{ Kade in the Kitchen: Taco Meatloaf }

Hello, friends of the Interwebs!!

My apologies for the massive delay since my last post. I have several excuses for my slacker ways:

1) I had actually pre-written and scheduled several blog entries to post before Christmas and then shortly thereafter. None of them managed to post, of course, but I’ve not had time to mess around with the software to see why that happened. And, what’s even more fun is that most of them were worded such that it wouldn’t make sense chronologically to just post them all now without doing some tweaking. So, that’s that.

2) I got sick. Really sick. But, at least I was already off of work for the five days of illness. Granted, it was during the two-week Christmas break I’d looked forward to all year, but I’m grateful I at least wasn’t sick on Christmas Day.

3) I got a new phone and my many, many, many pictures for the blog tutorials were on my old phone. I thought it was going to be as easy as just taking the SD card from my old phone and then using that to upload them all to my computer. Of course it couldn’t be that easy. It turns out that my pictures all saved to the phone itself—not the actual SD card—so I am systematically going through and moving them from the phone to the card, then to my laptop. I have to do it in small (well, 300 photos at a time) batches because it turns out my SD card doesn’t hold much in the big scheme of things. Only about 2,000 more files to move over and then I’ll have a good collection to work with.

4) We had non-stop guests rotating in and out for roughly two weeks, culminating in the Glorious Christmas Party for which I cooked for around 50-60 guests. That alone earns me some forgiveness for being a slacker on the blog front.

5) My new monogrammed dog products sold like crazy for Christmas (YAY!) and I’m the one who makes each of them myself. That was incredibly time consuming, but exciting nonetheless!

6) I’m working to kick off another company. Stay tuned for that.

OK, enough with all of the excuses. On to the more important thing here: food. Not just any food, but…wait for it…taco meatloaf! Yes, you read that correctly. That would be deliciousness upon deliciousness. You can’t go wrong with that. To combine two of my favorite foods into one dish just seems almost criminal.

I have been on a cooking frenzy lately and this is the latest in a series of tasty delights (I’ll post the rest of the recipes later). It came about because I got a fantastic deal on meat the other day. It was basically half price, but only if you bought five different kinds of meat. So, I had to go to the cookbook stash to figure out what I was going to do with it all. I made two amazing pots of yummy soup, a batch of taco puffs, and tonight, taco meatloaf. And I still have to use up the bacon. (Trust me. It won’t be hard to figure out how to make that disappear.)

Amongst my library of cookbooks (Doc makes fun of me for how many I have and for the fact I read them like regular books, but I think they’re fascinating and have so much to learn in them), one of my favorite go-tos is the Taste of Home Grand Prize Winners. The recipes may not be as gourmet as what some of my other cookbooks offer, but that’s why I like it. It’s just real food that’s delicious and oh-so-easy to make. The fancy stuff can wait for special occasions.

So, without further adieu, here’s the recipe:

Taco Meatloaves

3 eggs, lightly beaten
2 cups picante sauce, divided
1 can (16 ounces) kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can (11 ounces) Mexicorn, drained
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cans (2-1/4 ounces each) sliced ripe olives, drained
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 envelope taco seasoning
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon chili powder
2 pounds ground beef
2 cups (8 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
Additional picante sauce, optional

In a large bowl, combine the eggs, 1/2 cup picante sauce, beans, corn, onion, olives, bread crumbs, taco seasoning, cumin and chili powder. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well.

Pat into two ungreased 9-in. x 5-in. loaf pans. Bake, uncovered, at 350° for 50-55 minutes or until no pink remains and a meat thermometer reads 160°.

Spoon remaining picante sauce over each meat loaf; sprinkle with cheese. Bake 10-15 minutes longer or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 10 minutes before slicing. Serve with additional picante sauce if desired.

Yield: 2 meat loaves (6 servings each).

