Husband Fred and Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible's Basic Meat Loaf

Husband Fred and I have been married for 33 years.  Wow!!  He has had to put up with a lot from me over the years.  The main thing he has had to deal with is "The Plan", as he says, to kill him.  I wanted to update you on "The Plan."  PS If you don't know exactly what "The Plan" is, please go back and read that blog post.  It will become crystal clear what is going on.

First, there have been two new attempts on Husband Fred's life by me.  The first one was about two weeks ago at Body Pump when I did not fully tighten my weights on the bar.  When I picked up the bar, the weights flew off and headed toward Husband Fred's foot.  He jumped around and made a big scene and yelled out "She is trying to kill me!"  Amber - the Wonder Instructor - looked our way and just shook her head.  We probably irritate her.  We have that husband - wife competitiveness thing going on in class -- who can lift more weight, who can stand for the longest on one leg, who can do a better push-up and plank. 

The second attempt occurred two nights ago when once again I took off my shoes in the path to the bathroom.  I don't know why I do this.  I guess it is just laziness.  I was pooped from Body Pump and my first week back at school, and I did not feel like moving them three feet over out of the path.  During the middle of the night, he got up to go to the bathroom and, of course, walked right where I left my shoes.  Why didn't he just walk six inches to the right or left, and then he would have missed them and not lurched head forward into the bathroom after tangling his feet up in them.  Of course, he had to make another big scene and scream and yell and dance around.  He then proceeded to kick one of the guilty shoes across the room and yell "Why are you trying to kill me?"  I wanted to yell back "Why don/t you have a bigger bladder so you don't have to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom?"  I just pulled the covers over my head and said nothing.  That morning when we met in the kitchen for coffee, he looked at me with a very serious look on his face, and said "Angela one day you are going to kill me!  You are going to kill me!!"  When he says my name, I know he is serious. Uh-oh!!

I was relaying this information to Kim, my partner-in-crime at school.    I was hoping for some vindication and support from her.  But she looked at  me with a not so supportive glare, pulled her pants leg up, pointed to a 3-inch scar on her shin, and said "I understand exactly where Fred is coming from!"  I had forgotten that I had left the bottom drawer of a metal filing cabinet by her desk open one day.  She got up from her chair and ran right into that thing making a gash on her leg that really looked like it needed stitches.  She jumped around and made a big scene too.  Why does everyone around me have to make big scenes?   Hmmmm.........  

Now on to the recipe.  I was so so excited when The Game chose Paula's Basic Meatloaf.  Oh how I love meatloaf.  It is my go to comfort food.  I really love it the next day served on two pieces of bread and some mayo.  Yes Food Police - MAYO!!  I have tried many different recipes for meatloaf including my Mama's, but this is by far my favorite.  Sorry Mama. 

You will need ground beef (I used Lean), ketchup or catsup. oatmeal, onion, green bell pepper, an egg, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper, and brown sugar.  Sounds good so far!!

 

Combine everything but the ketchup, brown sugar and mustard.  My mouth is watering.

 

Mix your topping together.

 

Shape the meat into a loaf in a loaf pan (Please excuse the well-worn look of mine) and spread the topping over the loaf.  Bake for one hour at 375 degrees.

 

Serve with yummy garden vegetables and you will be one happy camper.

 

 

Here is the recipe..........

 

 

Basic Meat Loaf

Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible

 

1 pound ground beef

1/2 C chopped onion

1/2 C chopped green bell pepper

1 large egg, slightly beaten

1 C canned diced tomatoes, with juice

1/2 C quick cooking oats

11/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

 

Topping:

1/2 C ketchup

2 Tbs light brown sugar

1 Tbs yellow mustard

 

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  In a large bowl, combine th ebeef, onion, bell pepper, egg, tomatoes, oats, salt and black pepper.  Place the mixture in a loaf pan.

 

In a small bowl, combine the ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard.  Spread over the loaf and bake for one hour.

 

Now go have a great day..............

 

 

 

Aunt Susie, Wasps, and Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible's Zucchini Bread

I must do better with writing my posts.  I must....I must.....I must....I have always been a procrastinator.  My use of the art of procrastination started in college, and I still employ that habit.  Speaking of school, it starts Monday (oh my).  This will be my 20th year in the classroom, and I am giving myself a pat on the back.  That truly is an accomplishment that I am proud of.  But on with the story......

You have read about my Aunt Susie in previous blog posts.  She is my mother's sister and is only seven years older than me.  She is more like a sister to me, and I love her dearly.  She is a character that, honestly, I could base a novel on.  She is fun, quirky, sarcastic, loud, loving, hilarious, and the list could go on forever.  I will definitely have to do several posts on her because there is so much story here. 

