Holiday Cheeseballs

I taught an appetizers class recently, and decided to put together some quick and easy cheeseballs for my students to see and enjoy while we made the many other complicated and festive recipes. It turned out that the cheeseballs were the biggest hit of the night! I made them again for my neighborhood cookie exchange, and added a fourth that was always my favorite. Here are the recipes and a photo of all four for you to choose from for a great crowd-pleasing holiday appetizer. They are also, as I mentioned, extremely easy to assemble, look beautiful, and will help you take the stress out of bringing an appetizer to a holiday function. Enjoy!

Swiss Almond Pomegranate Cheeseball

Ingredients

• 2 packages Merkt’s or other brand Swiss Almond Cheese Spread
• 1 Pomegranate
• 2 Mint Leaves
• Crackers

Form cheese spread into a ball. Remove seeds from pomegranate inside a bowl of cold water. Drain seeds and press lightly into cheese, letting extras spill over onto plate. Serve with crackers.

Mediterranean Goatscheeseball

Ingredients

• 1 6-ounce package goats cheese
• 1 8-ounce package cream cheese
• 1/2 cup kalamata olives, diced
• 1/2 cup oil-marinated sundried tomatoes, diced
• 1 tablespoons fresh chopped or 1/2 tablespoon dried basil

Blend cheese and form into a loaf. Press diced olives and tomatoes into cheese and over sides. Top with basil. Serve with pita chips for dipping.

Sweet and Spicy Cheddar Cheese Ball

Ingredients

• 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese
• 1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 jar Rothschild’s Pineapple Habanero Dip

Blend cheeses and form into a ball. Pour dip over cheese. Serve with pretzel crackers, crackers or chips for dipping.

Mr. Food’s Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheeseball

Ingredients

• 1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
• 1/4 cup butter, softened
• 1/4 cup creamy peanut butter
• 3/4 cup powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons light brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa
• 1/2 cup peanut butter and milk chocolate chips
• 1 tablespoon chocolate-flavored liqueur
• 2/3 cup fine chopped pecans
• graham crackers & strawberries
  Beat cream cheese, butter and peanut butter at medium speed with electric mixer till creamy. Stir in sugars, cocoa, chips and liquer. Cover and chill 2 hrs till firm. Roll ball in pecans and serve with graham crackers and strawberries.

What the Heck is Chutney Anyway?

Earlier in the week I gave a recipe for Cranberry Chutney. I’m often asked to define what exactly is Chutney? My answer is usually “A sweet and spicy cross between a relish and a sauce.”  I looked up the Wikipedia definition and found this further description: Chutneys usually contain idiosyncratic spice and vegetable mix that complement one another. I love that! Sweet and spicy don’t always make sense, but sometimes the results are amazing. Once my Aunt Kathy went to make a standard Dill dip for my sister’s baby shower. She didn’t have regular cream cheese in her fridge, but she did have strawberry and no time to run to the store. She went for it, mixing these unlikely ingredients together, and people to this day are asking me for the recipe. I’m sure no one would have thought it would work, but the dip was delicious on fresh vegetables. I don’t have the recipe BTW, the point is try substituting some sweet things in your savory and you might be pleasantly surprised). Ok, as promised, I’m going to give you some ways to use the cranberry Chutney Recipe I gave you in the last post. Anyone try making it? Well here are many many delicious ways to use it. As I said last week, this makes a beautiful and delicious homemade holiday gift.

The Best Chicken Salad

This chicken salad is amazing — not only because of the delicious flavors achieved by pairing sweet and savory, but also because by using chutney, the need for fatty fillers such as mayo is greatly reduced.

Ingredients (for 4 servings)
•    2 cups cooked chicken
•    1 large apple, peeled and cut into small cubes

•    1/4 onion, diced

•    3 tablespoons mayonnaise

•    4 tablespoons cranberry chutney
•    1 teaspoon lemon juice

•    1 teaspoon parsley

•    1 teaspoon mustard
•    1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Mix all ingredients and chill. Serve with lettuce on tortillas or rolls.

Roasted Meat

Drizzle warm cranberry Chutney over cooked fish or sliced pork tenderloin as a ideal flavorful sauce. You can cook either drizzled in the chuteny, but it will get thick.

