Basic Meatloaf

The following recipe was used, verbatim, from Paula Deen's Kitchen Classics cookbook. I have to say, it was the first time I have ever been dissatisfied with a Paul Deen recipe. However, my hubby really lapped it up! He enjoyed it immensely.

This is a simple recipe, and perhaps if the juice from the tomatoes was left out would be more a consistency that I would enjoy. However, this meatloaf was a bit "mushy" for my taste. I prefer a firmer texture. And the mustard added to the tomato topping was not something I enjoyed at all.

Here's the recipe. You try it out, and let me know what ya'll think!!!

Basic Meatloaf

Serves 6-8 generous portions.

Prep time: 15 minutes.

Baking time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 pound ground beef [I used 90/10]

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped bell pepper

1 egg, lightly beaten

8 ounces canned diced tomatoes, with juice

1/2 cup quick-cooking oats

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Mix all meat loaf ingredients well and place in a baking dish. Shape into a loaf. [Note: I found the mixture too "soupy" to make into a loaf, so I just used a loaf pan, and placed it in it.]

Topping:

1/3 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons brown sugar [I used dark brown sugar]

1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Mix all ingredients for topping and spread on loaf. Bake for 1 hour. Note: I let the finished meatloaf sit for about 10-minutes before cutting, because it still seemed too wet to me. This didn't help at all. It was still "mushy" in the center, and tended to be difficult to cut as it just fell apart when trying to serve.

As I said, while I didn't like it, my hubby loved it! So please let us know what you thought of it.

[The finished meatloaf.]

Better Than Sex Cake

Okay, so my hubby is one of those rare individuals who didn't get a taste of a "Better than Sex" cake back in the '70's when the recipe became popular!

So, I took it upon myself to educate him on this very sensational, and extremely sexy dessert this weekend!

This version is a slight variation on Paula Deen's version from her cookbook listed here.

Enjoy!!

Better Than Sex Cake!

Serves 15 generously

Preparation time: approximately 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients

One 18-1/2 ounce package chocolate cake mix

One 14 ounce can sweeted condensed milk

One 6 ounce jar caramel ice-cream topping

8-ounces Cool Whip

4 Heath Bar candy bars, crushed

Directions:

Prepare cake according to directions and bake in a 9 x 13-inch pan.


Pierce warm cake all over with a toothpick.

Pour milk over cake.

Pour caramel over cake.

Chill.

Before serving, top with whipped cream.

and sprinkle with crushed candy.

Low Country Boil

This recipe is inspired from Paula Deen's version in "Kitchen Classics". I did make mine a bit more spicy, and added the delicacy of crab legs!

I also modified my amounts to serve 2 people heartily, instead of Paula's which serves 6.

Enjoy!!!

Low Country Boil

Serves 2, heartily.

Preparation and cook time: about 45 minutes total.

3 tablespoons Old Bay seasoning
6 new, small Yukon Gold potatoes

4 4-inch pieces of good smoked link sausage

2 ears fresh corn

1-pound crab legs

1-pound fresh or frozen shrimp [31-40 minimum size]

Fill a large pot with enough water to cover all ingredients when added, about 3 quarts. Add crab boil, or Old Bay seasoning.

Adjust to suit your taste. [We happen to love the creole flavor of Old Bay Seasoning, and add it liberally!]

When your pot begins to boil, add potatoes and sausage. Cook on medium heat for 20 minutes. Add corn and cook for an additional 10 minutes.
Add shrimp and crab,

and cook for an additional 6 minutes, allowing seasoning to permeate crab and shrimp.

Drain and serve with piping hot bread and ice-cold beer. [Especially good with Texas toast and Corona beer!]

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

This is a delicious, full-bodied, rich-flavored soup. It's perfect for a cold winters evening. Or as a first course to a lighter meal.

Once you taste this soup, you will never go back to canned mushroom soup again! I guarantee it!!!

Cream of Wild Mushroom Soup

Ingredients:

* 5-ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms

* 5-ounces fresh portobello mushrooms

* 5-ounces fresh cremini (or porcini) mushrooms

* 1 tablespoon good olive oil [I used extra virgin olive oil]

* 1/4 pound [1 stick] plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, divided

* 1 cup chopped yellow onion

* 1 carrot, chopped

* 1 sprig fresh thyme plus 1 teaspoon minced thyme leaves, divided

* Kosher salt

* Freshly ground black pepper

* 2 cups chopped leeks, white and light green parts [2 medium sized leeks]

* 1/4 cup all-purpose flour

* 1 cup dry white wine

* 1 cup half-and-half

* 1 cup heavy cream

* 1/2 cup minced fresh flat-leaf parsley [I used curley parsley as the grocer was out of flat-leaf]

Directions:

Clean the mushrooms by wiping them with a dry paper towl. Don't wash them! Separatethe stems, trim off any bad parts and coarsely chop the stems. Slice the mushroom caps 1/4 inch thick and, if there are big ones, cut them into bite-size pieces. Set aside.