This obviously makes a lot of meatloaf, so I plan on eating one right away and freezing the other for later. I love it when I don’t have to think much or work at making dinner, so having one to freeze and enjoy later speaks my language.

Meanwhile, of course I took some pictures along the way…

Here are all of the ingredients required. I had to chop up some onion for the taco puffs I made yesterday & only needed part of it, so I kept the rest for use here. That’s why you don’t see an actual onion. Oh, and I needed to use up both some ground sirloin and some meatloaf mix, so I used both in this recipe. Also, I just did one can of olives that was roughly the size of two of the smaller cans. I think it provided plenty and was slightly cheaper that way. In the batch I made, I did half as much cumin as the recipe called for and one-fourth as much chili powder. I do not like a lot of heat. Flavor, yes, but not heat. So, between that reduced amount and what’s in the taco seasoning, I think it was just right.

So, I have this thing about raw eggs and meat. I find both to be nasty. Necessary, but nasty. What made this whole cooking experience particularly interesting is that when I cracked the first egg, some of the egg spilled out and dropped straight onto my bare foot. I had to curl my toes upwards to keep the gooey egg pooled on top of my foot while I hopped across the kitchen to where the paper towels are stored. Not fun, people. Not fun. I recommend avoiding that if you can.

One thing that was really fun about this dish is all of the colors. This is everything but the picante & meat mixed in. Oh, and one note here: be sure to use a gigantic bowl for this recipe. You will not be able to make this in your KitchenAid, unless you have an industrial-sized one at your disposal. I know I’m in for some serious cooking when I pull this bowl out. To put it in perspective, the one slightly smaller than this is the one I use for making mashed potatoes. I can usually make about 5-lbs. in it. It is a serious bowl. I love it! (Incidentally, it’s one of my first kitchen purchases as an adult. When I moved to Raleigh after college and had almost zero money, I went to a warehouse store & got a few basics. They had this great set of ceramic bowls for $25. To this day, it remains one of my best purchases ever.)

And then I threw on the picante for even more color! Ole!

Incidentally, a good friend assures me that they do not say “ole!” in Mexico, but I still imagine it to be shouted on the streets, in restaurants, in homes, in the open market, and in fields aplenty. Basically, in my head it’s like the music in the “Sound of Music”. But in Spanish. And it’s the word “ole!” filling the air…with light mariachi music (if there is such a thing as light mariachi music) serving as a subtle background track. Sure, I have been to Mexico a couple of times & didn’t experience anything remotely similar to what I’ve just described, but I think I may have just been in the wrong part of the country.

This is everything but the beef mixed together. If not for the raw egg, I think it’d be pretty tasty at this point alone. It smells amazing. Oh, but the dry taco seasoning and dry bread crumbs may not be as appetizing as one would hope. I guess it is important to finish making the recipe to the very end instead of stopping at this stage.

At this point, I had to put down the camera and deal with the raw beef. It was while dealing with the raw beef that my shirt sleeves decided they no longer wanted to stay pushed up my arms, so I ended up with raw meat stuck to the cuffs of the black sweater I’m wearing. That was just delightful. But, this was the end result of that debacle; well, this and a sweater that now needs to be dry cleaned ASAP:

Sometimes I amaze myself. And I give myself little pats on the back when I do. This was one of those times. Somehow I managed to get both loaves weighing the EXACT same just from eyeballing how much meatloaf mixture to put in each pan. I patted in what looked like about half of the mixture into each of the ungreased pans & then got looking at them. They looked so identical that I had to see how similar they were. I put them on the kitchen scale and about had a heart attack from glee when I saw that they were indeed identical! It’s the little things, people…

So, I put my perfectly halved loaves in the oven, and this is what came out 55 minutes later:

I hate that nasty stuff on top, so I was more than happy to move on to the next step: covering the tops with picante sauce--

And then it was time to do what I consider to be one of the most exciting things in cooking: topping it with cheese. Now, not only do I look forward to this because, well, we’re talking about cheese here, but also because topping something with cheese usually means you’re nearing the finish line. I will say that it seemed like an unusually large amount of cheese to fit on each loaf. But I wasn’t complaining. Oh, and I used triple cheddar instead of just plain regular cheddar. Why? Because three is better than one. Especially when we’re talking cheese. That’s why.

