I Do Not Like Meatloaf, Leanne I Am

Would not, could not in a box, will not, could not with a fox, not in a barn, not with some yarn, I will not eat meatloaf, Leanne I am.

I do not like meatloaf - it's not one of the foods I crave and in fact as I kid I used to smoother it in ketchup just to eat it - and I don't even like ketchup that much. So you can see my position on how much I dislike meatloaf - just not my thing. Recently I was searching Tasty Kitchen for new recipes, fun recipes, things that I normally wouldn't cook. That is when I came across this, Cranberry Chicken Meatloaf. Maybe I was still hung over from Thanksgiving and had visions of stuffing and cranberries dancing in my head but this sounded good to me and possibly because it wasn't a traditional meatloaf, it looked different, it looked fun.

I hesitated in telling Michael about it because I figured he'd turn his nose up at the sound of meatloaf too. So I waited until I was preparing it before I told him what we were having and he responded just as I thought he would "sure you cooking something new when I'm starving". But I kept pressing on because that's what I do. However, I do feel bad, I think I took some of the aggression out on the chicken. But I don't think it felt much.

Here are the modifications I made to the recipe.

• I used 1 pound of Purdue ground chicken since I don't have a meat grinder to grind up the required 4 chicken breast. I probably should have used 1.5 to 2 pounds of ground chicken though in order to balance out the stuffing.
• I also omitted the onions because we aren't fans of those either.
• And you will need to double up the topping, which is cranberry sauce and brown sugar.

When I popped this sucker out of the oven at the end of the 45 minutes it smelled really good and it didn't look bad either. Much to both of our surprise this turned out to be a fairly tasty alternate to meatloaf and this is something we will definitely cook again. I'm most excited for the left overs for lunch tomorrow. The dried cranberries in the meatloaf and the topping with brown sugar and cranberry sauce just gives it the perfect amount of sweetness.

I also served this with corn bread - an extra bread probably wasn't needed because of the stuffing but I was craving corn bread. And it sure tasted good with the meatloaf. I had broccoli lined up as the veggie but I forgot to heat it up and it was going to be for me anyway so I didn't worry with it too much.

I'm a meatloaf hater but I approve this message. With four thumbs up and full bellies I'm signing off to help with the dishes.

The Lifeway Marriage blog

Good post from Nov 17th

http://blogs.lifeway.com/blog/marriage-family/index.html

Two intriguing quotes from Mark (author of the blog):

"If a man says to his wife, "I have fallen out of love with you", he is actually saying, "I never loved you unconditionally to begin with."

"You can't protect your home when you're rarely there, nor when you're relationally disconnected"

Who knows maybe I'm only trying to sound smart and that's why I like these. But just thought they were something worthy of pondering.

Recipe Exchange

Katie from McDonnell Place wrote a post about doing a recipe exchange. And while I don't have many recipes that are that exciting or new, I was asked to post a Bruschetta recipe that has been floating around the family from my sister's boyfriends mom... How is that for confusing?? Before I post that though - here are two links to Katie's site that have listed a number of recipes that her friends/family have been giving to her. They all look really yummy and gives me great new things to make. Thanks Katie

http://www.mcdonnellplace.com/2009/11/okay.html

http://www.mcdonnellplace.com/2009/11/you-said-yes.html

So here is the recipe I promised. Ironically it's called

Savory Bruschetta

Ingredients:

Bread (pre cooking)

1 large French loaf

¼ cup of Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 clove garlic (minced)

Tomato Mixture

6 – 8 Plum Tomatoes (seedless and chopped)

Red onion (1 cup)

3 cloves of garlic (minced)

2 teaspoons of Kosher salt

2 teaspoons fresh ground pepper

¼ cup Balsamic Vinegar

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

25 fresh basil leaves- chopped

Cheese Mixture for bread (post cooking)

3 tablespoons parmesan cheese (grated)

8 oz cream cheese – softened

Pitted black olives – 2 tablespoons chopped

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

Cook bread slices for 8 – 10 minutes until crisp (or 6 minutes for less crispiness)

Cut 16 slices out of the bread (number may vary based on size of loaf you get or how thick you cut the pieces)

Brush with the mixture of:

1. ¼ cup of olive oil

2. One garlic cloves

Place on baking sheet and put into preheated oven

Tomato Mixture

**This can be premade in order to allow all the juices and flavors to mix together

Mix tomatoes, red onions, cloves of garlic, basil, salt and pepper in a glass bowl.