To make the stock, heat the olive oil and 1 tablespoon butter in a large pot. Add the chopped mushroom stems, the onion, carrot, the sprig of thyme, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper and cook over medium-low heat for 10-15 minutes until the vegetables are soft.

Add 6-cups water, bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Strain, reserving the liquid. You should have 4-1/2 cups of stock. If not, add some water.

Meanwhile, in another large pot, heat the remaining 1/4 pound of butter and add the leeks. Cook over low heat for 15 to 20 minutes, until the leeks begin to brown. Add the sliced mushroom caps and cook for 10 minutes, or until they are browned and tender. Add the flour and cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and stir for another minute, scraping the bottom of the pot. Add the mushroom stock, minced thyme leaves, 1-1/2 teaspoons salt, and 1 teaspoon pepper and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Add the half-and-half, cream, and parsley, season with salt and pepper to taste, and heat through but do not boil.

Serve hot.

==================

I found this an easy recipe to follow, and to make. Techniques needed are simple. If you can chop or mince, you can make this!

My dear hubby and I ate this for a meal, not choosing to eat it as an entree or first course.

It was filling and satisfying. [We both went back for seconds!]

I can promise you that once you make this soup, you will never want to go back to making canned cream of mushroom soup again! The flavors are so much more intense, and the texture is out of this world!

I can't wait to make this soup for guests!

Creamy Crab Nachos

This delicious recipe is fast and easy to prepare. It makes great hors d'oeuvres, and may be served to the most persnickety of guests! Makes a great snack for the family while watching a movie at home.

The original recipe called for nacho chips and lump crab meat. I modified it only slightly by using bite size tortilla chips and canned shredded crab meat [I was making this for someone who wasn't sure they would like crab meat or not].

Don't worry! You're gonna love this!!!

Creamy Crab Nachos

6-ounces cream cheese, at room temperature

4-ounces asadero or Monterey Jack cheese, grated

1/4 cup sour cream

1 pickled jalapeno, minced, plus 1 to 2 tablespoons of pickling liquid from jar of pickled jalapenos

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground

8-ounces crabmeat [you may use fresh or frozen - I substituted 12-ounces canned shredded crabmeat instead for a creamier texture]

tortilla chips [I used the bite size chips]

sliced pickled jalapeno, for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

In a bowl mix together the sheeses, sour cream, minced jalapeno and pickling liquid, garlic, and cumin until well blended. Fold in the crabmeat.

Spread each chip with a layer of the topping mixture. Place the chips on a heat-proof baking dish or platter. [I used Tostitos brand Bite Size tortilla chips. Perfect size for this recipe!!!] Place a sliced jalapeno over each chip. Bake the nachos for about 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted and a little bubbly. Serve immediately. [About 3-dozen chips.] Enjoy!!! They'll disappear FAST!

Machaca Burros

These big, beefy "burritos" are said to be too big to call just burritos, and so they were given the name Burros.

Please allow yourself plenty of time for the preparation of this dish, but believe me, it is well worth your efforts!


Machaca Burros

Serves 6.

3-pound boneless shoulder chuck roast
Salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste
¼ cup bacon drippings or vegetable oil
1 cup beef stock
1 medium onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 small tomatoes, preferably Roma or Italian plum, chopped
½ cup chopped roasted mild green chiles, preferably New Mexican or poblano
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
6 thin flour tortillas, preferably at least 8 inches in diameter, warmed

Toppings (optional)
Salsa
Sour Cream

Rub the roast with the salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Warm 2 tablespoons of the oil (or bacon drippings) in a heavy lidded skillet, or Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Brown the meat on all sides.

Reduce the heat to low. Pour the beef stock over the meat and add half of the onion and half of the garlic to the pan [make sure the meat is immersed in the liquid]. Cover the dish and simmer until the meat is very tender, about 1 to 1-1/4 hours. Let the meat sit in the cooking liquid until cool enough to handle. Drain the meat, reserving the cooking liquid. Shred the meat with your fingers or two forks.