The oven, however, is a whole other story. It is complaining. Apparently I should have put a pan on the rack underneath these babies, as the cheese and picante went over the top edge of one of them & left a lovely mess in the bottom of the oven…where it will sit until the next time I talk Miss Deloris into cleaning the oven because I reallllllllly don’t like to.

And there you have it: two deliciously perfect taco meatloaves! Now, if you’ll please pardon me while I go and work away at devouring one of these…

{ Kade in the Kitchen: Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread }

Many moons ago (well, perhaps not that many—just a few months ago, actually…but it feels like many) I happened across a recipe for something called Buffalo Chicken Garbage Bread. Because the name was so awful, I was intrigued. Little did I know, it’d fast become one of my favorite dishes!

It turns out it’s named that because you literally just dump a bunch of ingredients onto bread dough before rolling it up and baking it. In this case, the ingredients make a deliciously cheesy buffalo chicken bread. Now, I shall preface this by saying that I don’t really like buffalo wings—or any wings in general—because I don’t like chicken on the bone or with skin on it, nor do I like spicy sauces. So, this proved to be a great alternative for me because it didn’t require chicken on a bone, nor with skin, and I can control the level of sauce spiciness myself.

First, I’ll give you the basic recipe & instructions, but then I’ll give you some variations and a step-by-step tutorial. Without further adieu, here’s the recipe:

Ingredients:

2 Chicken Breasts, chopped into cubes (the breasts need to be medium to large in size; you’ll want 2-4 cups, depending upon how chicken-laden you want the dish)

1 Tube of Refrigerated Pizza Dough (regular crust thickness; avoid using generic store brand, as it does make a difference here)

1/3 C Blue Cheese Dressing, plus extra for dipping (I prefer Marzetti’s Ultimate Blue Cheese Dressing that’s found in the produce area refrigerator)

1/2 C Wing Sauce, divided (I use extra mild, but get whatever spice level you want)

2 C Mozzarella Cheese, shredded

1 C Cheddar Cheese, grated

Instructions:

1) Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Take the dough tube out of the fridge and leave it on a counter, as you’ll want it to come more to room temperature before working with it.

2) Cook the cubed chicken in a large skillet until completely done. Drain, if necessary.

3) When the chicken is completely cooked, add 1/4 C of the wing sauce to the skillet and coat the chicken with it thoroughly. Let cook for 1-2 minutes, long enough for the chicken to start to absorb the sauce a little.

4) While the chicken is cooking, lightly flour your work space. Then, open the refrigerated dough tube and unroll it over the floured area.

5) Using your hands, carefully stretch the dough to be a large rectangle. Having your dough less chilled helps with this. If you find that the dough immediately snaps back to its original shape, it’s too cold to work with. Allow it to warm slightly at room temperature, then try again. In stretching it, you don’t want the dough to be paper thin, but you don’t want it to be really thick either. One trick to helping stretch the dough is to lift a section of the dough along one edge and (using both hands) carefully wave the dough up and down. Repeat around all edges. Close any holes that form.

6) Once the dough is in a rectangle, use the back of a large spoon to spread the blue cheese dressing over the entire surface, right up to the outer edges. Leave about 1/2” of one long end of the dough uncoated so that when you roll the dough, the uncoated edge will adhere to the roll itself and seal it shut. (See picture below for more info.) If you are using a thicker dressing, it may require more than 1/3 C.

7) Pour the remaining 1/4 C of wing sauce over top of the blue cheese. Spread it around evenly as well, right up to the edges (except for your uncoated seal edge).