In a separate bowl mix ½ cup olive oil, balsamic vinegar, then pour over tomato mixture and toss

Chill until needed

Ready to Assemble

Drain tomato mixture through a strainer before serving – this will prevent the bread from getting soggy

Blend softened cheese, parmesan cheese, and olives. Then spread this over the freshly made toast.

Spoon tomato mixture over cream cheese and serve immediately. (Might want to spoon with a slotted spoon to help remove any extra juice that might have formed even after straining)

Mad Dash on Halloween

In trying to be gentle in how I approach this subject as there was a slight ummmm, 'miscommunication', yes we'll go with that word, between Michael and I on Halloween. I thought I had asked ever so sweetly for him to get Halloween candy on Saturday morning because if I had it in my house prior, I would have eaten it all. So I purposely waited to the last minute to purchase it. Well Saturday's I'm gone all day and knew I wouldn't make it home in time to shower, run out get candy, and be ready for the kids. Well he apparently thought differently and left at noon to go hang with a friend. Not sure what he was doing until noon but I guess that is neither here nor there at this point.

Needless to say I made it home at 4:15 to find out there was no candy, I had to let the dogs out, shower because I was covered in sweat and horse hair, left the house at 5 (I believe that is record time for me getting ready), ran up to Wal-Mart for candy only to discover they were OUT. Yes my friends, Wal-Mart was totally out of Halloween candy. Okay well maybe that is a slight stretch - they did have 5 bags of snickers left. Those 5 bags would have only fed me though. So I left there in a huff and went to my trusty Target, which is where I should have gone to begin with because they did not disappoint.

Grabbed my cart from outside garden and proceeded to run over a few toes on the way to the candy isle. Which turned into a race as I realized it was after 5:30 at this point. I zoomed around people up and down isles, missing a few small children and grandmas, and grabbing candy off the shelves as though it was all going to to turn into a puff of smoke less I grab it. I have no idea what's in my cart at this point, I just know I had a mix of chocolate vs non chocolate. Then it hit me - what am I going to put this in. I technically have a basket from two years ago that my cat had turned into bed, convenient. And no way was I going to have time to try and vacuum that sucker out. So I purchased a rather large blue tub and boy am I glad I did.

I told the cashier he could throw all the candy back in the tub but I just needed one Target bag for trash as I was going to assemble this thing in his parking lot. He kind of gave me the okay sure no problem smile but you are one crazy lady. So here I am, make up sweating down my face, sweat dripping down certain parts of my body it shouldn't all for the sake that when kids ring my doorbell they would get a treat and not a trick. Here's the funny thing - I didn't grow up in a family who celebrated Halloween. We never went trick or treating and we never had tricker treaters because we grew up on a farm. See what happens when you move into a neighborhood - you feel like you have to do certain things so you aren't one of those neighbors... Ohhh the pressure.

Then when I got home it hit me the I was going to have to pass out candy and keep the dogs from the kiddos. So I thought, what would McGyver do? Here is what I came up with

What you don't see in this picture is another concoction I had to come up with to keep my dogs back since they figured out how to push this open with their noses. Picture this if you will... next to the brick was two 25 pound weights lining the side of the gate along with a dining room chair which was attached to the gate with a bungee cord so they couldn't slide it open. I don't know if you can visualize that or not but it was quite the red neck site. But I was proud of figuring out how to keep them back.

Another baby gate pressed up against the cat stand. Don't poke fun - desperate times call for desperate measures and nothing was off limits for blocking the dogs from getting to the front door. They don't so much like kids in costumes - it scares them.

After 20 minutes of figuring out how to keep the dogs from the door and relishing in my accomplishment; I heard my next door neighbor outside with her daughter. Naturally I had to go out to see them because little H is so cute; she'll be 2 in Dec. Guess what I discovered while talking to her?? That her husband had left too for the night so they were passing candy out in the drive way. So we decided to join forces and sit together in her drive way and I ended up putting my road blocks away so the dogs could at least look out the window.

All in all I think it turned out to be a fun evening. I told her we'll do this again next year......except I won't buy as much candy. But I'm sure Target appreciated my donation!