In a heavy skillet, warm the remaining oil or bacon drippings over medium heat. Saute the remaining onion and garlic until the onion softens. Add the meat and sauté until well browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Scrape the meat up from the bottom every few minutes. It should gget brown, and in spots, crusty, but it shouldn’t burn.

Stir in the 6-tablespoons of the reserved cooking liquid, tomatoes, chile, and lime juice. Cook over low heat for about 25 minutes until most of the liquid has evaporated and the meat remains a little moist. Add more salt and pepper if you wish, (The meat can be made ahead to this point and refrigerated for several days. Warm before proceeding if you do this.)
Spoon the mixture into warm tortillas, rolling each into a cylinder. Arrange the burros on plate, seam side down, and offer salsa and sour cream (optional).

NOTE:
The “Border Cookbook” also recommends that you add eggs to the meat, if you want this dish for a breakfast burro, which would be quite tasty! Or you can also add fried cubed potato for a heartier burro!

Also note, this is my modified recipe for the above. The original requires you add ALL of the reserved cooking liquid back into the pan at the end of the cooking process. This is much too soupy for me, and seems to require much, much longer to absorb than the recipe stated. Also, you will note a lot of fat within the liquid from cooking the meat. This makes the dish too greasy for my taste. So, I skimmed the fat off, and used just 6 tablespoons of the liquid, which works wonderfully!!! If you find you still have too much liquid at the end of the cooking process, you could add 1 tablespoon of flour to a small amount of the reserved liquid and whisk well to blend, then pour into the skillet and blend well into mixture (this will make a thick gravy for the burro mixture). You will need to adjust salt and pepper for taste.

Texicanwife's Vegetarian Spaghetti **

While I have a dish ready to prepare this weekend, when the hubby gets home, I decided to initiate this blog with a recipe entirely my own.

This is my version of the classical way to prepare spaghetti squash. While the hubby says this dish is "okay now and then", I usually prepare it while he is away, knowing it isn't one of his favorites. I also take the leftover and freeze it for another evening. So this is a wonderful dish for the single person.

I utilize the squash shells and actually serve the meal in the half-shell. It makes a lovely presentation. And if you make this for guests, they are definitely impressed! If you make this using a large squash, you can set the table with one half of the shell on each end of the table, and guests can serve themselves directly from the shells. Or, if you use small squash [as I did here], you can serve each person using the squash shell as their bowl.

This is a very simple dish to prepare. If I were rating it on level of experience required, it's probably a 2 or 3 out of 5. [See the asterisks in the title. 1 being no skills required. 5 being advanced experience, or expert techniques required.]

Here's the recipe:


Texicanwife’s Vegeterian Spaghetti

Serves: 2

1 small spaghetti squash
2 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 yellow onion - chopped
1 medium green onion with top – sliced
½ medium green pepper – chopped
3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
6-oz can tomato paste
14.5 –oz can stewed tomatoes [Mexican style]
1-lb. Ground soy meat substitute [may use ground turkey meat if desired]
1 ½ tsp. Salt
1 tsp. Freshly ground pepper
1 tsp. Oregano
½ c. freshly grated parmigiano reggiano cheese or feta, optional

Preheat oven to 350° F.

Cut squash in half lengthwise. Using a spoon, remove seeds and pulp, being careful not to scrape the flesh away. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the pulp of the squash with ½ of the olive oil, reserve the rest. Place the squash halves in a non-stick baking pan, with flesh of squash down and skin side up.

Bake for one hour.

In a medium non-stick skillet, pour remaining olive oil. Add chopped onion, green onion, garlic, pepper and ground meat substitute. Sautee on medium heat until ground meat substitute is firm and cooked thoroughly, and yellow onion is translucent, about 6 minutes.

Add tomato paste and integrate thoroughly with vegetables. Add salt, pepper and oregano. Pour in entire can of stewed tomatoes, juice and all. Heat thoroughly. When liquid begins to bubble, reduce heat to lowest setting, add lid on skillet and leave until later.

When squash is finished baking, remove from oven and let set for 5-minutes. Using a fork, pull flesh from interior of squash. It will come out in short strings, looking much like short spaghetti strands, or riced potatoes. Reserve shell skins.

Add squash flesh to skillet, and mix thoroughly. Once mixed well, pour one-half of mixture into each squash shell half. Top each with one-half of the grated parmigiano reggiano.

