Meatloaf For a Crowd

My sister and her two adult daughters joined us for lunch so I made a larger meatloaf than usual using 3 lbs of ground beef. There aren’t a lot of embellishments here but it is every bit a comfort food and a satisfying centerpiece for a meal.

Beefy and moist, this was a hit with everyone. And, lucky me, there is enough left over for a couple of sandwiches, too.

3 lbs ground beef (80/20)
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup milk
1 cup bread crumbs
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
¼ cup ketchup
2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
2 tablespoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking pan with aluminum foil and turn up the corners to contain the juices.

In a skillet, cook onions in butter over medium low heat until golden, about 10 minutes. Place in a large mixing bowl to cool completely.

In a small bowl, stir milk into breadcrumbs and let stand for 10 minutes.

Combine with the cooled onions the beaten eggs, moistened bread crumbs, ground beef, grated cheese, ketchup, Worcestershire, parsley and pepper. Mix until just combined before adding salt and then mixing it together. Form into a loaf shape on the prepared pan.

Bake for 50 minutes to an hour or until the interior reaches 160 degrees F. Let rest 10 minutes before serving.

Pizza Monkey Bread in a Skillet

I like the Dorot Gardens Prepackaged and Portioned Herbs that are stored in the freezer and are available for use whenever the urge to cook strikes. For this recipe, I’m using the crushed garlic and chopped basil for a savory monkey bread.

This twist on traditional pizza is made in a skillet and makes perfect pizza bites that just pull apart. With the garlic basil butter, it is a cross between the best garlic bread you’ve ever had and a pepperoni pizza.

Delicious as a meal or an appetizer. Lovely pizza flavor and everyone went back for more until it was all gone.

16 Bridgford Parkerhouse Roll Dough
1 cup pizza sauce
½ cup butter, divided
4 cloves garlic, minced or 4 cubes Dorot Crushed Garlic
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped or 2 cubes of Dorot Basil Cubes
2 cups mozzarella cheese, grated
¼ cup chopped pepperoni
¼ teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)

Thaw the 16 rolls in the refrigerator. Lightly oil a 10 inch cast iron skillet.

Place ¼ cup butter, garlic and basil in a small skillet. Melt the butter and stir to let flavors combine. Remove from heat and set aside. Combine cheese and pepperoni and mix well. Grate the remaining ¼ cup butter into the cheese mixture and stir.

Place ½ cup pizza sauce in the bottom of the skillet. Dredge the thawed rolls of dough in the garlic basil butter. Then dredge in the cheese, pepperoni and butter. Place the rolls in the skillet until filled. Sprinkle over the top any leftover cheese pepperoni mix. Set aside in a draft fee area for 1 hour or until the rolls are puffy. I put mine in the cold oven with the oven light on.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the skillet on the middle rack and bake for 30 minutes or until rolls are browned and cheese is bubbly. Put a sheet pan beneath to catch any drips. Allow the monkey bread to sit in the pan for 5 minutes to cool before turning out onto a plate (be careful of the small amount of pizza sauce that wasn’t absorbed by the rolls while cooking). Sprinkle the top with red pepper flakes if using. Warm any remaining pizza sauce for use in dunking.

Purple Hull Pea and Sausage Jambalaya

A family friend had a large yield from their garden and gave us several bags of purple hull peas they had put up. These peas are less earthy than their black eyed pea cousins and, like all southern peas, are super healthy with lots of dietary fiber, iron, protein and folate.

I served this with a pan of my Mama’s Cornbread – recipe here.

Finished dish is hearty and complex and quite delicious. With all the layers of flavor, every bite is a pleasure.

4 rashers of bacon, chopped
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
½ cup rice
1 lb. sausage, sliced
3 cups purple hull peas
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 can Ro-Tel Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies
½ teaspoon each Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the bacon in a Dutch oven or other heavy stockpot. Drain on paper towels, leaving as much bacon fat in the pot as possible. Sauté the onion in the bacon grease until golden, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Sprinkle over the flour and stir constantly for 5 minutes to cook the flour. Add in the rice and stir until coated in oil and lightly toasted. Toss in the sausage and cooked bacon and purple hull peas and stir until glistening. Pour in chicken stock and the can of Ro-Tel. Add in 1/2 teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Stir while bringing to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour or until peas are soft, stirring occasionally. Taste for seasoning.

Serve with cornbread.

