Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Oops...I made it again!





I hope you all had a Happy Halloween or a Happy All Saints Day or even just a nice week end with your family & friends.

We had a bunch of friends over for a brunch/buffet, not after the usual slight drama having small children provides.


On Saturday evening our little boy, S., came down with a pretty high fever. I cannot begin to tell you how disappointed our daughter M. was (and us too, if truth must be told). Our pumpkin was carved, the seeds were roasted, the fridge was stuffed with food, Halloween activities for the kids had been printed... Sunday morning, however, S. woke up in great spirits and not a hint of a fever. You know how kids are, they sometimes get these spot temperatures that come and go in a matter of hours. Luckily, our guests all have children and have experienced the same thing with their children. Excessive drooling on S.' side further convinced us that it was all just a matter of teething. So we decided to have our friends over anyway and what a great decision that was. We had a lovely day and the children had a ball!










This week I will be sharing the recipes of some of the things I made. They are not Halloween-inspired and are great to prepare ahead of time for any large gathering.

My first recipe is for meatloaf. Yes, again. I know I posted another recipe no more than a month ago, but there are times when the perfection of meatloaf just can't be ignored: the combination of grey, rainy weather, the need to feed many mouths (several of which belong to kids under the age of five) and the convenience of a meat dish that can be prepared a day ahead and that makes for great leftovers. C'mon!

I was browsing through blogs and found a great recipe on Kalyn's Kitchen for a horseradish and caramelized onion meatloaf (is your mouth watering yet? Mine is, and I am eating the leftovers as I post) only to find out (unfortunately too late to run out to a store) that one of my main ingredients, horseradish, was not in tip top shape. So I took out a litte and added a little and the result was very satisfying. I am posting the original recipe and my adjustments, so you can choose the one you like best. I will be sure to try the original recipe once I have all the right ingredients. I am a sucker for horseradish.





Ingredients
2 onions, diced

olive oil
1 tbsp minced garlic
1 tsp dried thyme (I didn't have any)
2 eggs
1/4 cup light sour cream (I used plain yogurt, you can only get sour cream in specialty stores here)
3 tbsp horseradish cream (I used Dijon smooth mustard instead)
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 lbs. ground beef 
1/2 cup breadcrumbs 
salt and fresh ground black pepper to taste

Sauce:
1/4 cup light sour cream (yogurt once again)
2 tbsp mayonnaise (I used 1 tbsp, the last I had)
2 tbsp horseradish cream (I made this the following morning, when stores were open) 

Heat oil in a heavy frying pan and add the diced onions, turn heat to low and let onions cook until they caramelize, stirring every few minutes, for about 30-40 minutes. Add the garlic (and dried thyme if you have it) and cook a little longer.
While the onions are cooking, put the ground beef into a bowl and let it come to room temperature. Whisk together the eggs, add the sour cream (or yogurt), horseradish (mustard) and Worcestershire sauce. Preheat oven to 375F/190C. When the onions are done, add the bread crumbs and onion-garlic mixture to the meat and season with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Then add egg/sour cream/horseradish/Worcestershire sauce mixture to meat. Gently combine with your hands until all the ingredients are mixed into the meat.
Grease roasting pan and then form the meat into a loaf shape and place in the pan, making criss-cross marks in the top of the loaf if you like. Bake meatloaf about 1 1/2 hours, or until the meatloaf is nicely browned on the outside and cooked through on the inside.
Let meatloaf rest at least 10-15 minutes before cutting. While it rests, stir together sour cream (yogurt), mayonnaise and creamed horseradish to make a sauce to serve with the meat.









Sorry, the last couple of photos are missing because I am having trouble downloading, so bear with me. But you get the gist!

Two days later: here are the missing pictures.






 

15 comments:

  1. I am glad your son was better on Sunday. Looks like you had a great time with all this yummy food.

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  2. i really love how yummy that meatloaf looks:)

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  3. Kalyn - It was really good, but I am sure the original is even better, and now that I have me some new horseradish, I will try it soon!
    My K in the R - We really did have fun and S. had a really good time, and at like you cannot believe. The meatloaf too!
    BBKD - Kalyn's recipe is fabulous, you should really give it a try!

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  4. Glad your son got over what ailed him! And the whole Halloween buffet looks fabulous! Wish I had been there!

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  5. Always luv a new meatloaf recipe - sometimes it is the only dish that will do! (glad your son is doing well!) I am going to give it a try!

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  6. That looks gorgeous! And I'm so glad that your little one was feeling better for it. I love seeing kids reactions to Halloween! :D

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  7. Jamie - you are invited next time you are in Italy! It was just a little fever luckily, no biggie, thanks. It was just disappointing to have to cancel.
    UrMomCooks - Yup, sort of like pancake recipes...you can never have enough.
    Lorraine - We kept it pretty low key, but the kids had a great time getting made up and cutting out all kinds of masks and coloring in haunted houses. Now that they are getting bigger, celebrations will increase too. They would go crazy if they ever saw your buffet. MIne was just a meal with a carved pumpkin!

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  8. Wow, I wish I were one of your real-life friends! Wonderful party!! :)

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  9. Jas - well, we do live in the same city. Perhaps we should meet at some point??

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  10. What a great spread of food! Beautiful!

    I MUST, must, must make this meatloaf!!!!

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  11. I'm so glad everyone recovered in time for Halloween! Last year Nick had the swine flu. He was too sick to even hand out candy. It' no fun when they're down for the count; especially on holidays.

    You got some great snaps! That meatloaf looks divine!

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  12. D,W&D - Do make it,it is great. Almost better as leftovers at work ;o)
    Julie - Poor Nick, and poor you. That sounds pretty awful, but sounds like he had fun this year.

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  13. Do we?
    If you do live in Milan as I suspect, stay tuned on Labna: I'm launching a Christmas party for foodies soon!!
    Looking fwd to meeting u!

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  14. Jas - Yes, I do! Look forward.

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