8) Spoon the coated cooked chicken evenly over top of the sauce. Again, take the chicken to the edges. If you don’t, you’ll have end pieces that are primarily just bread without filling.

9) Evenly sprinkle a layer of each of the cheeses over top of the chicken.

10) Starting at the long end that is coated up to the very edge, carefully roll the dough. Be sure to evenly roll the bread as you move along to the uncoated edge. Once you reach the uncoated edge, fold the edge over top and lightly press it to seal it. Also, fold the dough carefully over both ends of the loaf so that they’re covered.

11) Gently (and swiftly) lift the loaf onto a baking sheet. (Grease the baking sheet if it’s not a non-stick pan.) Re-shape the loaf as necessary. If any holes have torn during the movement, try to close them as best you can, but it’s fine if a couple of small ones exist. Not a lot of filling will escape from them during baking.

12) Place the pan into the pre-heated oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, or until the top of the bread has started to brown. Let cool slightly before serving. Serve it with extra dressing on the side for dipping.

Variations:

-If you want more cheddar than mozzarella, just swap the amounts. Be warned that cheddar is a lot more oily, so the loaf ends up much more greasy. But it’s oh-so-delicious.

-Doc & I add about a cup or so of chopped onion to the chicken while it’s cooking. Depending upon your personal tastes, mushrooms or even crumbled bacon could be a tasty addition.

-Not a fan of blue cheese? Switch it out for ranch dressing instead. Or, make the loaf with blue cheese & serve it with ranch dressing for dipping. That’s a particularly tasty combo.

And now, the pictorial tutorial…

When I took these pictures, it was my second batch of Garbage Bread in as many days. No, we’re not THAT big of pigs; I just happened to make a loaf for the neighbors the night before. So, I had pre-cooked the chicken that we used in our own loaf at the same time I cooked the chicken for the neighbor’s loaf & forgot to take pictures while doing so. However, I’m sure you can picture a skillet of cubed chicken cooking, so we’ll just go with what we’ve got…

1) Lightly flour your work area. Make sure you do an area large enough to allow for the large dough rectangle. You do NOT want that sucker sticking to the counter, especially when you go to roll it.

 

2) Unroll the dough. If it tears, piece it together. And then slam it with the palm of your clenched fist to make sure it goes together again. It works. (What also might work is gently massaging it back together, but that’s not how I operate—plus, punching it also serves as an additional outlet for stress release. Dinner AND a centered chi—what’s not to love about that?!)

3) Shape the dough into a rectangle that’s not too thin.

4) Put the dressing onto the dough. I have found that it’s easier to spread the dressing if you do it before pouring on the wing sauce.

5) Use the back of the spoon to spread it around. Don’t try to use a knife. It’s too difficult. And it makes it too easy to cut into the dough accidentally, at which point it’s not so easy to pound it with your fist—after all, who wants to pummel their palm into blue cheese dressing? Not this guy.

6) Spread the dressing all over and right up to the very edge of three of the four sides. You will note that on the right side of the pictured dough there’s about a 1/2”-1” strip left uncovered in dressing. That’s the part that’s going to seal the loaf shut once you roll it up. (Assuming you’re rolling from left to right. Reverse as necessary.)

7) Pour the wing sauce on top of the dressing. It almost looks like a Picasso…almost.

8) Swirl the wing sauce all over, aside from your one edge for sealing.

9) Evenly sprinkle the cooked chicken (and any other toppings) over the wing sauce. Again, take it to the outer edges.

10) Sprinkle the two layers of cheese over that. In this particular batch, we used more cheddar and less mozzarella. (If it weren’t for the fact the base is uncooked dough, I could just go to town and devour the whole thing at this point. But I resist. Because I’m strong like that.)

11) Evenly roll the loaf onto itself, making sure you go in the direction where your uncoated dough edge will be able to seal the loaf. Also, seal the two ends. (I love this step! It means you’re ever-so-close to a plate of deliciousness!)