Susie is deathly allergic to wasps.  She has a true phobia of wasps.  I actually did some research to see if this was a real phobia and guess what??  It is!!  It is called spheksophobia.  There you go!!  You have learned something today.  Susie's symptoms of spheksophobia include becoming extremely agitated when anything that looks like a wasp (even a sweet butterfly), buzzes like a wasp (a little fly), or acts like a wasp gets into her field of vision.  She will attempt to flee, and I believe this makes her an even bigger target for angry wasps, who are far more likely to sting those who make a commotion. And, oh believe me, she makes a commotion.  She goes stark-raving MAD!!  Every where you look at her house there are bottles of wasp spray.  She will hardly go outside in the summer because she is so afraid of the Wasp Nation's conspiracy to sting her.  I ask her why  she doesn't just carry an EpiPen so if she does get stung, she can inject herself (We are both RN's).  She said she was afraid of her heart exploding from the adrenalin.  Hmmmm...  Let me see if this is a true phobia.  No there is no such thing as a phobia of  an Epipen or your heart exploding.

Let me give you some examples of Susie's spheksophobia please.  I recently had the pleasure of going to the Birmingham Zoo with Susie, her daughter  (my first cousin) Roxanne, and Roxanne's three precious children - Daniel, David, and Ashley.  The day was going well until it was time to ride the train.  We all jumped into our seats waiting for the relaxing ride to begin, and the next thing I see is Susie throwing her head down into her hands.  This was not a normal throw-down.  It was such a dramatic and intense throw-down that I honestly thought she was experiencing a brain aneurysm (Remember I am an RN)!!  I frantically asked her "Are you OK?"  She shouted with head still in her hands, "No I am not OK!!  There is a wasp right there, and if I look at it, it will fly over here and sting me in the eye!" I kid you not!!  I shouted back "It will not sting you in the eye if you look at it!  You are crazy!"  She screamed back something unintelligible, the kids are looking like they are ready to run, and the train lurches to a start.  Thank goodness.  Somewhere mid-way through the ride, she finally took her head out of her hands.  We headed home after that.  Party over!

The second example of spheksophobia is the story of Susie driving down the road with her windows open probably singing at the top of her lungs and loving life.  At some point in the drive, a wasp flies into the car.  I kid you not people!!  She literally throws the car door open, rolls out like a stunt woman, to escape the dreaded wasp.  Thank goodness she was not hurt nor was the car or anyone else.  I have no clue what happened to the wasp.

Finally, I had not heard this story before until we were recently discussing Susie's spheksophobia.  I will just tell it plain and simple.  These are her words.  "I was out in a pasture that was up on a hilltop.  I was petting this Shetland pony, and a wasp flew up.  Let me tell you this!!  I beat that Shetland pony back down the hill!"  I got a mental picture of that.  I will leave you with that image.  There is no one like her in the world.

Now on to the recipe.   I am still cooking out of the great Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible!!  The Eeny Game chose Zucchini Bread.  Honestly, that sounded horrid to me, but I promised I would not cheat plus if it is a Paula Deen recipe it has to be good.  I have never had a bad Paula Deen recipe.  Period.

You will need zucchini, eggs, nuts ( I added these), cinnamon, vanilla, flour, and oil.  The applesauce you see is replacing part of the vegetable oil.  This is a trick Food Police taught me to cut some of the fat out of baked food.  The formula is that you substitute half of the oil with applesauce.  I left the sugar out of the picture.  It is a major player!!  Whoops!! 

You get to grate the zucchini!!  Watch your knuckles!!  I used two zucchini to get a cup of grated.

Mix the zucchini, sugar, applesauce, eggs, and vanilla together.

Add the dry ingredients, mix, and put all the yumminess into a greased loaf pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for about an hour and 5 minutes, and you get this loveliness!! 

I honestly did not think I would like zucchini bread but this was good.  I never missed part of the oil.  The bread was very moist, and I definitely will prepare this again.  Here is the recipe.....

Zucchini Bread

Paula Deen's Southern Cooking Bible

1 C grated zucchini

1 C sugar

1/2 C vegetable oil ( I used 1/4 C applesauce and 1/4 C vegetable oil)

2 large eggs

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 1/2 C all-purpose flour ( I used self-rising)

1  1/2 tsp cinnamon

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp baking powder

1 C nuts (I added these)

Place a rack in the bottom third of th eoven and preheat to 350 degrees.  Grease a 9x5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, whisk together the zucchini, sugar, oil, eggs, and vanilla.  In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, cinnamon, salt, baking soda, and baking powder.  Using a rubber spatula, gently fold the flour mixture into the zucchini mixture just to combine.  Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pan and smooth the top.

Bake until a toothpick comes out clean and the top is goden brown, 1 hour and 5 minutes to 1 hour and 10 minutes.  Let cool in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Then pop the bread out of th epan and let cool completely on the rack before slicing and serving.

Now go have a great day....