geekslovefood.com

so, i start this blog and >bam!< i stop cooking decent food. all weekend we've had regular things like hot dogs (chicago style) and grilled veggies... last night was left-overs, and tonight i think it's meatloaf night. sheesh…!

so that is all i have to report today, nothing special. maybe tomorrow i’ll make civiche or gazpacho or something nice like that.

and we have our first comment and it is a request for a meatloaf recipe:

silverx2 Says:
August 17th, 2007 at 12:14 pm
i need a simple meatloaf recipe.
no cheese.
nothing overly fancy
bbq sauce is good
nothing overly spicy
light on veggies.

well silver, let me give you kristi’s killer meatloaf recipe. why is it “killer”? because it kills any meatloaf i have ever had…..sorry mom. now this meatloaf has cheese in it, and other items you may not particularly like…..just omit the parts you don’t want to try, but it won’t be the same.

ingredients (vary to the size of meatloaf needed)

ground meat (i prefer chuck)
white onion
garlic (i like garlic, so i use at least 5 cloves)
italian seasoning
egg
bread crumbs
1 pkg frozen spinach, thawed and drained
tomato sauce
swiss cheese
sliced ham
white pepper
crushed red pepper flakes
salt & fresh cracked black pepper

some people like carrots in their meatloaf, if you do add some dice up.

as we discussed with hamburger patties, place the ground meat into a large mixing bowl, broken up, and dice up half of that white onion. dice or crush the garlic, and add both the onion and garlic to the meat. add italian seasoning (about 1 tsp. per pound of meat), 1 egg, and a handfull of breadcrumbs to the bowl as well.

season the meat mixture with white, red, and black pepper and salt to taste. mix, and again, let meat mixture sit for at least 15 minutes.

split meat mixture in half. using a pan that is larger than the size of the meatloaf you are about to make, form the size of meatloaf you want, but like a pizza crust form an edge about 1/2″ high around the meat. layer enough sliced ham to cover the bottom of the “well” in the meat, next add the spinach and spread evenly. on top of the spinach layer the swiss cheese slices, and top with a slight covering of tomato sauce. now, top with the rest of your meat mixture, taking care to seal the two halves together.

bake in a 350 degree oven for 25 - 30 minutes and check for doneness. if you have a meat thermometer it should read 150 degrees in the middle, otherwise cut a slit down through the middle and look at the meat. you want a juicy meatloaf with just a shade more pink than you really want. top meatloaf with enough tomato sauce (or bbq sauce, silverx2) to cover the loaf and cook for an additional 10 minutes.

remove from the oven and top with some grated swiss cheese (just a tad), let cool, cut and serve.

there you go, the easiest, best tasting meatloaf you will ever have.

side note: i have actually made this on the grill in an aluminum pan, but it took a while on low heat and on the highest grill rack.

mangi bene!

so, i start this blog and we eat “normal” food…..wth?!?!

i usually don’t eat canned foods, but i think that chili is something that can be doctored up enough to pass as decent.  if you just heat it up then yuck!  but adding some simple ingredients to the mix and cooking the mixture for 30 mins. makes for a nice treat.

ingredients list:

• 2lbs. ground chuck
• 1lb. ground pork
• 1 40 oz. can of chili
• 1 pkg. potato buns
• 1 12oz. pkg sliced mushrooms
• 4 serrano peppers
• 1 whole onion (i used red)
• pepper jack cheese
• cheddar cheese
• italian seasoning
• garlic powder
• white pepper
• salt  & pepper

open the can of chili and put it a pot big enough to add to.  break up the mushroom into pieces about as big as the beans in your chili.  add some garlic powder, salt & fresh cracked pepper…..all to taste.  cook over medium heat, covered, until it starts to bubble and then turn down to just above low.  the idea here is to cook the chili mixture enough so that the added ingredients become one.  stir occasionally to avoid burning the bottom.

while your chili is heating up break up the ground pork into a large mixing bowl.  ground pork is kind of stringy and you need to make sure the pieces are small.  add the ground chuck, also broken up.  dice 1/2 of the onion and add that to the meat mixture.  the onion is not on ly there for flavor, the oils in the onion will kill any bacteria in the ground meat.  add some garlic powder, italian seasoning, salt, fresh cracked black pepper and white pepper to the mixture.  now, gently mix the ground meat so that everything is incorporated into the mixture evenly.  do not overmix, this will give you dense hamburgers.  let mixture set for at least 15 minutes.

now, form meat mixture into patties, i got 6 out of this much meat, and place on a wax paper lined sheet pan.  why?  when you place the patties on the grill and dispose of the wax paper, you will have a clean platter to place your cooked burger onto…  go light your grill.  i use gas, so it only takes a few minutes to heat up.  if you are using charcoal you may want to start with this step.  while you are waiting for your grill to heat up dice the remaining onion, and serrano peppers and shred the cheese together.

time to grill!  i like a hot grill, so make sure the grates are nice and hot.  place burgers onthe grill and turn the heat down to medium.  as long as you do not have flare ups, leave the burgers for 5 minutes.  if you have flare ups turn the heat down!  flip the burgers, you should see nice seared grill marks on your patties.  turn heat up to high for 1-2 minutes and then back down to medium (or low) and let cook for a total of 5  minutes on this side.

now comes the fun part.  flip the burgers back to the first side, ensuring that the grill marks go the opposite way of the grill and crank up the heat to high for 1 minute.  let it flare!  flip over again, noting the grill marks and leave for 1 minute again.  remove burgers.

run into the house, taking care to not trip over the dogs…  and plate.  grab a potato bun and open it up and set it on your plate.  place 2 burgers, one on each bun half, on you bun.  cover liberally with chili and cheese, and top the whole thing off with onions and serrano peppers.  >boom!<  you are done!

i like a little bit of hot sauce on mine, but that’s up to you…

eat and have fun!

raging success: no.

worth reworking: hewl yes!

so this first post was on kristi’s night to cook. you will be hearing a lot about my beautiful counterpart…..get used to it. she pulled a recipe from one of her favorite websites and went shopping for ingredients after work. i am not going to go through the entire list as this was not a winner of a recipe, but when one of us makes it again you will be informed.

So, basice ingredients list included:

• garlic
• cilantro
• sugar
• lime juice
• fish sauce
• rice noodles
• carrots
• cucumber
• mint
• cabbage
• peanuts
• and more mint

needed was some basil, a peanut sauce, and (believe it or not) more mint.

so, the first post on geekslovefood.com will go down as a rework. and when it is reworked all of the details will be included.

hello and welcome,

i am evp, some of you already know me and the rest of you will know of me soon enough… this blog is here for you. if you have something that you want answered, i will answer it. if you would like a recipe tested, i will test it. if you want to just yammer on about inane stuff…..hell, skype me.

look for cool tidbits as to why food does what it does in these pages along the way.

later.