Chicken Potpie Casserole

A friend forwarded me a video of a recipe for a dump casserole for a no mix chicken pot pie. I’m a fan of bottom crusts on my pot pies, so I wasn’t too convinced that this would be a good recipe. I was wrong – the biscuit mix made for a lovely crust and the flavors all came together for a very yummy meal. Of course, to make it mine I eliminated the carrots and peas and added broccoli, cheese and mushrooms.

I wish I’d gotten a better picture as this one doesn’t do it justice but the hoards had descended. I was able to beat them off long enough to get some for myself and took a picture before folks came back for seconds.

This is a very comforting dish that will definitely go into our regular rotation.

Chicken Pot-Pie Cobbler

1 stick butter
1 rotisserie chicken, about 2 cups picked from the bones and chopped
1 8 ounce can mushrooms, pieces and stems
1 10 ounce package frozen broccoli florets
1 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
2 cups milk
1 box Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuit mix
2 cups chicken stock

Preheat oven to 350. Place the stick of butter in a 9-by-13-inch pan and melt in the oven as it preheats.

Once the butter is melted, add chicken into an even layer. Distribute the mushrooms over the top along with the broccoli florets. Sprinkle on grated cheese. Pour in the milk. Sprinkle biscuit mix over in an even layer with the seasoning packet. Pour the chicken stock over.

Place on a baking sheet to catch any spillover and bake uncovered for 45 minutes. Let stand for at least 15 minutes before serving.

Greek Grilled Quail

One of my parent’s neighbors had some extra quail so he gave us four. I like the flavors of the Mediterranean with grilled poultry – so I did a marinade with garlic, oregano and lemon. I set two zone on the grill for direct and indirect cooking and in short order, we had a delicious meal.

Be sure not to marinate for too long as the acid will toughen the bird. Also, don’t cook it too long over direct heat or they will dry out. Finally, eat quail carefully as you don’t want to crack a tooth or swallow some of the bird shot!

I served rosemary sweet potatoes with them – recipe here. I did have to prebake the sweet potatoes for 30 minutes in a 350 degree F oven as the quail cooks so quick. After the prebake, I peeled them and sliced them and tossed them in rosemary butter brown sugar and then finished them on the grill.

Greek Quail

4 quails
½ cup extra virgin olive oil
¼ cup lemon juice
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon oregano
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Place the quail into gallon size freezer storage bag or a large food storage container. Combine the remaining ingredients, mixing well. Pour the marinade into the bag with the quail, making sure the birds are completely coated.

Marinate for at least 2, but no more than 4 hours. Prepare your grill for two zones with the charcoal on one side.. Cook the quail over direct heat five minutes on each side before moving the quail to a cool part of the grill to finish, about 5 minutes more. Let rest briefly before serving.

Grilled Pork Steaks with Honey Mustard Root Beer Glaze

My brother-in-law had left some pork blade steaks the last time they were here and I’m only just finding them in the back of the freezer. Oops! I decided to combine my honey mustard marinade with my root beer mustard and the result was delicious.

These were fairly thin, so I grilled directly over the coals. They came out juicy with a sweet but tangy glaze. Yum!

Honey Mustard Glaze

4 pork blade steaks or pork chops
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
1 cup root beer (I prefer Abita Root Beer as they sweeten with cane sugar not high fructose corn syrup)
2 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper

Mix all the marinade ingredients together in a bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside ⅓ cup of the mixture to glaze the pork once on the grill. Pour the rest in a zip top bag and put in the pork steaks or chops. Place in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours.

Grill on a 350 degree direct fire grill for 7-10 minutes on each side or internal temperature is 145 degrees F. Baste with reserved sauce when you flip over the steaks.

Welsh Rarebit

There is just something pleasing and comforting about a cheese sauce. And, when you have a sister willing to scale up the recipe SIX times, there will be plenty of both pleasure and comfort to go around. As you can see from Mom’s recipe card, the original only serves four and the pot I’m holding it over contains over a gallon of cheese sauce.

We go a step further than just cheese on toast – which there is absolutely nothing wrong with and will be how I eat the leftovers. Instead, we toasted up English muffins then put on some sliced ham (Canadian bacon would have been great, too) and a thick slice of tomato before we ladled on the sauce.

Smooth and delicious and I was tempted to lick the plate. Instead, I toasted up another English muffin and used it to wipe the plate clean.

3 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1 cup beer (or milk)
½ teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon dry mustard
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1 ½ cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated

In the top of a double boiler, melt butter. Add flour to make a paste. Add in beer (or milk) gradually, stirring constantly. After mixture thickens, lower heat and stir in the seasonings. Add the grated cheese by the handful and stir until mixture is smooth. Taste for seasonings.

Serve immediately on toast.

