Monday, April 4, 2011

Vegetarian Salad And Meatloaf!

Today is brown food day.
I'm starting out with a brown vegetable salad Since it's all veggies so far, I must accompany them with a heavy dose of dense meat. What better choice than brown meatloaf on brown whole wheat toast?
A symphony in blurred browns. Even my autofocus couldn't focus on all the brown. But fear not. It doesn't taste brown. Meatloaf. What can I say about meatloaf? My mother packed me a meatloaf sandwich with butter on white bread every day for lunch in grade school, along with a thermos of unsweetened ice tea with lemon. As was my wont. Meatloaf is surprisingly comforting to me. I love thin, cold slices of meatloaf on white bread with butter in every bite. And the bread must be smushed down with the heel of your hand. Le sigh.
Now, heads up! Here's a very important Rosie Tip for you.
I've mentioned before that as Mr. Hawthorne and I are eating one meal, we are usually planning the next. Survival instincts kicking in. The same can be said about our trips to the grocery stores. While we are in Food Lion or Harris Teeter, we look out for meats that are rapidly approaching their "sell by" date. We plan our next trips on the sell by date. The supermarkets mark it down the day before the sell by date and mark it down again on the actual date. Too many times, I've gone to the markets and watched as workers pulled out perfectly good frozen rabbits, other meats, and yogurts from the shelves because it hadn't been sold by the sell by date. Many, many times, I have offered to help out the over-worked supermarket employees by offering my services to take their meat-laden cart out to the dumpster for them, but they generally see through this ruse. When I mentioned dumpster-diving, one butcher told me about the bear that couldn't get into that dumpster. Anyways, the sell by date on 2 packages of ground round was March 29 and we were there on the 28th. The butcher was nice enough to mark these down for me when I asked. With the story of the meat behind us, let's start on the vegetable salad.
Salt the water and bring to a boil.
Add in a handful of rinsed garbanzo beans. Simmer for about 30 minutes then start taste-testing. These took about 45 minutes.
I like my beans al dente.
When you're in the produce section, always check out the rackofrapidlyrottingfood. There are always deals out there, but you must plan on using them immediately. I found 3 green peppers for $2.00.
And two red peppers for $2.00.
And two artichokes for $2.00
I finely chopped the red and green peppers.
Since this is a vegetarian dish, I'm adding in meaty portabellos.
Saute in butter first.
I got a handful of almonds, chopped them, and toasted them. Let cool and add to peppers.
Add in garbanzos.
Meaty mushrooms. Chop and add to the vegetables and beans.
Next, a vinaigrette. I'm using lemon, Dijon mustard, worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and a new extra virgin olive oil I kinda like. Sweetphyl, I'm trying.
I squeezed the juice of one-half lemon in my Good Seasonings cruet.
Tablespoon of mustard.
Add in some balsamic vinegar. A tablespoon or two.
Olive oil. Freshly ground salt and pepper. Everything to taste.
Shake up the dressing and pour over top of pepper/bean/portabello mixture. Cover and refrigerate, letting all the flavors partay. Now, let's make meatloaf!
I'm using 1 small onion, and about 1/4 red and green peppers.
Finely mince.
My mise en place. Minced onion and peppers. Two eggs. Can of Hunt's Meatloaf Sauce. 1 pound ground beef 1 pound ground pork 1/2 package of Ritz crackers, hand-crushed
Whup the eggs.
Whisk the Lea & Perrins into the eggs.
Mix your meats. The only way to do this is with one's hands.
Pour in the egg mixture.
Minced peppers in.
Minced onions in.
Add in 1/2 can of the Hunt's sauce.
Hand-crumble Ritz crackers - 1/2 package or more - into the mash.
Mash on.
Lovingly press and spread into a loaf pan. Place in 350 degree oven for one hour.
Pour out grease.
Not quite 150 degrees now.
Pour the rest of the Hunt's Meatloaf Sauce on top.
Spread and bake another 10 or so minutes, until the internal temperature is 160 degrees. Remove from oven and let it do its carryover cooking thing. Mine went up to 169. I like cold meatloaf. So I let mine cool. I covered it. I refrigerated it. Until tomorrow.
Brown vegetable melange and brown meatloaf and brown bread. Sometimes I just love brown. This is one of those times.

5 comments:

SweetPhyl said...

Hooray for the EXTRA VIRGIN! Lord knows, we could all use an extra virgin now and again. Okra is next....

Anonymous said...

OMG!! Rosie's using a canned meatloaf mix?? I admit, I use it for my meatloaf too, it is yummy!
Mona from NOLA
P.S. You BETTER let me know next time yall're down here in kajun kuntry!! (MAJOR pet peeve, replacing "C" with "K" WTF!)

Catherine said...

Your meatloaf looks wonderful, Rosie. I love meatloaf- it's a favorite in my house!
Blessings,
Catherine

Rosie Hawthorne said...

SweetPhyl, my mantra is O-KRA ...

Mona, if ever again I'm in NOLA, I'll let you know. By the time we came back home around the southern part of the US, we were beat. As in rode hard and put up wet.

We need to take another trip and go the opposite way.
Take the southwest route first, then come back on the northeast route.

Catherine, nice to see you here again.

Rosie Hawthorne said...

Mona -
I despise the K for C. Drives me nuts.