You may garnish with fresh parsley or basil leaves if desired.



COMMENTS:

I began by preheating the oven to 350 degrees F. As the oven was heating, I cut the squash in half lengthwise. I purposely chose a small squash, as I was cooking for myself. It was my intention of freezing the leftovers for another meal.

Once the squash was cut in half, I used a spoon and placing the squash over two paper towels, I scooped out the seeds and their ligaments. Be very careful not to cut into the flesh of the squash with the spoon [this flesh becomes you spaghetti!]. Discard the seeds and ligaments in the trash.

Next, using half of the olive oil, I used a pastry brush and lightly greased the interior of the squash. Next, I placed the squash open sides down in a non-stick baking pan. [You want to put them open side down so that the natural water that is within the squash will steam the vegetable while cooking.] Place the squash in the oven and bake for 1-hour.

While the squash is baking, I got a medium sized skillet and poured in the remainder of the olive oil. I then chopped [roughly] the ingredients that required chopping: yellow onion, green onion, green bell pepper, and then minced the garlic. I placed them in the skillet, with the ground soy-meat substitute, and placed over medium-high heat.

Now, you can use ground turkey meat if you prefer. This will give it a meatier flavor, and yet let it remain low fat.

Now you want to add the spices. Salt, pepper, and oregano.Cook about 3 minutes, stirring constantly, then lower the temperature to medium-low. Allow to cook until onion becomes translucent. Once the onion is translucent, and the meat is cooked thoroughly, add tomato paste. I like to add this next and make sure that it is completely incorporated into the cooked vegetables and meat substitute. I find it flavors the meat substitute best this way.
Once the paste is incorporated well, add the can of stewed tomatoes, juice and all. Bring to a boil, and then reduce the heat to lowest setting and cover with lid.

At this point, you can walk away to return when the squash is finished baking.

When the hour is completed, remove squash from oven and let set for about 5 minutes.

I usually use tongs to pick up the squash and hold it, or a clean dish towel, as the shell is quite hot. Holding the squash with my non-dominant hand, I then use a fork and begin to lightly scrape the interior pulp of the squash. This produces short strands of the pulp that resemble short strings of spaghetti, or riced potatoes. Make sure not to puncture shells.

Next I place the spaghetti strands into the skillet with the meat and vegetable mixture, mix well and remove from heat.

Holding a shell with my non-dominant hand [the shells are cool as soon as the spaghetti pulp has been removed], I use a serving spoon and fill each shell half full. You will find you have more filling than needed for the shells. [You can use left over filling as a side dish another meal in the week.]

I happen to love adding cheese as a topping. One meal I like to parmigiano reggiano, and the next feta crumbled. Tonight I used feta.

You may also garnish with fresh parsley and/ or basil leaves if you like.

And you have a delicious, unusual dish fit for not only family, but for guests as well! And the presentation in the shells is just fantastic!

Entire preparation and cooking time is 1 hour 5 minutes. This leaves you plenty of time to spend with family and guests.

Since I ate alone this evening, I took the other half of the shell, filled it with the lovely spaghetti and vegetable mixture, wrapped it in plastic wrap, and I placed it in the freezer. It will stay in the freezer up to a month with no problems. To use later, thaw completely, and place in a microwave safe dish and microwave on high about 5 minutes [be sure to check frequently as different microwaves cook at different speeds]. Garnish as you desire.

The extra filling I placed in a refrigerator-dish that is covered, and I will use it as a side dish later in the week with another meal.

This meal also pairs well with Texas toast. It is also a great way to get kids to eat their vegetables!

I hope you enjoy this dish as much as I do!

Happy eating!

Welcome!

Welcome to the Texicanwife Chef!

Cooking has been my hobby for quite some time. Now that we have a smaller household, the kids are all grown and it's just the hubby and I, I have more time to indulge in this hobby!

I've been accumulating cookbooks for a while now. And recently inspired by the new Movie "Julie & Julia", I decided to blog about my own attempts to work through the cookbooks I've been putting off going through for years!

My posts will probably be done on a weekly basis as I usually only get to cook for my darling hubby once a week since he is a long haul truck driver and gone the rest of the week! So, when he's home, I try to feed him to the point that he can't wait to get back home to me and my good cooking!

I welcome you to my kitchen! And I encourage you to check back often. Rejoice with my successes! And cry with me when I fail.

And as Paul Deen says: "I send you best dishes!"

The Texicanwife Chef

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