12) Draw upon every bit of inner strength and faith; say 10 Hail Mary’s; call on the heavens above, or Mother Nature, or Buddha, or Chuck Norris, or Jack Bauer, or whoever it is that can bring you the superhuman abilities required to successfully transfer the loaf from the counter onto the baking sheet. You have to do this in one quick movement, so have your pan right next to the loaf and facing the correct direction BEFORE picking up the loaf. Support the underneath side of the loaf as much as you can.

You may end up wearing dressing and wing sauce in this step. And that’s OK. Take one for the team. Just get that loaf moved over with as minimal damage as possible. (Repair any major holes, but don’t fret over the little ones. In this picture, you can see a couple of spots where the chicken pieces started to poke through the thin spots of the dough. It’s not the end of the world.) And, yes, I could’ve used a beautiful, shiny baking sheet here. But I didn’t. Because I don’t have any. OK, well, I do, but not any that I use. That’s why they’re still beautiful and shiny. My ol’ reliables are beat down and crazy looking. The others just sit there and look pretty.

 

13) And then put your beat-down, reliable pan with it’s unbaked lump of awesomeness into the oven and try not to hyperventilate while waiting for it to be baked. Now would be a good time to remove the dressing and wing sauce from your arms. Oh, you don’t have any on you? That’s fine. No need to judge me. I’m not judging you. (OK, I secretly am, but we’ll pretend like I’m not.)

14) Once it’s browned sufficiently, take it out of the oven. And behold it. Just take a moment to behold the beauty in front of you. It’s so glorious.

Also, you’ll note here that I somehow managed to take the before and after picture at almost the exact same distance and angle. That was not remotely intentional. Hoped for, yes, but not intentional. I suck at taking pictures—let alone consistent ones. So, this was just a nice little surprise in the process.

Now, trust me—I get it. You just want to inhale the whole loaf immediately. Please don’t. It will be VERY hot. Instead, give it a moment to rest. Use this time to set the table for your family. Or, if you’re making this whole thing for yourself, use this time to grab a fork, knife, and napkin. No need to dirty a plate. While you’re at it, don’t forget to grab the dressing to have on the side for dipping. I don’t know what it is about dipping sauces, but I love them. Doc makes fun of me, but if there’s an opportunity to have a dipping sauce (or, even better, a variety of delicious dipping sauce options), I’m all for it. This is one such opportunity.

One final tip—if you’re the one cutting slices for everyone, cut it such that you end up with the center section. It’s so amazingly gooey and wonderful, with less bread to get in the way of the good stuff. (I personally cut it in the middle, slice off a couple of pieces, and then push the ends back together. It helps keep it from cooling too quickly before you have a chance to go for seconds.)

This is supposed to serve 10. I don’t know who those 10 people are, but Doc said they must be miniature people with anorexia. This loaf serves exactly two grown men with a little bet leftover. Translated: family of four people who aren’t afraid to eat a healthy portion. It is good with salad on the side, as admittedly it is a really decadent dish.

If you make this and come up with any other variations or tips, please share them in the comments section below—I’m all for maximizing the amazingness of any food item!

{ Kade in the Kitchen: Brown Sugar-Glazed Brussels Sprouts w/Bacon & Onion }

I don’t know why Brussels sprouts get such a bad rap. I mean, come on. They’re delicious! And, before you turn your nose up and say that they’re awful, disgusting little things that should be avoided at all cost, I say to you: bacon.

That’s right. Delicious, crispy, greasy bacon. Added right on in to the little Brussels sprouts that you’ll hardly even notice because you’re eating bacon. And, let’s face it: all is right in the world when there’s bacon within reach.

This recipe has it all—sweet, sour, and savory. And it couldn’t be easier to make!

