Monthly Archives: September 2009

Family matters

Red dragons live on top of hills

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At the gym yesterday, I noticed that the woman in front of me on the “imaginary bicycle” — as Poppy calls it — was playing some kind of dragon-slaying game. On the bike’s fancy-pantsy screen.

Now, I am not normally a fan of the imaginary bicycle. It hurts my knees, and also I am lazy. But dragon slaying? At the gym? Please know that I was all over that. At least, I said to myself, “If I come back tomorrow, and if that machine is available, I will definitely think about trying it.”

And I did, and it was. So I tried it.

I only “played” for 10 minutes, but it was a fun, fast 10 minutes. And I am so sore right now. There will be dragon slaying in my future.

Say, you know what’s not cool about your computer dying? Aside from the fact that your computer’s dead, I mean. I don’t remember any of my passwords, and now I’m having to reset everything. And then I forget them again by the time I go to log into something again (hello, Facebook), so I have to reset my password everytime I want to log in.

Maybe I should write them down somewhere. But that would require standing up. And my legs hurt. Because of the dragon slaying.

(See, there was a connection! Sort of.)

Eating, recipes

How could she not make a great meatloaf?

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Amy and I used the random number generator to pick this week’s Recipe Roulette meal from one of Amy’s Paula Deen cookbooks. Incidentally, I’m pretty sure that I thought it was Dean — not Deen — and I’d be willing to bet there are more than a few Paula Dean references to be found here.

Anyway, the RNG was in the mood for meatloaf. We’ve been known to take down a meatloaf, but I wasn’t all that excited by Paula’s Aunt Peggy’s ingredient list. It’s a pretty basic meatloaf, and I like my meatloaf to be a little spicy. I have to say, though: It’s an outstanding basic meatloaf recipe. It was moist, and the glaze had a nice flavor that was just a skosh away from being cloyingly sweet. (In other words, it was my idea of a perfect glaze.)

The moral of the story is, I guess, don’t judge a meatloaf by its lack of chipotle peppers. Or something like that.

Aunt Peggy’s Old-Fashioned Meatloaf
1 pound ground beef
One 6-ounce can tomato paste
1/2 cup chopped Vidalia onion
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
2 tablespoons packed light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, tomato paste, onion, green pepper, oats, egg, salt and pepper. Shape the mixture into a loaf and place it in a 9×5 inch loaf pan.

In a small bowl, whisk together the ketchup, brown sugar and mustard. Slather the glaze on top of the meatloaf and bake for 1 hour or until the meatloaf is firm and cooked all the way through. Serve hot.