Rio

I want to be in Rio.

With this man.

Yesterday.

Photo

Just look at him.
Perfection.

Bacon Topped Meat Loaf

Living by myself has it advantages and disadvantages.
The good stuff is the remote is mine, Mine, MINE! And I can eat ice cream for breakfast if I want.
The bad part is I miss having a family. And whatever I cook I have to eat until it is gone which makes me get sick of things very quickly. But I have family coming, so yay, real food.
This is winter food. I prefer summer food but when it is cold you just really need comfort food and meatloaf is it. I have made this for years, so long I don't even remember where it came from and I always lose the recipe. Let's just say, it is the only meatloaf that I will eat. That of course means it is probably fattening and sooo good with mashed potatoes and butter. It doesn't have bell peppers etc. so it doesn't taste like vegetables and herbs, but is very moist and the chili sauce makes it a little sweet. Sweet is good.

I tried something different this time and will go back to the old way which I like far better. So the photos and directions are a little opposite than what I explain below, go with what is written.

BACON TOPPED MEAT LOAF

2 T ketchup
1 egg yolk
1 T horseradish
2 T butter, softened
1 cube beef boullion
1 small onion, finely chopped
1/2 c cracker crumbs
1 lb ground beef
Chili sauce to cover
3-4 bacon slices


Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place ketchup in the bottom of a loaf pan.
In a large bowl, mix yolk, horseradish and butter.
Soften boullion in a few tablespoons of hot water and add to mixture.
Add onion and cracker crumbs and mix to blend.
Now the yucky part, add ground beef and using your hands, blend it all together, then form it into a loaf shape.
Place in loaf pan.

Spread chili sauce over.
Yes there is bacon underneath, ignore that.
It is better with the bacon on top.

Set bacon on top.
Pretend there is chili sauce underneath the bacon.
Okay?

Bake 1 hour.
You will need to carefully drain the juices and fats before removing the meatloaf from the pan.

Once again, there is supposed to be cooked bacon on top.

This time I tried it the way my friend does, but I like it much better the way I have written it here.

Citrus, Fennel & Pomegranate Salad

When oranges are at their best they are right up there with the fruits of summer. Citrus in general is so necessary for eating and cooking. Fresh squeezed orange juice, ruby red grapefruit with a little brown sugar, lemons for desserts or limes squeezed on anything and everything, particularly sweet mangos with chili and salt. They are all light and fresh. Even the scent is lovely and clean. And scurvy, let's not forget scurvy.
Since melons and peaches and berries are gone for now, oranges/citrus are the only things that taste like summer. The salad is peppery and lightly sweet at the same time and the dressing is perfect for it. And I also think it is the prettiest salad I have ever made. Pretty is always good.

CITRUS, FENNEL & POMEGRANATE SALAD

2 bunches watercress
1 ruby red grapefruit
2 navel oranges
2 blood oranges
2 mandarins
2 clementines
2 satsumas
1 fennel head
1 pomegranate

Wash, stem and dry watercress, place in serving bowl.
Peel and supreme oranges and tangerines, draining and reserving juices for dressing. Supreming citrus means to peel, then using a good knife, segment them with no skins.
Remove outer tough stalks of fennel, slice very thinly, saving and chopping fronds.
Seed pomegranate.
Place citrus, fennel and fennel fronds, 1/2 pomegranate seeds onto watercress.

CITRUS HONEY DRESSING

1/3 c olive oil
1/3 c citrus juices
1 T honey
1/2 t kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

In a blender or using and emulsion blender, combine ingredients adding honey a little at a time, making sure it is incorporated.
Serve on the side of Citrus salad.

Twenty Ten

2010. Twenty Ten. It sounds like an address.
Many of us have been thinking about the New Year.
Resolutions, direction, change, lists.
At 52 I have less than half my life on earth left to live.
I need purpose in life to be happy. Right now I don't have one, the children are grown and there is not a man in my life to share it with.
So my New Years resolution is to 'change my life'. Maybe not 360 degrees, but perhaps 180 or even 90 degrees. The change may only be noticeable to myself, because it might be on the inside. Or it may be absolutely obvious to everyone. Who knows.
And more salads. Lots more salads.

