terribly wrong. They did not have any flavor and well I found out you can not had cubed bread to replace bread crumbs. Also found out that you have to flavor that stuff or it is just ground meat, egg and cubed bread, YUK! Another one of my troubles was that I thought it needed to go into a loaf pan and well all that grease on top was just gross and often spilled over into the oven. Yeah, partly the cause of Oven Fire 2004.

A few years pasted with no meat loaf in sight and last year I decided to try my hand at it again. This time I started with this recipe and after making it exactly like that and it turning out fabulous I started to add other things. It is impossible for me follow recipes exactly, it is in my genes not to, watch my dad cook. We eat meatloaf often now and I have found that you can play with the flavor of it much like your can play with the flavor of hamburgers. Yes, I know they are practically the same, but I struggled with meatloaf, but could make amazing hamburgers, go figure.
My Meatloaf:
2 lbs ground beef
2 eggs
a shake or two of bread crumbs
about 2-4 T of steak/hamburger seasoning
few squirts of Ketchup and Mustard
cheese (I love cheese in everything and if I have it I will put it in there)
I mix everything but the cheese and split it in two. I take one half and put it on a cookie sheet (I think that is what it is called, the one with little sides) and shape it like a loaf with a little canal running down the middle. In the canal I put the cheese and cover with the second half, so you can not see any of the cheese. On top I put layer of mustard and a layer of Ketchup. Pop it in the oven for 45-60 minutes at 350 degrees and I get very tasty meatloaf. I know you looked at the recipe I started with and the one I just wrote down and they are nothing alike. I just needed and place to start and that was a great one and from there I made it my own.

Sorry there are no pictures, I mean really... meatloaf, not very photogenic.