Turkey Cran-Sandwiches

For leftover holiday turkey or everyday turkey sandwiches, mix an equal desired amount of cranberry chutney and mayonnaise for topping. Chutney can also be used as a substitute for cranberry sauce to accompany turkey.

Hors D’Ouvres

• Drizzle over molded cream cheese to form an elegant cheese ball. Serve with crackers.
• Serve as-is in a small dish with a spreading knife along with a selection of crackers and cheese.

A Sweet Guest at Your Table

Cooking with fruit. It’s one of my taste buds’ greatest pleasures. I have long loved sweet/salty food combinations, starting back to the snickers and chocolate covered pretzels of my youth. As my tastes developed with my age, the elegant sweet & savory combination provided by fruit in my cooked food took their place.

Cranberries are one of my favorite foods to cook with, and during the holiday season they are “on sale!” along with the gaggle of other items for holiday shoppers. Holiday main courses slow-cooked or simmered in cranberries make a wonderful meal. The acid in the cranberries tenderizes your meat, and marries the meat’s natural juices to form a delicious gravy.

For festive appetizers, canned Cranberries make a logical and inexpensive base for cream cheese roll-ups, holiday meatballs, and Brie pizza. For dessert, adding whole berry canned cranberry sauce to your traditional apple pie doubles the flavor and brings in the holiday color. Not to mention, there are less apples to peel, core and slice. And my favorite Thanksgiving stuffing is made with cornbread sausage and cranberries.

Three great ways to introduce cranberries to your main course include cranberry brisket as the centerpiece to your holiday table (in my Cook Once … Eat Twice! cookbook, the leftovers become shredded beef tostadas in a pretty amazing transformation.) Also Cranberry Chicken (see recipe below) or baking fish or pork in cranberry chutney (recipe also below). Cranberry chutney makes a great holiday gift from your own kitchen, so if you make some for your dinner, consider making a big batch and handing them out to friends. Later in the week I”ll give you some recipes for using the chutney in your holiday cooking.

Cranberry Chicken Recipe

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon Coleman’s Mustard powder
• 2 tablespoons milk or cream
• 1/2 cup whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1/2 cup orange juice
• 1 teaspoon Thyme
• 4 chicken breasts

1. In pan on stove, brown chicken 3 minutes on each side. Remove from pan and reserve on plate.
2. Add remaining ingredients to pan. Bring to a boil, stirring often. Then reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for 5 – 10 minutes as mixture thickens.
3. Return chicken to pan and continue to simmer for 10 more minutes.
4. Serve over rice or mashed potatoes.

Cranberry Chutney Recipe

Ingredients

• 2 can whole berry cranberry sauce
• 1 teaspoon ginger spice
• 1 tablespoon diced garlic
• 1/2 cup cider vinegar
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon allspice
• 1/2 orange or 2 clementines, peeled and diced
• The juice of 1 lemon, or 1/4 cup bottled lemon juice

1. Add cider, garlic and spices to a large pot on stove. Bring to a boil stirring often, and reduce to medium-low heat. Simmer for 20 minutes.
2. Add cranberries, sugar, citrus and lemon juice. Simmer, stirring occasionally for 2 – 3 hours.

Once prepared, can your chutney using mason jars available at your local food warehouse or craft store or online via Amazon or other retailers. Can your chutney using the National Center for Home Food Preservation’s USDA Complete Guide to Home Canning guidelines.

The Best Way to Cook Thanksgiving Turkey; Cook Once, Eat Twice!

We’re donating to food pantries, stocking up on cranberries, and decorating our homes with cornucopias aplenty. Thanksgiving season is all about one thing: food, food, food. As traditional people, there’s not many ways we Americans can get around surrounding ourselves with food during this holiday, but what we can do is apply strategies to address the excess.

I am this week launching my new cookbook Cook Once…Eat Twice! , a book that addresses the issue of excess with creative ways to use your leftover main course.

Here is a way to use up the excess turkey from this year’s Thanksgiving that is recyclable, sensible and different. This Dinner Duo, like dozens in the book, shows you how to rework the main course from one night’s dinner into a completely different dinner experience another night. It saves time cooking, money on ingredients, and waste from leftovers. Having leftover turkey after Thanksgiving is one thing, reusing your leftover turkey as the centerpiece for a delicious Jamabalaya, now that’s cooking!

