burger

It was another one of those days where I got home hungry, but had no idea what I wanted, Lyn was on a special cleansing diet so I was on my own, I’m plenty clean.

I had taken a hamburger out of the freezer in the morning, but that was not going to cut it.

Scanning the refrigerator I saw the last jar of What to do with 5 lbs. of Green Unripen Tomato – Salsa!, chunk of Iris cheddar, some nice early spring asparagus, an avocado and I remember a rare thing a bag of chips in the pantry.

So grabbed the burger and browned while chopping it up over medium heat, when that was browned I added some of the salsa. My thoughts were to moisten it up enough to soften the chips. Grated the cheddar, chopped the asparagus into bite size pieces

Put a layer of chips in a small baking dish covered that with the meat mixture, then with most of the cheese then sliced an avocado and made a layer of that topped with more cheese. Baked at 350 until the cheese melted maybe 10 minutes.

I looked over and Lyn was staring at it with wanting eyes but she is the most dedicated woman I know she stuck with the cleansing and I ate too much.

I guess you could call it Nachos now that I think about it.

Nothing fancy but kicked A over a burger in a bun.

Meat loaf is one of those comfort foods and everyone thinks they have the best recipe. For a long time I thought I did – it was right off the oatmeal box and it was a staple for me during my bachelor days. Lyn was nice about it but she finally won and I was forbidden to make it any longer. It was not until I tried a few more recipes that I understood why, and agree. I think everyone I make is slightly different because I am a cook from the gut or pantry kind of guy. There are tons of things that will never make it to this site I open the frig look around and throw something together and then say Blank I should have taken pictures or paid more attention to what I put in there. Anyway…..

For a long time I wanted to try making a meatloaf that utilized 3 types of ground meat, Hamburger, Veal and Pork. Lyn found this recipe on Pinterest and I made it today. The name is mine and I tweaked some of the ingredients to meet my taste. The sauce was good but not a keeper to me, smelt much better cooking. You could use the standard ketchup topping, BBQ sauce, maybe even Salsa etc. etc…..

Ingredients

Meatloaf

1 pound ground veal
1 pound ground pork
1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh chives, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh thyme leaves, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
1 tablespoon chopped, fresh Italian parsley, plus 1 teaspoon for the sauce
3 large eggs
1 1/3 cups finely ground gluten free panko (place panko in food processor to finely grind)
2/3 cup whole organic milk
1 tablespoon kosher salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
2 stalks of celery, finely diced
1 large Spanish onion, finely diced

Sauce

2 cups chicken stock, homemade or good quality purchased
8 to 10 cloves roasted-garlic
3 tablespoons butter, at room temperature
1 teaspoon chopped, fresh chives
1 teaspoon chopped, fresh thyme leaves
1 teaspoon chopped, fresh Italian parsley

How

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.

Place the veal, pork, beef, chives, thyme, parsley, eggs, panko, milk, salt and pepper in a large mixing bowl.

Heat a medium sauté pan over medium-high heat and add a drizzle or 2 of extra-virgin olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the celery and onion to the pan and cook, stirring, until softened. Remove the celery and onion from the pan and let cool.

When the mixture is cool, add it to the mixing bowl with the other ingredients.

Mix the ingredients until well combined and everything is evenly distributed.

Place a piece of parchment paper on a sheet pan (it should have sides at least 1-1 1/2 inches high to prevent grease runoff from the pan). I used 90% lean and did not have a lot of fat.

Place the meat on the sheet pan and pat it and punch it down to remove any air pockets. Shape the meat into a loaf (about 14 1/2 inches long by 5 inches wide by 2 inches high). Place the sheet pan in the oven and bake 40 to 50 minutes or until a meat thermometer indicates an internal temperature of 155 degrees. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes.

Sauce – Meanwhile, for the sauce, combine the broth, roasted garlic and butter over medium-high heat and simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes, or until lightly thickened. Add 1 teaspoon of each of the chopped thyme, chives and parsley.