At last

FINALLY!!!!
The BBQ'd Chicken pizza recipe from Barbara Brown of Buckeye, Arizona!!! (yay!!!!)

Barb is my friend. She was my husband's friend first (they worked for the same company ) and sometimes I think he is jealous of our friendship.
He'll survive. :~)

Barb is one of the original Friday Friends, which was a "forum" (yes that's it!! I've been trying to think of the right word), a forum of my friends who live far and wide from CA to PA. This forum shares cooking, living, loving and laughing....across the miles.YES, I was a woman before my time...before blogging. LOL

Just get to it, you say, give us the recipe!! Okay, already.
Barb is a great cook, so I've got quite a few of her recipes. In fact, Barb was the editor of the Friday Friend cookbook-- Don't get your hopes up, there are only two copies in the whole world....in Barb's kitchen and mine. I asked for recipes from these Friday Friends far and wide, they sent, I forwarded, Barb copied and pasted and printed, a cook book.
This recipe is from that cookbook. In the Chicken chapter.
I made it for the first time a couple of weeks ago, and it was really a simple, pretty fast meal. (not to mention good)

Hint to my college kids in Connecticut: simple and fast and good. 3 things you look for.

Barbecued Chicken Pizza

1 lb. boned/skinned chicken breasts (you could actually even pick up a deli-roasted chicken and pull off what you need--slice the rest for sandwiches)
1/4 cup of your favorite bbq sauce
salt/pepper
8-10 slices of bacon, cut in to 1 inch pieces
2 ten inch baked pizza crusts (like Boboli) (I stacked everything on one pizza crust, BUT you can do as you want.
8 oz cream cheese
1/4 cup diced chilies
shredded jack cheese
1/ 2 tsp. hot chili flakes

Tear the cooked chicken into bite sized chunks. Mix with bbq sauce. Cook bacon. Spread each pizza crust with 4oz cream cheese. Spoon chicken in sauce evenly over crusts. Top with the rest of ingredients.
Bake at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes or until cheese is bubbly.
Cut and serve.

Now for the pictures!

the stuff you need: everything good, bacon and chicken and cream cheese!!! and more cheese and bbq sauce and seasonings.

now this is funny....I've always said that most of you bloggers are much better photographers than I ( and I admit I am jealous--it eats at me), but this pic of the pizza before going in the oven is just odd. It looks like an english muffin pizza!!!

LOL And it was, truthfully a 10-inch pizza.. A Boboli pizza crust. Every picture I took of it with the toppings came out looking like a english muffin, 2-inch pizza!

Oh well....

and again...the finished product:

Thank you Barbara Brown! (pictured with some silly person who looks like me, giving bunny ears. WHY? we are old enough to act our age...which is way too old to give bunny ears. Or not. It's interesting--to me---that she gave me this recipe on the weekend this picture was taken, 3 years ago. They popped in and surprised us with a visit on their way up and down the Pacific Coast. This was during our county fair, where we had horse races and I was obligated to sell/ or take bets. Barb, ever one to help out, was in the paramutal booth with me. )

We did not have the BBQ Chicken pizza that night... In fact, the first time I made it....3 years later, SHAME ON ME, was just a couple of weeks ago. I didn't know what I was missing!!

Dorie again...(if I spelled that right )

This is a cooking blog, right? Not a spelling blog? Because if it's spelling....obviously I lose. It would be mortar, not "motar" that I'm off to buy.
I got excited just hearing Dorie's voice that led to me post a "quick" note and my spelling radar just wasnt' up.
Forgive me?

Dore Greenspan

Dorie Greenspan is on "The Splendid Kitchen"

okay....so I'm a little behind in listening to my podcasts.. but she was on there on August 16th.
You can listen to her here: http://splendidtable.publicradio.org/listings/
it was fun to hear her voice.
and now.... I must go buy a motar. :~0

TWD: Chocolate-Banded Ice Cream Torte

Tuesdays With Dottie...I mean Dorie

(my husband is confused and it is catching!)

Well, here I am, well into week #2 of my TWD challenge. This week was "Chocolate Banded Ice Cream Torte" chosen by Amy of Food, Family and Fun

( http://foodfamilyandfun.blogspot.com/ )
Friday Friends....stop by and check out her blog. ("old" blogger alert! I don't know how to have a link without putting up the whole address --sigh-- I need my kids to come home from college.)

This recipe was not hard, it was just time consuming. Definitely something you needed all day to make. Which made for a nice Sunday. I fiddled around in the kitchen, cleaned up some e-mails, fiddled around in the kitchen, went to church, fiddled around in the kitchen, cleaned the bathroom, fiddled around in the kitchen... you get the picture.
IT WAS TIME CONSUMING.
And the raw eggs kind of creeped me out. I have to be honest.

So much so, that I only ate part of one slice, while watching my husband and friends devour theirs and ask for more.
My husband ate another piece the very next night...I didn't.
On Saturday morning on the Food Network, the new show, "Ask Aida" was all about eggs, and she said that if they were fresh, a little bit was okay. But still....I just couldn't.

The ganache (was it ganache? the recipe never says ganache) was easier than I had thought, but I agree with some TWD bloggers, that 30 minutes was not enough time to freeze it good. My ganache layers were tacky to the touch, but I went ahead and put on my ice-cream layers, because it was so TIME CONSUMING.
and I had invited friends to dinner so it only got to freeze for 4 hours at the end. It really needed the 6, I believe.
And cutting it to take pictures? HA! The warm knife made my torte begin to soften and melt.
No good pictures here.

oh my gosh...that is a sorry piece of torte! Really....it needs the whole 6 hours or more of freeze time.

So....my synopsis? It was easy, but very time consuming and the egg issue bothered me. (there were 8 raw eggs, for crying out loud!)*
So much so, that I wouldn't have known how good it was unless I had watched friends and family enjoy it, complimenting me about how it was the best dessert they've ever had! And then they all said it was a good thing I had joined the "Tuesdays with Dottie" (my husband has everyone saying it) challenge.

*sorry. I don't have many food issues at all. None in fact...except expiration dates and well... I guess "raw eggs".

But it was FUN to do. I think I'd make it again, but find a different ganache recipe and maybe put some different ice cream like some of the other TWD bakers have done.

Friday Night Food at our House

Friday Night Food at our house is usually dinner with our friends, The Miltons. But this Friday night the Miltons were not home. So we had to fend for ourselves.

Earlier when I got home from work, there was a box waiting for me. A Birthday gift from Theda (my oldest friend... in years of friendship, not in age. LOL ), who is ANOTHER original Friday Friend. NO ONE gives a gift like Theda. She sent me a few of her favorite things...she said if it was good enough for Oprah, it was good enough for her.
So... there were a few of her favorite kitchen gadgets. But they were wrapped, or rolled up in a recipe of hers. A recipe that she liked. It was just way to clever and cute. she just copied or printed out a few of her favorite recipes, or ones she wanted me to try and rolled the gadgets up in them.
She just has a knack with gifts and I love her for them.
Anyway, one of her recipes was a flank steak marinade which I was going to try, but I needed to go to the store to get some flank steak.
Rich went with me. Outside the market they were "fire roasted" some chilies. They smelled good.
So, Rich decided that he was going to make tacos.
Okay, fine, I didn't have to cook.
He bought chicken and onions and tortillas and the fresh-fire roasted chilies.
We came home, he bbq'd the chicken and made margaritas and he was just basically busy going in and out from the kitchen to the grill, when all of the sudden he said, "oh sure, you don't take pictures of MY food."

So.......

I don't really have a recipe, EXCEPT these were by far the best chicken tacos I have ever had!!!
It was the fresh-fire-roasted pablano chilies, I'm sure.
Everything was smoky flavored because he did it all on the grill. Smoky-fresh-chipolte.
OH MY GOSH!!!!I'm gonna quit cooking and leave it up to him!
They were so good!!

mmmmm.....mmmmmm.....mmmmmm

here is his stuff (and remember, just random pictures because he said "so you never take pictures of MY food) so very, casual.

He grilled it all....
onions
chicken
re-heated the fresh-fire-roasted-chilies
tortillas

Then set out the fixings on the kitchen counter

Wah- LA!!!grilled chicken chipolte tacos!!!!

But this post has kind of screwed up Barb's bbq chicken pizza post, that I was going to do (see left )
oh well....that's next.

It's late....hahahaah OKAY, IT'S NOT LATE, I just looked and it's 10:10 on a Friday Night, but it's dark...Rich is watching a movie, with no lights on except me and the computer (I say light when I said me, because there MUST BE a light bulb atop my head....the brilliance, you know. LOL) Anyway, dark, the crickets are chirping outside, and dinner was over a few hours ago... but I WANT ANOTHER ONE!!!

It was the fire-roasted chilies, I tell ya.

Chocolate Chippers

Friday Friend = a good cook...or not.

Once again.....I will highlight an original Friday Friend.
My daughter in law, Sadie.
she has a blog... I stole this post from her blog... with her permission of course.
I thought it was sooo funny!
and was honored that her blog was in honor of ME. That was the title of her blog: "A Random cooking blog in honor of my MIL" Wow!

No matter what she says, I know she can cook up a mean Rice Krispie Treat!

oh...and I must note that in the blog she says she doesn't have the "attention span" to make cookies... and yet....she goes to Yale. Interesting. LOL

and now, chocolate chip cookies in Sadie's own words:

I don't cook and I don't bake at all, but tonight for some reason we were inspired to bake chocolate chip cookies from scratch (something we never do, literally NEVER). The following is in honor of my MIL who has a cooking blog and is great at all things in the kitchen. She makes it look so easy.

1. Go to the store to buy the ingredients we don't have because we NEVER bake, and forget that one might actually need a recipe to do this. Oops... I guess the one on the back of the chocolate chip bag is good enough for us. In this process have a ridiculous moment of stupidity over the need for granulated sugar.

Me: "Granulated sugar? What is that? Is that some special kind of cooking sugar? Where do you even find it?

Marcus: "I don't know I'll call my mom" (Who didn't answer) but we read a package of sugar and noticed it's just normal sugar, why didn't they just say so.

We figured it out and successfully gathered our ingredients.(Notice the east coast butter, it's not shaped like that on the west coast).

2. Get home and decide to go for a run in lieu of making the cookies because it doesn't seem like nearly as much fun as it did a 45 minutes ago.3. Finish the run and decide it's now or never. I read as Marcus put the ingredients in the bowl, and we speculated over whether it was "suppose" to look like this. And that it required two whole sticks of butter, yuck.




4. Have an argument over the amount of chocolate chips needed. I dumped the whole bag in and Marcus had a heart attack, claiming his mom never used the whole bag, and that seems like a lot of chocolate chips. Although we didn't call to confirm this.



5. Put the cookies in our ridiculously small oven.



6. Eat some raw dough, (to which Marcus said, "enjoy the salmonella" and laughed when just a few minutes later said I done with it (I was feeling a little ill). It wasn't as good as I remember it being from when I was young and my five siblings and I would stalk the kitchen hoping to get one of the beaters. Please forgive my appearance as I mentioned in step number two we just went for a run, running makes me look like a tomato, as my entire face turns red.

7. Forget about the cookies as they're baking. (Seriously, all three times I forgot the cookies were in the oven this is why I don't cook I don't have the attention span for it.) They were only slightly more dark than they should be.

8. Marveled at the mess we made ...

9. and loved my husband who did the dishes in our dishwasherless apartment.



10. The finished product.

I'd say it'll probably be a good year before I attempt to bake something again. So this will be my first and last cooking blog. I honestly wish I had some desire or skill with cooking or baking but I just don't. Maybe someday ...

TUESDAYS WITH DORIE: Granola Grabbers

TWD: Granola Grabbers!

Today is my first "EVER" TWD post. Yay! (and the crowd roars) (and I still need to put a TWD icon up...it didn't work last time I tried, so I will again....soon)

Granola Grabbers
The recipe was chosen by Michelle of "Bad Girl Baking" at http://badgirlbaking.com/

Thanks Michelle, it was a good choice for me, who is jumping in this challenge with both feet. It was pretty tame, as far as baking goes, of which I am so glad. This way I don't feel too "inadequate" in my baking skills. I have baked of course, but baking for family and friends vs. foodie bloggers with great skills and great cameras, is another thing all together.

It was fun. My husband, who is a bit confused by what I am doing said, "now do I get to eat these, or do these go overseas?" (I am also a member of Operation Baking Gals). Anyway, he was trying to snitch one as they came out of the oven and kept calling Dorie, Dottie. (sigh)

A good cookie. Easy to make, easy to "grab".

But they had a lot of stuff in them. I followed the recipe EXACTLY, as I was unaware, on account of my virgin TWD status, that we could change it up. So, I followed it to the letter, and they turned out great. My husband loved them, and I liked them very much. They were even better the next morning with a cup of coffee. In fact, there were kind of a "breakfast" cookie, don't ya think?
Nuts and fruit and granola? Breakfast foods!!
As I was saying, I did like them, but there are a lot of ingredients in there. I like all of the ingredients separately, but together they are a bit "too much" for me. I prefer a simpler cookie.
Having said that.....I still am grabbing (that's the purpose I believe) one every time I walk by the cookie jar.

see? Is the cookie jar half full or half empty? I am "grabbing" one every time I walk by.

A Friday Friend equals a good cook....

Seafood and heavy cream. I'm in heaven!

(of course in heaven I can eat all that stuff and not gain any weight!, but here, I have to pace myself... I should start that pretty soon.... )

I have an unimaginative sounding blog name. I know it. But long ago, before there were such a thing as blogs, I e-mailed all my friends across the country and asked one simple question...."what's for supper?"
That was on a Friday. The rest is history.

Okay...maybe we're not quite HISTORY in the big scheme of things, but we laugh a lot and cook and have fun. Even if I'm the only one who knows them all. :~)

Last night, we went to Mitzi's (an original Friday Friend... I can't forsake the name) to play cards and have dinner.
One thing Mitzi is, is a GOOD cook. She was making "Seafood Augratin". So, I grabbed my camera out of my purse and she agreed, as a Friday friend, to cook for my blog!
After dinner, while we were playing cards, she let me peruse her recipe file.
Oh, my word!! I wrote down a few...are we in for a treat in the coming weeks. I cant' wait to try her recipes.

The cutest thing tho, was when Mattie, (Mitzi's two year old son) grabbed Uncle Rich's hand when Rich (my husband) gave him some more broccoli raisin salad. He was in ecstasy over those raisins and broccoli!

Truth be told, he wasn't overly fond of the Seafood Augratin.... but I was.

SEAFOOD AUGRATIN
4 ( 1 lbs each ) assorted seafood (shrimp, scallops, lobster, crab, etc)
1/4 lb butter
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup white wine or sherry
2 Tbs flour
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp white pepper
1 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup grated cheese--gruyere or swiss

Melt 6 tbls butter. Sauté seafood for 3 minutes.
Add the mushrooms, sauté 2 minutes more.
Add the wine, cook over low heat for about 5 minutes.
Mix the flour, salt, and pepper with the heavy cream and add to seafood, stirring until it reaches the boiling point.
Place in casserole dish and sprinkle with grated cheese and dot with remaining butter.
Cook at 400 degrees for 10 minutes.
Serve over rice.


Everything was assembled by the stove when I got there.


Sautéing the seafood.






Then Mitzi added the mushrooms

adding the heavy cream, etc.

Then Mitzi needed help holding that heavy pan, so one hand is mine and one is her's--just in case you think it's an "odd" look there. LOL

adding, stinky, but very good gruyere cheese.

Then to the hot oven at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, where it gets hot and thick and bubbly.... mmmmmm.....mmmmmm

To the table we go!


So Very Good!
Thanks to one of my original Friday Friends, Mitzi Storm.

Thanks

Look what beautiful hankies I have!

There were my gift...I won a "give-away" without even knowing it...from Christy at Southern Plate.

They're beautiful!!

I must confess, one is supposed to be for my mother in law, for saying such sweet things about Christy's blog... http://www.southernplate.com/

(and now, I have to pass it on, darn it).

Thank you again Christy. We love Soutern Plate!

And because I have not been cooking this week...(I have recipes to post, just not enough time in my day lately) I'll leave you with this and ask you to check out my "soup blog" http://ahhhsomesoups.blogspot.com/ ........ (and my book blog, and.... LOL )

from Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland:

Beautiful soup! Who cares for fish

Game, or any other dish?

Who would not give all else for two

Pennyworth only of beautiful soup?

There you go....I'm being literate and uh, epicurean (?), at the same time. (LOL not so literate if I can't think of a corresponding foodie word. Oh well) while not posting a recipe.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

Dinner with Camron

I picked up my grandson this afternoon. I asked him what he'd like for me to cook for him.

He said...."um, well, chicken nuggets and fries sound good."

I asked if he wanted to go out to eat, but he said "no. I want you to cook Gramma"

So... I did.

Humble

She keeps me humble.....

from an "Original" Friday Friends... my friend Barb said " I feel so honored to have my words "published" in the food blog!!! And now I am hungry for a waffle-------without the green flower.................."

I wrote back and told her "It's a strawberry"

Humbling. I told you that I wasn't a great photographer!!!

Not your average food blogger

Before I start my "long" story... I have to tell you that YES I did make waffles this morning.

Check out this book....
SERIOUSLY!!
Everything on a Waffle by Polly Horvath. I've had it for quite some time. This is a Newberry Honor book. A very prestigious award.... or honor, in Children's Literature. It's a cute book, and believe it or not, I really like the recipe Horvath's includes at the back of the book.
So, yes, SERIOUSLY.... a children's novel has a great waffle recipe.

Okay, so there begins my story....

To be honest, I am not a great food blogger. It's very sad--but very true. There are many more of you out there who are better cooks, better photographers, better bloggers.

BUT... I am having fun.

Or I was, until this morning when I was getting ready to make waffles and my camera quit working!
I might have had a moment of panic. I didn't know what to do... I had waffles to make and a soup to make later on in the afternoon and no camera to take pictures. I looked at my husband and said... "I can't cook. My camera's broken!"

In my mind I said this all very calm and logical....I can't cook. I can never cook again. I must take pictures. He says I reminded him of Lucille Ball, in panic mode. "RICKY I CAN'T COOK....WAAAAHHHHH"
Okay...so I got a little melodramatic... my camera broke, okay? And I knew I couldn't afford a new camera. (well... I could, but it really isn't in the budget for this month).

So, I sat down and I wrote an e-mail to the original "Friday Friends", letting them know I was a bit panicked.
While this was happening, or while I was shooting off a quick e-mail to the originals (Friday Friends, that is) , my husband Rich (or Ricky when I'm in my Lucy mode )found a battery and put it in my camera and it worked just fine. Whew!

Here is my note from this morning to the originals.... ( in the subject line I wrote: Panic!)
Rich just called me a panic freak. ?????

I thought my camera was broken. It quit taking pictures right in the middle of my taking pictures of the cover of the book... "Everything on a Waffle" (I hadn't made the waffles yet) (and then I thought I couldn't) I COULDN'T COOK TODAY!!!! what was I going to do? I found quote on someone else's food blog today. The Southern Plate---my friend Christy, you know. She sent out one of those "you know you are " e-mail things that go around.This was...you know you're a food blogger when.... ( to check out the whole list which is hilarious---to us food bloggers, go to her blog...you can link to it here: http://www.southernplate.com/

this is a line from it:
you know you're a food blogger when: You feel guilty if you cook something and don't take photographs. That is soooo dang funny, because it's soooo dang true. I didn't know how to finish my waffles! LOL
okay, maybe I was a panic freak a minute ago. But Rich (as I said, he is sooo good to me), put new batteries in my camera. WHEW!!

Then after a bit, I heard back from a few of them...

Darleen of Washington said of my camera just needing new batteries:
I did the same thing once. Amazing how it works after the new batteries are installed. Duh....(

Theda of Oregon said of my subject line.....sadly we take bets on which people of notoriety will pass on in the new year. We are not necessarily proud:
I was just going to email you when I saw this subject "panic". I thought that you were having the same panic/guilt that I was having.
Mine...we were talking about the dead pool recently and now Bernie Mac and Isaac Hayes have died. I was feeling bad.

Barb of Arizona said of my cooking:
You are getting too complicated and "gourmet-ish" for me! Plus, I'm not sure if my dinners, etc. are picture perfect. Last night I made crab cakes, cole slaw, and fries.....................but unless you put some garnish on and make it look "cute", it's just food on a plate-------did taste good, though!
and for the syrup
I can go either way-----But warm would be really nice.

And I am back (me/debbie ) again saying this: Barb is a GREAT COOK!!! and crab cakes and cole slaw and fries. YUM YUM!!!! I think I might be making these things next week.... mmmm.
and come on....meatloaf? gourmet-ish? HA!

Meghan from California said:
are you making waffles this morning? would you believe I don't have a waffle iron?? I may go to Kohl's to get one today! now that you point it out!

and Sally of Pennsylvania said, of my....waffle making, I guess. LOL
If we are talking waffles, I have to get my two cents. I get maple syrup in big square cans, like half a gallon or so. And I have to keep it in the refrigerator. so definitely warmed. We don't use pancake syrup at all. I always used Mrs. Butterworth's when the kids were small and we went through larger quantities. But even that kept in the frig and warmed up. I use creamers for syrup, since I rarely use my creamers, anyway. When I'm on a vacation or something I bring my kids pancake/waffle mix and blueberry syrup or other flavors instead of a t-shirt. Can you buy that kinds of stuff in gift shops out there? For instance, Williamsburg and Vanderbilt Estate sell their own pancake/waffle mix and syrup. In fact, I'm honeymooning in the White Mtns. NH so I'm be stocking up the family in syrup next month.Krusteav (is that the spelling) makes the best waffle mix for when you are in a pinch. Is your waffle maker round, square, or Belgium? do you have a preference? These are important questions to find the answers to, Deb.Next, to rice and rice pudding, there are few foods I take as seriously as my waffles. My favorite Christmas carol is "Here we come a waffling..." by Garrison Keiler.

and it's me again...my voice, my words:
wow. :~)
I had also asked (Original Friday Friends get "questions" they have to answer... and I asked) do you guys like your syrup warmed up or not warmed up?

My daughter in law Sadie in Connecticut:
I don't like syrup at all, but in my family it was always warmed up (I didn't know people used it cold until I married Marcus)

me again:
LOL we don't warm our syrup normally, but I did this morning.
oh...and back to Sally's questions for me!
I have a round waffle iron. What is the best?
I have 3 syrups right now... Mrs. Butterworths, "Real" maple syrup and some strawberry syrup.
I like food stuffs as gifts!!

Here is the recipe from "Everything on a Waffle" by Polly Horvath
(if you have ones you love please send them to me!)

Written EXACTLY as it is in the book:

Mix 2 cups of flour, 1 tablespoon of baking powder, 2 tablespoons sugar, 1/2 teaspoon salt. In another bowl, put 3 large and well beaten eggs, 1/2 stick butter, and 1 1/2 cups milk. Make a hole in the middle of your dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients and stir it all up. Make sure your waffle iron is hot and greased and then pour in enough batter so that it spreads all over but not quite to the edge or it will end up leaking out the sides and making a big mess. If you have an electric waffle iron it will tell you when the waffles are done, otherwise you must check them and turn the iron on the burner until the waffle is brown. Serve them with butter and syrup.

** I put a tsp of vanilla in there. :~)

Meat Loaf

This might sound a bit silly, but I just love seeing what differnt brands of food products people from around the country use. (and the shape of butter, of course... I always wonder...why? Why is it long and skinny in the east and short and fat in the west? why?) We all think our brands are recognizable as "national" brands, which is never the case!

Seriously, it just intrigues me.

Bobby Flay did a "Meatloaf" Throwdown last night. (he could have done it before, and I'd just never seen it )...meatloaf.

I did a meatloaf last week. I took pictures! But then I was thinking... meatloaf? Yes, it' kind of a comfort food, but also kind of boring.

But...if it's good enough for Bobby Flay, it's good enough for me.

People are very loyal to their meatloaf recipes.
Really....how can they all be so different? It's a little meat, a little seasoning, a little tomato ketchup/sauce, all mounded into a lump. Or a loaf, I mean.

Some of the original Friday Friends ( an e-mail group, I started long ago, before I knew blogs existed ) have their own "loyalties" when it comes to eating meatloaf.
Theda in Oregon likes hers with mashed potatoes and gravy.
Dorothy in Nevada always, ALWAYS, has waldorf salad with hers.
So, I usually combine them and have meatloaf, mashed potatoes w/gravy and waldorf salad. If I'm lazy it will be a baked potato.

Traci in California, would never, not if you paid, her, have a meatloaf sandwich the next day.
Although that is the best part! Almost the whole reason one makes a meatloaf.

My mother, in Washington, swears, that her best friend Betty, in Oregon, makes the best meatloaf ever! It "is" pretty darn good.
But don't you think that meatloaves are subjective? We all love "our" meatloaf. Or our mom's meatloaf. That really is the ultimate meatloaf...mom's. ( I wonder if Tyler Florence has an ultimate meatloaf recipe on Tyler's Ultimate?) But who could surpass mom's meatloaf? Bobby Flay?

Meatloaf...the ultimate comfort food (and good enough for Bobby Flay)

followed by, or I should say "featuring" a few of the girls (original Friday Friends) meatloaf recipes.

We begin in my little yellow and red kitchen. :~)

and we make a sweet sauce to glaze the meatloaf.

I make the sweet sauce by taking brown sugar, ketchup and vinegar, mixing it up and heating it and then setting it aside.

Then I take ground beef....sometimes I've taken ground beef, groud veal and ground pork...but today I just take the ground beef. Isn't it what most people do when they make a meatloaf? Just ground beef? I put the ground beef, aka hamburger, into a big bowl.




oh wait... first I cut up the onion
and the garlic. I saute` them in a bit of olive oil. My mom just put the chopped raw onion in hers....and it's fine to do so. I just like to make extra work for myself. And the less crunchy the onion is for my family was best.


Then, I put them into the ground beef and scrunch them al together. I use my hands. there really is no other way. Really.

Then I add these things. some salt, some crushed crackers, some worschershire (spelling please!) some red pepper flakes, some fresh parsley....

oh...and don't forget some eggs and evaporated milk.

Because you need your moisture in a meat loaf!

add them all! Scrunch up with your hands!



make into a loaf




You could cook it in a loaf pan, BUT, sometimes it's kind of greasy that way, so because of my husband's delicte stomahc (LOL ) I cook it on a broiler pan or a sheet lined with parchment, so that it is not swimming in grease.


glaze with...well, the glaze you made earlier

and then, I.....drape it with bacon. sometimes the bacon gets a bit crispy, especially with the glaze. so you might have to tent it with foil, if you don't like it as "crispy" as this one.


and then, pop it into the oven at 350 for an hour or an hour and 15 minutes.




serve with re-heated glaze and potato of your choosing and of course, waldorf salad.




the recipe and more....
Bacon Wrapped Meat Loaf
Brown-Sugar-Ketchup Glaze
1 cup ketchup, 8 tbls brown sugar, 8 tsp cider vinegar
Mix all ingredients together in a small saucepan, set aside.

Meat Loaf
2 tsp. oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 large eggs
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. ground pepper
2 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. red pepper sauce or red pepper flakes
1/2 cup evaporated milk or yogurt
2 pounds ground beef
2/3 cup crushed saltine crackers
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
6 bacon slices

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat oil in a medium skillet. Add onion and garlic; cook until softened. Set aside to cool.
Mix eggs with thyme, salt, pepper, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, pepper sauce, and milk. Add to ground beef along with crackers, onions, garlic and parsley.
Mix by hand until evenly blended.
Mold into a loaf on a foil lined cookie sheet coated with a non-stick spray. (or parchment paper). Brush with glaze. Arrange bacon slices across the meatloaf.
Bake loaf about an hour, until the temp is 160 degrees. Cool for 5 minutes.
Simmer remaining glaze until thickened, and serve with the meatloaf.

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Now to feature 2 Friday Friends.....

Betty's (or what my mom says is the BEST) meatloaf

1/2 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 c. cracker crumbs
1 1/2 lb. lean ground beef
2 Tbs. chopped onion
1 1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
3/4 - 1 cup Heinz catsup

Mix together. Bake at 350 for about 1 hour. Allow to stand for about 15 minutes before slicing

**Betty thinks its the "Heinz" catsup that makes it good. she doesn't think you could use too much!

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Robbie's Meatloaf

1 lb. ground round
1 egg
some bread crumbs
chopped mushrooms
onion chopped
Heinz steak sauce

Mix together and bake one hour.