Roasted Turkey Dinner Duo

Meal 1: Roasted Turkey

Like all the options in the holiday section of the book, this meal combination is the perfect solution for holiday houseguests; they won’t believe the magic you can work with “leftovers.”

Seasoning a turkey with vegetable stock base adds a brothy flavor to the turkey’s natural juices. And the citrus fruit and onion on the inside bring a zesty light flavor. You will be delighted at the brightness and ease of this delicious dish. (Serves 8 with leftovers for Meal 2.)

Ingredients

• 1 (10 pound) turkey
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• Vegeta or other dry vegetable stock base
• Seasoning salt
• 1 large onion
• 1 lemon
• 1 orange

Preheat oven to 350°F. Rub turkey with olive oil, vegetable stock base and seasoning salt, on top of and under skin. Cut onion, lemon, and orange in half and place inside turkey’s cavity. Place turkey in large roasting pan and roast uncovered for 3 hours, or until internal temperature reaches 165 °F. Cover with tented foil for about 15 minutes before serving.

Meal 2: Jambalaya

Ingredients

• 1 pound leftover roasted turkey, cubed
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 4 ribs celery, chopped
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 3 small cans tomato paste
• 8 cups chicken broth
• 2 tablespoons Creole Seasoning OR (2 teaspoons cayenne, 2 teaspoons black pepper, 1 teaspoon white pepper, 1 teaspoon oregano, 1/2 teaspoon thyme)
• 2 cans (14 ounces each) diced tomatoes
• 2 bay leaves
• 4 cups uncooked rice

In a pan on stove, sauté diced turkey meat in salt, black pepper and red pepper until just warmed through. Set aside. In a large pot, sauté onion, garlic, bell peppers and celery in oil until just softened. Stir in tomato paste and let it brown a little.

Once vegetables are translucent, deglaze pan with 2 cups of the broth, scraping bottom of pan, and stirring until smooth. Add Creole seasoning, tomatoes, bay leaves, and salt to taste. Cook over medium heat for about 10 minutes. Add turkey and cook for another 10 minutes.

Add the rest of the stock, and stir in the rice, combining thoroughly. Cook for about 20-25 minutes, or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is cooked through. Turn the heat down to low-medium and let the sauce thicken up a bit, with the pot uncovered, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes.

Discard bay leaves before serving.

Crock Pot Cookin’

Fall. It’s a time of year that families are busy, and warm comfort food is on the menu. Crock pots are a great way to cater to both situations, providing a delicious, moist steaming dinner that can be made in minutes at convenient times of the day (i.e. before taxi-time, after-school activities and toddler melt-down hour). Recently I gave individual cooking classes to three novice cooks looking for solutions for their hungry children. In addition to a basic soup base and a few simple dishes, we focused on the crock pot. The reason for this is that I find meats in the crock pot are fool-proof. Each of these inexperienced cooks said their frustration with cooking meats is that they always turned out dry. It’s true there is a knack for knowing times and temps for cooking certain meats. But slow cooking, and crock-potting, now these cooking methods leave room for grace, and that’s just what unsure cooks need.

Following are some simple yet unique crock pot recipes that your family is sure to love, and are even more sure to leave you feeling like a success at dinnertime. Leftover chicken works great in each these recipes. If your chicken is raw (which is fine too), season it with salt and pepper, and sear it for 2 minutes on each side in a pan on the stove first.

Crock Pot Mexican Chicken

Ingredients

 

2 cups chicken

1 tablespoon taco seasoning

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 jar salsa

1 package tortillas

 

Add all ingredients to crock pot. Cook, covered, for 3 hours on low. Serve in tortillas.

 

Crock Pot Grecian Chicken

Ingredients

 

4 chicken breasts

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 can marinated artichoke hearts

1 can diced tomatoes

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

4 servings rice

 

Cook rice according to package directions. Add remaining ingredients to crock pot, and cook for minimum of 3 hours.

 

 

Crock Pot Chicken with Wine and Sundried Tomatoes  

Ingredients

 

3 chicken breasts

1/2 onion, sliced

1 can sundried tomatoes, drained and sliced

1 package mushrooms, rinsed

1 can black olives, drained

1/2 cup dry red wine

1/4 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon flour

2 tablespoons butter

3 tablespoons Worcestershire Sauce

 

Saute onions and mushrooms in butter in pan on stove. Transfer to crock pot and add remaining ingredients. Cook for minimum of 3 hours and serve with rice, potatoes or pasta.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The following link also has many great crock pot recipes and also compares the latest deals on crock pots and slow cookers: Crock-Pots.