To celebrate growing older, Regina Brett once wrote 'the 45 lessons life taught me'.
These are my favorites, the ones I already believe in, but I still need to try to live by and remember this year.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Yield.
Always choose life.
Believe in miracles.
The best is yet to come.
Forgive everyone everything.
Life isn't fair, but it's still good.
Get busy living, or get busy dying.
Over prepare, then go with the flow.
Take a deep breath. It calms the mind.
It's OK to get angry with God. He can take it.
When in doubt, just take the next small step.
Life is too short to waste time hating anyone.
Growing old beats the alternative - dying young.
All that truly matters in the end is that you loved.
Don't take yourself so seriously. No one else does.
No matter how you feel, get up, dress up and show up.
What other people think of you is none of your business.
You don't have to win every argument. Agree to disagree.
When it comes to going after what you love in life, don't take no for an answer.
Frame every so-called disaster with these words: "In five years, will this matter?"
God loves you because of who God is, not because of anything you did or didn't do.
If we all threw our problems in a pile and saw everyone else's, we'd grab ours back.
It's never too late to have a happy childhood. But the second one is up to you and no one else.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I want to be here....

Photo

I am so cold, my hands are freezing, my butt is cold and my back is tensing up. I just want to curl up in front of a warm fire and snuggle with someone who wants to take me away from all this yuckiness. I don't know how you people up north do it, you are impressive. Freezing, I would be bitchy, okay bitchier. Constant gray skies, I would be sad. All I can say is God bless you, you are tougher than me. I suppose I should read the above list again, but I think in 5 years I will still gripe about the cold. Yeah, I hate hot too.

Salt Crusted Baked Potato

Potato, good!
I quote the TV show friends often, particularly Joey and Phoebe. Joey's love for food is part of his charm. When Rachel (who never cooks) made a traditional English trifle and mixed it with a shepards pie recipe on accident, Joey's comment was.... "Well, I like it. I mean, what's not to like? Custard, good. Jam, good. Meat, good!" Yeah, I've got a million of them that I live by.
Anyways, often we expect food to be less when less is done to it, which is simply not true for many things. Potatoes are such a perfect example. Give me a baked potato for dinner and you can keep the steak. Just give me all the yummy toppings too. Dr Atkins hated me.
I must say, these are the very best baked potatoes I have ever had, they were lighter and fluffier, and I wish I had bought a much bigger potato. They were even really good without adding anything at all and coming from me that is saying a lot. Yes, after I ate the insides I brushed off the salt and spread a little butter on the peel and ate that too.

Salt Crusted Baked Potato

3 ingredients plus an oven, and toppings of course.

Potato

Butter, to rub over potato, and much more for later

Salt, my favorite: Pink Australian Flake Salt

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
Wash and scrub potato.
Poke a couple holes in potato with a knife.
Cover potato with soft or melted butter.
Sprinkle salt all over potato.

Place potato in oven directly on middle rack.
Set a pan underneath potato to catch any dripping butter, there will be dripping.
Bake for 1 hour, more if needed.

Add more butter and....
sour cream, lot's of sour cream.

MINE!

Then add fresh cooked crumbled bacon, snipped chives, grated cheese, cracked pepper, whatever you have and love.
Or salsa for Lisa in Jersey, she eats healthy, silly girl.

For a group, I would place the potatoes on a cooling rack over a foil covered baking sheet. Most of what I have read about salt crusted potatoes doesn't say to remove the salt before serving, although I think for guests or on a plate with other food you should, but I like the look of it on the plate by itself and if you open it carefully only a small amount of salt falls into the potato which is fine. For $9.95 you can get one at Terrance Brennan's in New York and they clean it for you with a little brush. Mine was less than a dollar, so there.