Fall is in the air!

FALL IS IN THE AIR!  Do you know how I know it's fall?  Because I want to cook and have my house smell wonderful and make beautiful loaves of bread!  And today was a perfect day to do that.  I never get to be home most of the day on Saturdays.  I am usually taking someone to some activity or running errands.  Today I planned on cooking and that is what I did.  Oh, and I lit ALL of my yummy smelling candles.  


Here's a quote I have had on my refrigerator since I was married in 1991..
"In the childhood memories of every good cook there is a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot  and a mom." - Barbara Costikyan.


Confession time: I am by no means a good cook.  But I do have some pretty fond memories of my mom and grandma's cooking and the smells that brought the feelings of safety, comfort and love to me as a child.  One of the things that I always wanted to be able to do for my kid's was give them some memories of good times with food.  Whether it be cooking with me in the kitchen or different events where we made great food to share with friends.  In each of the places we have lived I have tried to learn something different to cook.  In Washington I learned the true differences between apples in order to make a really good apple pie, (you never want to use Fuji apples...too juicy).  In Idaho my friend Kelli taught me the art of bread making that I still haven't perfected.  In Wisconsin I learned how to make a killer Wisconsin cheese soup and perfected my pie crust.  In South Dakota Jerry actually taught me how to cook pheasant...not that I like it, but I learned!  In Minnesota I am learning how to organize my life in order to plan menus and have food ready to pop in the oven...freezer meals.  I'm doing this here, because this is where I have gone back to work and school and have NO time to think about meals other than a Saturday afternoon.


Today I cooked 9 lbs of hamburger, made 3 dozen rolls, 2 loaves of banana bread and put together 6 meals for the freezer.  Yep, I am a tired gal right now, but I feel like I have accomplished alot.   I have seen this really cool idea for meat loaf and I have wanted to do it for a long time but never have, so today I did.  I made mini meat loaves!

These turned out so great and 3 lbs. made 16 good size meat loaf servings.  I have seen this done with stuffing and it's called Stuffin' Muffins.  Same idea applies here but with meat loaf.  Also, I made bread bowls for chili.  When I first saw this done I really felt like a dork because the idea of bread bowls was like a big mysterious and really hard thing to make.  Guess what.  You use Rhodes Bread loaves and cut them in half after they have thawed a little and roll them into balls of dough.  Rise and bake.  My house smell so good!  

After the mini meat loaves had cooled, I put all of them in a gallon size freezer bag and put them in the freezer, so on the nights when I am running late, they can be warmed up in the microwave and served with a veggie and fruit.  Also, barbeque sauce is what we like with these.    So here is the recipe for the mini meat loaves!


Mini Meat Loaves
3 lbs. of hamburger
1 cup oatmeal
1 cup diced onion
1 cup diced celery
2 T. Worcestershire Sauce
2 tsp. Emerils Essence
2 eggs
Salt & Pepper (I always use fresh ground pepper)


Put everything into a good size mixing bowl and get your hands in there and mix it together!  When everything looks well mixed, you want to take enough mixture into your hand for a golfball size ball.  Put the ball of meat loaf into a regular size muffin tin cup...don't use a liner!  If you use a jumbo size muffin tin you won't have 16 servings of the mixture.  When you have filled all of the muffin cups, put them in the oven @ 400* for about 30-35 min.  I also put a sheet of aluminum foil on the bottom rack of the oven to catch the spill over of grease and such.  It is meat loaf!  When you take them out, let them cool off in the tin.  Serve with your favorite side dish and sauce and ENJOY!

Coco smelling the yummy scents of fall and patiently waiting!