Restaurant Recipes; Portillos Chopped Salad meets Pockets

Do you ever long for your favorite restaurant recipes? Wish you could achieve that same restaurant taste at home? Me too. My husband and I used to love a restaurant and it’s invention, called Pockets, when we lived in Chicago. The Pocket is a chopped salad, often with meat, stuffed in a mini loaf of bread and served with dressing on the side. Now living happily 42 miles out of the city, our cravings for Pockets have gone unsatisfied…until now.  I had been making my own version ofPortillos’ (another Chicago restaurant) Chopped Salad for a few months now. Why not, I decided, use it to make my own Pocket? “It’s just chopped salad in a roll”, I thought. Like many successful sandwich shops, the Pocket magic is in the bread. It’s sweet yet hearty and always served hot. This was definitely a great first stab at making my own Pocket at home, though I do need to try variations of bread. I used premade Ciabatta rolls, which were great, but lacked the sweetness of Pockets’ bread. My kids loved it. And it was healthy and easy.

 

Chopped Salad

• 1 heart Romaine lettuce, finely chopped
• 1 avocado, diced
• 1 tomato, seeded, cored, and diced into small pieces
• 1/2 cup crumbled Gorgonzola cheese
• 3 slices cooked bacon, crisp
• 1 cup small pasta noodles, such as Orzo

Cook pasta according to package directions, and rinse in cool water. Drain pasta. Mix all ingredients together, chill and serve on large rolls or homemade bread. Serve with your favorite dressing on the side.

Follow this link to my copycat recipes for P.F. Chang’s Lettuce Wraps, and Wolfgang Puck’s Thai Peanut Pasta Salad. Want some help replicating your own restaurant recipe? Tell me what restaurant favorite you would love to make at home, and I’ll see if I can help!

Butternut Squash Recipes

It’s harvest time… that time of year when Butternut Squash recipes such as soups, and pastas are popping up on restaurant menus everywhere. And at the grocery store, Butternut Squash is plentiful and inexpensive, tempting us to buy them with their extraordinary unique shape, their beautiful color and their delicious taste. But many are stumped by what to do with the squash once they get it home. Cooking with squash and achieving restaurant-quality flavor is easier than you might think. The meat softens to perfection with ease, and the flavor is great alone or with very little accompaniment. Below are two simple recipes for achieving delicious Butternut Squash flavor in your kitchen. 

It’s also extremely easy to make as a stand-alone side dish, and instructions are included for that as well. Better yet, make two night’s courses with the effort of one… serve the squash as a side dish, and use the leftover in place of the cubed squash to make soup. Now you’re cooking!

** Peel a butternut squash just like you would a carrot, until the peel and colored vein layers are off. Slice off the top and bottom, cut the squash in half, and scoop out the seeds. Cut remaining squash “meat” into cubes.  

Easy Butternut Squash Soup Recipe

Ingredients

• The meat from one half a butternut squash, cubed
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 cup heavy cream (lighter cream or milk are ok too)
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Season squash with garlic salt. Cook the squash in oil in a large pan on the stove until soft, about 20 minutes.
2. Add onions to the pan, stir and cook a few more minutes until translucent.
3. Add broth and water and simmer.
4. Puree squash with an immersion belnder, or transfer squash to a blender and puree.
5. Return to pan. Stir in cream, lemon juice and pepper. Cover, and continue to simmer 25 minutes.

Butternut Squash Pasta with Gorgonzola Cheese Recipe

Ingredients

The meat from one half a butternut squash, cubed

• 8 oz. Orzo pasta
• 2 cups chicken broth
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup Parmesan Cheese
• 1/2 cup gorgonzola cheese, crumbled (Feta, Bleu, Goat, or other soft, crumbled cheese work fine too)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Season squash with garlic salt.
2. Cook the squash in oil in a pan on the stove until soft, about 15 minutes.
3. Add onions to the pan, stir and cook a few more minutes until translucent. In a separate pan, brown orzo in butter until lightly browned.
4. Add broth and water to Orzo in 1/4 cup increments, stirring frequently, until most of the liquid is absorbed and pasta achieves desired tenderness. 
5. Add squash and onions, and Parmesan cheese to Orzo, and stir to combine. Continue to cook, stirring often, until sqaush is soft. 
6. Remove from heat, stir in Gorgonzola cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Butternut Squash as a Side Dish

To enjoy butternut squash alone as a side dish, follow the first two steps from the pasta recipe. Continue to cook squash until it falls apart, mash to blend, and season with salt and pepper.

