I have a day with nothing on the horizon but bread baking, laundry and straightening the house. It seems like the perfect time to tackle a project. I think sorting my seeds sounds good. I have a lot of them, some saved seeds and many I bought on clearance at summer’s end. There are some holes. I have no haricot verde green beans and I know I need a few varieties of winter squash. I will most certainly need several tomatoes varieties although I do have several packages of heirloom seeds I am anxious to try.
I may also try to do some plot plans. I am going to do a new type of planting next year called keyhole plots. The idea is to minimize the amount of space devoted to paths by planting in a circle with a small path in the middle. This is done with companion planting and a lot of mulch which I would do in any case. I am thinking of tomatoes with basil and marigolds. We have had to move the bed completely because of the blight . We usually just rotate but this time we are going far from any of the other garden beds and we will use only certified blight free seed. This new bed is a bit lower in elevation than our usual plot and I suspect we will need to use row covers to protect from early and late frost. The upside is that the soil is gorgeous down there. Still, I may bring down a truck full of compost and a few bags of leaves to sit over the winter. That, along with some shredded newspaper, is a combination the worms love.
Just a couple of side notes here. I went out last night to speak at a foster parent training and saw 5 people pulled over by police officers and a couple of other police cars lying in wait. I never see this kind of action and I wonder if budget shortfalls are being addressed by ticket writing. At least this is a tax you can chose to pay or not by driving under the speed limit.
The second thing is a meatloaf note. I mentioned to someone that I was making meatloaf for dinner and they confessed they had never made one although it was a meal this woman had enjoyed as a child. She said that she rarely had time to actually cook as she worked full time. I consider meatloaf fast food. How long does it take to mix 1/2 pound of ground pork, 1/2 pound ground beef, some chopped onion, celery, peppers, garlic, an egg, bread crumbs, Worcestershire sauce, thyme, salt and pepper in a bowl, shape it in a loaf and pop it in the oven? I keep a bag of the chopped vegetables in the freezer so I don’t have to chop every time I need them for a recipe. You could easily make up a meatloaf and get it in a loaf pan the night before of first thing in the morning. I’ll bet it would take less time than stopping for fried chicken or pizza on the way home. The real time is spent in cooking as it does take an hour and half or so but kids or spouse could put it in the oven for you. I am probably being unnecessarily critical here. It’s too easy for me to judge when I am not the one facing meal preparation after a hard day but it does seem that the making of a meal is a kind of sacrament. Food, family, the soil, our daily bread as it were, deserve a reverence and relevance in our lives that a box of pizza is just can’t provide. When Leni and I gather apples we always give the trees a shout out when we leave. It may seem silly on the surface, these two middle aged ladies yelling out thank you to the trees for giving so generously of themselves but it doesn’t feel silly. It feels right. It feels like saying a joyful grace.
November 13, 2009 at 8:34 am
I wonder about your mention of certified blight-free seed. Is it worth it? I grew my all my own plants from organic seed this year, and they all got the blight. Granted, it wasn’t certified seed, but the blight spores can travel 60 miles through the air, I’m told. Or is it just that you’re concerned that with so much blight around this year, where are you going to find seeds that don’t already have the blight on them? Now that I think of it, I guess I’ll just grow out seed I already have and give the producers time to replenish from healthy plants.
As for the “no time to cook” lady, did you ask her how many hours per day her family watches tv? Probably too snarky a question, I know.
A meatloaf trick of mine is not to put it in a pan at all. I shape it like a round loaf of bread and put it on a sheet of aluminum foil on a sheet pan. That way the juices don’t pool at the bottom of a loaf pan and boil the meat at the bottom. Plus, more of the surface of the loaf gets nicely browned and extra yummy. Another trick – use dried chopped onions instead of fresh. One less thing to chop, and the dried ones soak up some of the juices as the meat cooks, holding it inside the loaf.
November 13, 2009 at 10:12 am
Another meatloaf trick…I put mine in a 2 inch deep baking pan, then shape a hole into the center of the loaf….(think in terms of the Ohio State University ‘Block O’). It helps heat to circulate to the thick part of the loaf more quickly and seems to cut down on baking time.
November 13, 2009 at 10:38 am
What good ideas. I will cook my next loaf in a bundt pan. Why didn’t I think of that before?
November 13, 2009 at 10:55 am
When our kids were small, we used a meatloaf recipe that included chopped spinach, thawed and squeezed thoroughly. It kept the dish moist and boosted nutrition. We always made two loaves, which took only two minutes longer to prep. I like the bundt pan idea!