Grilled Greek Lemon Shrimp

I had planned on a different prep for this recipe but the shrimp I had were pretty small. Therefore, I decided to slice the lemons and use them as a base to keep the shrimp from dropping through the grill basket.

It worked really well for the grill – I think I only lost 2 shrimp to the fire!

If you don’t want to grill the shrimp, you could always put a layer of lemon slices on a sheet pan with the marinaded shrimp on them and bake at 375 degrees F for 10 minutes or so.

I also used Penzeys Greek Seasoning for the marinade. You could certainly make your own – see below for a recipe.

I served them with grilled zucchini (quartered into spears and tossed with olive oil, salt and pepper – grill them maybe 5 minutes longer than the shrimp) and rice.

The shrimp are really flavorful with both the spices, the grilled lemon and smoke. As this was for my mom’s birthday, I was super glad they turned out perfectly.

1 ½ lbs of shrimp, peeled and deveined
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon Greek Seasoning
3 lemons

Juice one lemon. Mix together the olive oil, spice blend and lemon juice. Pour into a zip top bag and add the shrimp. Gently massage the marinade into the shrimp and then seal and place in the refrigerator while you set up the grill (no more than 30 minutes).

Set up the grill for direct cooking. I use a Weber kettle and used a half a chimney of charcoal briquettes. After they got ashy, I spread them evenly over the center of the grill, in the shape of my grilling basket.

Thinly slice the remaining lemons. Place a single layer of the slices in the bottom of the grill basket and then spread the shrimp over the slices. Close the basket so no shrimp can escape. Grill for 5 minutes with the lemon side down. Flip and grill for 3-5 more minutes or until shrimp are done. They will be pink, opaque but not too firm to the touch.

Remove from grill and place shrimp in a bowl. Squeeze some of the lemon slices over the shrimp and serve.

You could definitely make your own Greek Seasoning. I’m at my parents and the blend was easier than mixing up my own. Here is my recipe:

[Greek Seasoning]

1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
2 tablespoons dried oregano
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic

Mix together all the spices and store in an airtight jar.

[/recipe]

Ham and Cheese Croissant Casserole

This is a recipe that you can scale up or down, based on how many people will be at the table. The below recipe is for four people.

Once you’ve built the casserole, it can stay in the fridge for up to 8 hours before cooking. Makes it very useful to make ahead to slide into the oven when you get home from your holiday shopping.

Feel free to adjust with your favorite cheeses and herbs. Michelle wants to do it again with salsa in with the milk and pepper jack cheese in place of the Gouda. I think that will be delicious!

This is a very comforting dish and everyone at the table was a member of the clean plate club.

1 day-old croissant per person, cut in half
1 cup whole milk
½ teaspoon dried thyme
2 large eggs
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 thin slices ham, diced
1/2 cup sharp cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup Gouda cheese, grated

Preheat oven to 350°F and butter a casserole baking dish. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the milk, thyme, eggs, salt, and pepper. Pour into a pie plate. Dip croissants in egg mixture, then arrange in baking dish. Distribute ham over the bread. Pour remaining egg mixture over the croissants and sprinkle the top with the cheese.

Bake, covered, for 30 minutes. Uncover and continue baking until cheese bubbly on top, 5-10 more minutes. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Trout Almondine

My roofer had taken advantage of the full moon high tide to head down to Grande Isle for some fishing. As an apology for then coming to my house late and without all the necessary tools to do the job, he reached into his cooler and handed me a fresh caught trout.

My go-to preparation for trout is simple but elegant – fish, lemon, butter and almonds. As I only had the one fish (ie two filets), I cut the below recipe in half. That gave me lots of lovely sauce.

Don’t be like me and take a phone call after tossing the almonds in, as then your butter might go a bit past ‘browned’ but it was still mighty tasty!

4-6 trout filets
1 cup milk
Salt, pepper, flour
1 stick unsalted butter, divided in half
½ teaspoon pepper (white, if possible)
1 teaspoon salt
½ cup slivered almonds
juice of 1 lemon

Soak filets in milk for 1 hour.

Remove from milk and sprinkle with salt and pepper and dredge lightly in flour. Sauté the filets in half a stick of butter for about 3-4 minutes per side or until golden. Transfer to an oven proof dish and keep warm in a very low oven (170 degrees F).

Melt the remaining ¼ cup butter over medium heat until it begins to brown and smell toasty. Lower heat. Add in almonds and toss well. Stir in lemon juice.

Arrange filets on the plate. Pour over sauce.

And, he swears he will come back on Sunday to finish the job!