 

 

Picky Eaters? Play on Your Kids Tastes

Many moms struggle with the task of increasing their children’s tastes, menus, etc. Some kids are picky eaters, and may have a repertoire of just five foods that they’ll eat. A great way to expand dinner options is to play on your kids’ favorite foods and flavors. It takes persistence, but it pays off. My kids love chicken pot pie. Not out of the womb, mind you . . . we had several years where no two foods could touch on a plate. But persistence paid off, and for each of my older two, at around age 6, when they got home from a school-plus-activities filled day and sat down at the table facing a steaming, buttery-crusted piece of pot pie, their response changed from “yuck” to “yum”. Wow, a small victory. It’s been a few years since that time in my life, and I’d been wanting to introduce salmon to my kids’ diet. Rather than going cold turkey and placing a piece of poached salmon in front of them, I decided to play off their love of pie crusts, and make salmon pastries. I made a simple sour cream/mustard/dill sauce, added a bit of that to each pastry, served the rest on the side, and voila! A love of salmon was born in my family.

If your child is one of the picky ones, start with their favorites as a base. If they’ll eat pizza, try making your own with many different kinds of toppings. If they’ll eat salad, you can introduce a whole bunch of different flavors on a bed of lettuce. Same with pasta, soup, risotto, omelets or in a wrap. Start slow, but be persistent. I promise you it will pay off! BTW, let me know what works for you. I love hearing your success stories!

Salmon Pastries

Ingredients

• 4 Salmon patties
• 2 pie crusts (1 package)
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 2 tablespoons dijon or spicy mustard
• 2 tablespoons mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon dill
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice

Combine sour cream, mayo, mustard, lemon juice and dill to make sauce. Cut pie crusts in half. Place a small dallop of sauce on the center of each pie crust half, and then place salmon patty in center. Fold edges into a tent and pinch together, leaving seams for venting. Place on a baking sheet. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Serve with remaining sauce on the side.

Beef Bourguignon? No problem.

As we say goodbye to Julia, I feel compelled to cover her and her movie’s most famous dish, Beef Bourguignon. Please, don’t get scared. Read on, you will want to try this. Julia’s Beef Bourguignon recipe is very similar to her Coq Au Vin, a method of tenderly slow-cooking tough meat in wine and acidic vegetables.

I searched the Internet to find recipes of how others had interpreted the complicated french cuisine. I remember years ago, a Pillsbury Bake-Off finalist created a Weeknight Beef Bourguignon recipe that got rave reviews. It looked great, and easy, but the flavors seemed a bit too simple. You guys need to know you can still achieve GREAT flavor without a huge mess or effort… so I searched on. I’d heard good things about Ina Garten’s recipe. This one is very similar to my Coq Au Vin interpretation. I needed something that was a much-easier alternative for you guys. So I needed to look further. When I found a recipe that combined stew meat with sundried tomatoes, I knew I’d hit the jackpot. Don’t those flavors sound like a perfect complement? Trust me, they are. And this recipe is super easy to make. This recipe slow cooks the beef in the tomatoes and red wine, and the result is divine. Serve it over rice, with noodles or potatoes, and your family will ask “When are we having this again?” Yum.

Ingredients

• 2  teaspoons  olive oil
• 2  pounds  beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
• 1  medium onion, vertically sliced
• 2  garlic cloves, minced
• 1 package button mushrooms
• 1  tablespoon flour
• 1 cup water
• 1  cup dry red wine
• 1  cup chicken broth
• 1  cup sun-dried tomato halves, packed without oil, cut into strips (about 2 1/2 ounces)
• 1  tablespoon brown sugar
• 2  tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 1/2  teaspoons rosemary
• 3/4  teaspoon salt
• 1/4  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Heat olive oil in a large pan on stove over medium-high heat. Add beef, seasoned with salt and pepper, and cook 4 minutes, browning on all sides. Add onion and mushrooms; cook a few minutes more until onion is softened, stirring occasionally. Add minced garlic; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Stir in flour; cook 2 minutes, stirring often.