I had good luck this year with herbs grown in recycled 5-gallon buckets. The clever trick is to elevate the soil in the bucket so the roots grow into a separate reservoir of water at the bottom. The bucket drains into a milk jug, which retains soil nutrients and precious water for the next watering — no run-off. You can read about it here:
http://mastergardener.umd.edu/files/hg600.pdf
Next year I will use this strategy for patio tomatoes.
November 13, 2009 at 11:23 am
Don’t forget to mix up a quick bread or muffins for breakfast to bake with the meatloaf while the oven is hot. I always have bananas, shredded zucchini, berries, etc in the freezer for these. Or make a fruit crisp for dessert. You can also bake potatoes or sweet potatoes at the same time.
November 13, 2009 at 11:29 am
Nice meat loaf ideas, ladies! Kate, I like the idea of cooking it on a cookie sheet to avoid all that juice, but I add a tomato sauce to the top of mine. Have you ever done that? Sounds like it would run off if it isn’t in a dish.
If your hamburger hasn’t been previously frozen, you can always make it ahead of time and freeze it. A friend of mine does this to have something on hand to take to someone in need of a meal. Just takes a bit of extra time in the oven at their house or yours.
November 13, 2009 at 11:45 am
You guys are making me hungry. May have to make meatloaf this weekend.
November 13, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Good point. I alway try to bake more than one thing while the oven is hot. It is such an energy waste otherwise. I’m getting hungry too. I am thinking some nice corn chowder for dinner.
November 13, 2009 at 5:40 pm
That’s some great meatloaf ideas! Try making small ones in muffin tins and the you can freeze them and make individual meals as needed. I haven’t made meat loaf in years! My mom worked full time and used to take on day a month and make up a bunch of meals like that and put them in the freezer to save time.
November 13, 2009 at 6:20 pm
TCC, I’ve never done the tomato sauce/ketchup thing for meatloaf. But I suppose if I did want to try it that I’d make it thick enough to cling pretty well and possibly re-apply it halfway through cooking. If it’s something you like then a free form loaf will give you more surface to apply it to than a loaf pan would.
Kathy, I really like the idea of forming the meatloaf in a bundt pan. I’d still probably tip it over and cook the loaf on a sheet pan though. Then you could toss a few pearl onions or quartered new potatoes in the hole to revel in the juices. Overfilling the hole would be tempting, but would negate the advantage of shortening the cooking time. Yes, I’m a food geek.
November 13, 2009 at 10:31 pm
I use the muffin tin idea but stuff mine with sharp chedder cheese. havnt made those in years I can see what sunday’s dinner is going to be now.
November 14, 2009 at 10:12 am
My mom taught me a neat trick with meatloaf. Cook it in a 9×13 pan and on either side roast chopped potatoes, onions and peeled garlic cloves that has been tossed with a little olive oil, salt, pepper and paprika (or cayenne if you like it hot). As the meatloaf drains, it flavors the potatoes. I do have to stir a few times, but that is simple to do. I also glaze the meatloaf about half an hour before it’s finished using ketchup, brown sugar, a little mustard and a little lemon juice mixed together. It stays on quite nicely and gives the meatloaf a pretty finished appearance and tastes wonderful. I skipped this step once and my husband who doesn’t really like anything sweet, complained! LOL!
Although I totally sympathize with the woman who works (I work a couple of days outside my home – the rest of the time I work from home), making a meatloaf will actually save her some time because she can pack everyone a meatloaf sandwich for the next day.
November 14, 2009 at 11:34 am
That sounds amazing, especially as we are all onion nuts around here. My girls have been known to polish off a jar of pickled onions in one sitting. I don’t know about the certified, blight free seed. I am hoping that, if we have a drier summer and if I use untainted seed, I will have tomatoes next year but the truth of the matter is that growing your own is a crap shoot. At least I am not supporting Monsanto.
November 19, 2009 at 6:32 pm
Just the other day I saw a recipe for canning meatloaf with a pressure cooker!. Apparenlty you can’t use breadcrumbs (or similar – I’ve used oatmeal and cornmeal before in regular meatloafs) as a binder and other than leaving out the egg too their recipe is very much like mine. Cooking in the jar apparently keeps the loaf held together well. Basically the loaf is completely cooked so all you have to do is drain the juices, get the loaf out of the jar, and heat it up. As soon as I get my pressrue cooker (it’s on my Christmas list!) I’ll find the recipe again and give it a try.