First, I need to give credit to two bloggers who posted recipes from which my recipe ultimately derived. Each had elements that were great, but they weren’t quite what I had on-hand. Brussels sprouts are currently out of season, so the recipe with fresh ones didn’t quite work—but I did have a couple of bags of frozen ones on-hand. Plus, I have to avoid cooking with garlic during the week, as Doc will only eat garlicky foods after he sees his last patient on Saturday so that it’s out of his system by Monday when he has to again be right in front of someone’s face. It’s very considerate of him, but also annoying at times when it comes to making dishes that would be great with a little garlic enhancement. Alas, I digress.

Meanwhile, the recipe with frozen ones called for maple extract and shallots. I had neither. But, I do love me a good Vidalia onion. And that I also had.

I followed the basic instructions each had (both very similar), but came up with a time-saver solution that will produce more consistent results when it comes to the bacon itself. (And, again, it’s all about the bacon, right?)  I doubled these recipes to feed eight as a side dish, but even that wasn’t enough. They were gone before I knew it. There was one left in the bowl and I was going to eat it myself, but one of the dinner guests walked over and said he’d take care of it—and he didn’t want to waste time finding a fork, so he just grabbed it with his fingers. That’s how good this is. So, if you’re a Brussels sprouts-loving people in your household, plan accordingly & consider doubling this doubled version.

Ingredients:

8 slices of bacon, regular cut

2 Tbsp. salted butter

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1/2 medium-large Vidalia onion, chopped thinly

2-12 oz. bags of frozen Brussels sprouts (still frozen—not thawed)

4-6 Tbsp. light brown sugar (4 Tbsp. is enough; 6 Tbsp. is glorious)

2-3 Tbsp. water (use less water if you use less brown sugar)

salt & pepper to taste (but honestly, I didn’t even bother with either)

Steps:

1) Cover a baking sheet with aluminum foil (makes for easier clean-up). Place bacon strips flat onto the baking sheet, then put into an unheated oven. Turn oven on to 400 degrees. (Yes, you’re heating the oven after the food is already in it. Trust me on this.) After 17-20 minutes from the time you put the baking sheet in the oven, you should have perfectly crisped bacon. Keep an eye on it to not overcook it. Once cooked, drain bacon on paper towels, then break (or chop) it into small pieces.

2) While the bacon is baking, melt butter and oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the onion. Cook the onion at least until it’s tender; longer if you want crispier onion. Once it’s to your liking, remove the onion from the skillet and put it in a bowl; cover the bowl to keep as much heat in as possible. (Be sure to leave as much oil/butter in the skillet as possible when removing the onion. If there’s hardly any left, melt 1 Tbsp. of butter in the skillet before moving on to the next step.)

3) To the same greased skillet, add the frozen Brussels sprouts. Cover with a lid and cook for about 10 minutes, or until desired tenderness has been achieved. You’ll want to stir them occasionally so they don’t burn. If your skillet is too large for a lid (like the cast iron skillet I used), or just doesn’t have a lid, use a baking sheet as the lid. It’s important to have that lid on in order to keep the moisture inside the pan so that the Brussels sprouts steam. If they start to get black or overcooked, turn down the heat. They will get slightly browned, but you don’t want burnt.

4) After the Brussels sprouts are cooked to your liking, sprinkle the brown sugar over the top of them and then sprinkle the water over that. It will start to sizzle and evaporate very quickly, so be sure to immediately stir the Brussels sprouts to get them coated. Once they’re coated and the water has evaporated, taste a sprout to see if it’s sweet enough for you. If not, repeat with a little more brown sugar and a little more water until the glaze is to your liking.

5) Once the Brussels sprouts are coated to perfection, add the bacon pieces and cooked onion to the skillet. Stir all of it together and let it cook for about a minute—long enough to make sure the onion and bacon gets warmed and also coated with the brown sugar deliciousness. Add salt and/or pepper, if so desired. Serve immediately.

You should end up with something like this:

You’re welcome.