Add water and next 7 ingredients to pot on stove, or transfer all to crock pot. Cook over high heat for 3 hours, or low heat for up to eight hours in crock pot, less time on stove.

Stay tuned for the Cook Once, Eat Twice version… I will find a way to “re”use this delicious dish. It’s so good it should be made by the pounds, and eaten in as many creative ways possible.

——

Side-by-side pictures of the dish 1) just as it is put in the crock pot, and 2) after simmering for 3 hours shows a great example of how time brings flavors together. See how in photo 1, there is a broth-like consistency, but in photo 2) you have gravy.

The Gastronomist vs. The Multitasker

AS BOOKmama and I continue to explore Julia Child, BOOKmama this week discussed the essence of Julia. She summed her up in one word: Gastronomist. I too am a gastronomist, lover of food, connoisseur of good taste, and I too would go to great lengths, at times, to achieve the best flavor combination. When I think about my friends, my children’s friends’ Moms, and the hundreds of real women to whom I have had the privilege to teach cooking concepts, the word gastronomist does not, one bit, apply. The word I would use to describe the people in this group is Multitasker. Yes, everyone in this group would love to make a great meal… they just would also like to have a clean house, squeeze in a workout, run some errands, drive their children safely to activities, make sure homework is done, volunteer or work, and have energy left at the end of the day to have quality time with their spouse and or family. 

My friend Beth told me a group of her Multitasker friends covered “Julie & Julia” in their recent bookclub. She said it was the saddest, most gloomy discussion they had about a book. I was surprised. She was too. She said the discussion quickly led to feelings of inadequacy and pressure felt by women to “measure up” in the kitchen to Julia Child. This made me sad for them. There IS middle ground. Julia is amazing, but her way is unrealistic in today’s world. She didn’t have kids, and even if she did, in her era kids walked where they needed to go most of the time, or played in the yard and street.

So, I decided that rather than interpret one recipe for you, today I will interpret some of her methods for the common-sense, multitasking women. As I’ve said before, sometimes you just need “permission” to substitute or cook a certain way. Here you have it. A woman in one of my cooking classes told me she made Julia Child’s meatloaf after seeing the movie, and it was the most difficult meatloaf she ever made and that the taste was not worth the extra effort. Meatloaf?!?! This should be one of the simplest dishes you ever make. Here I give you Julia’s recipe. Next to the ingredients and steps I give you the common sense interpretations:

Julia Child’s Meatloaf Recipe meets FOODIEmama’s Common Sense

• 2 cups minced onion
• 2 tablespoons butter or oil
• 1 cup pressed-down homemade bread crumbs (no, they do not have to be homemade)
• 2 pounds ground beef chuck plus 1 pound ground raw turkey (use any combination of ground meats you have on hand)
• 1 cup cooked rice (optional)
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup beef broth (substitutions here can include condensed cream of mushroom soup, any flavor broth, canned diced tomatoes, and yes…ketchup) 
• 2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese (substitute any shredded cheese)
• 2 cloves pureed garlic (minced, diced, jarred all are dine)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 2 teaspoons thyme *
• 2 teaspoons paprkia *
• 1 teaspoon allspice *
• 1 teaspoon oregano *
• 3 bay leaves (skip the bay leaves…unless you happen to have some fresh ones laying around your kitchen)

* You can omit some of these spices if you don’t have them… it’s meatloaf… it can be made thousands of different ways… there’s no “right” spice combination)

Heat oven to 350. Saute the onions in the butter or oil 5 minutes or so, until tender and translucent; raise heat and saute a few minutes longer, until lightly browned. (Fresh diced onions work just fine here. Then you can also omit the butter.) Scrape into a large mixing bowl. Combine all ingredients except the bay leaves in the bowl and mix together thoroughly, using first a wooden spoon and then your hands. Shape the mass into a free-form loaf on a buttered cookie sheet or into a buttered 8-cup loaf pan. Arrange the bay leaves on top. Bake in the lower middle of the oven for about 1 1/2 hours at 350 degrees. The meat loaf is done when the juices run almost clear with a pale pink tinge. A meat thermometer should read 155 degrees. Let cool for 30 minutes and pour off the fat and juices before serving.

Bon Appetit! Amen