Tuesday, December 14, 2010

Freezer Progress Report (and Meatloaf)

Up until fairly recently our freezer has been stuffed beyond capacity. However, a month-long battle has slowly whittled down our inventory so that we can actually fit new items back into it.



Much to my annoyance I returned home yesterday to find that Jen had gone shopping and purchased things that needed to be frozen! While this was a bit of a step backward I guess it's nice to have things we actually need in the freezer rather than just packing it full of holiday leftovers that I need to struggle to come up with uses for.



Last night Jen roasted a sweet potato which I cut into coins and served on a bed of ribbon-cut kale with pistachios, salt, pepper, olive oil, and freshly grated nutmeg. The nutmeg was a last minute addition but it worked pretty well. Nutmeg, it's not just for eggnog any more.



Jen also threw the thawed leftover meatloaf from last month into the oven. I made some buttered egg noodles with chopped parsley and a sauce for the meatloaf out of spicy ketchup, Worchestershire sauce, Lyle's Golden Syrup, and ground cumin.

I made meatloaf sandwiches with the leftovers last month so I wanted to try something different. Looking for ideas I typed in "leftover meatloaf" into Google and checked out the results. It was pretty disappointing. The Internet has become so inundated with crummy "how to" sites that it's almost unusable. One site included the idea to toss it into a casserole dish with 'tater tots and Velveeta slices. Not even regular Velveeta, but the sliced Velveeta.

My favorite innovative idea for leftover meatloaf was the idea that you could freeze it and make it for dinner later. Thanks, assholes.



After about two minutes I gave up on the Internet and just tossed it together with some tomato sauce and pasta to make meatloaf parmesan.



As an accompaniment I made this salad of beets and kale with balsamic glaze, olive oil, salt, and pepper.



For beer I had the Winter Abbey Ale from Blue Moon. At this rate I may be into the Summer beers by January. I think I might need to slow down with the seasonal brews.

Perhaps I'll take to drinking mead until the the seasons catch up with me.

No comments: