Meatloaf

Tonight for dinner I made meatloaf.  If you are a regular reader of my blog, you might remember when I made meatloaf before, and the "tricks" that I use to make it.

For the veggies in the meatloaf, I used 2 peppers from the garden and 2 small onions.

Chopped it up and sauteed it.  Most people don't do this when making meatloaf.  It is an important step in taking your meatloaf from ordinary to extraordinary.  I just realized I didn't take a picture of the veggies sauteing.  Oh, well.
I mixed the sauteed veg in with some pizza sauce, salt, pepper, and oatmeal.

Then I mixed in the meat, with my hands, yes.  You can't mix meatloaf well without using your hands.  It's messy, but it works so good.

Then I formed the meat in a pan.  Notice how I didn't cram the meat down into the pan.  I formed it in a long mound.  This is another step to taking your meatloaf from ordinary to extraordinary.  I could have even used a bigger pan so it would have been totally free standing.  Oh, well.
The cooked meatloaf.

Notice that junky stuff and grease that formed around the sides.  A lot of that would have been cooked in the meat if I had crammed it down into the pan.

I heated up some potatoes and green beans to go along with the meatloaf.

Yum, yum, yum!

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Baked French Toast Casserole

I always seem to post about dinner stuff that I make, but a couple days ago I made something for breakfast that was worth blogging about.  Baked French Toast.  Love this stuff.

I made it the night before so it would have time to sit before baking in the morning.  I chopped bread.

Mixed together eggs, milk, sugar, vanilla extract, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt.

Poured it over the bread and then put in in the fridge to sit overnight.

Next I made the praline topping.  Mixed together butter, sugar, chopped pecans, corn syrup, cinnamon, and nutmeg.

Mom put the topping on in the morning and baked it.  By the time I woke up and got downstairs to eat some before going to work, most of it was gone.  It's that good.

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Chicken Stir-Fry

Tonight for dinner I made stir-fry.  Used two big chicken breasts.

Cut them in strips and marinated them in soy sauce while I was getting the veggies cut.

The veggies I used was red and green bell pepper, some sort of green chili, broccoli, carrot, cabbage, onion, and garlic.

The veg sliced.

I made a sauce from chicken broth, soy sauce, sugar, and cornstarch.

Then it was time to stir-fry.  We don't have a wok so I just used a big pot.  First I heated veggie oil and sauteed the garlic and onion.

Then added the chicken and cooked it until done, or almost done.

Added the carrots and cooked them a few minutes, because they were the hardest veg.

Then added the broccoli and cooked it a few more minutes.

Added the peppers and cabbage last, and let it cook for a few more minutes.

When the veg was almost cooked through, tender-crisp I guess you would say, I poured in the sauce and let it cook until thickened.

I also made rice to eat with it.

Yum.  I love stir-fry.

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Burgers and Fries

Tonight for dinner I made burgers and oven fries.  More home grilling.  Yay!

I used small potatoes for the oven fries.

Cut them all up and let them soak in water for a while.

Then I formed the burgers.  Made them real flat, like you are supposed to.  They look better and are just all around better when cooked.  Not so puffed up.

For the fry seasoning I used Herbamare (a sort of seasoning salt), paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and oil.

Lots of fries.  We love oven fries.

Then I grilled the burgers.  It didn't take very long, because they were flattened out good, like they are supposed to be.

I toasted the buns a little bit in the oven.  Nobody likes a soggy burger bun.  Wait, that is kinda what Five Guys is famous for.  Oh well.  This is not Five Guys.  This is Chef Andrew's burgers.

Tryphena made sweet tea and corn fritters.

Num num!  Wish we would have had lettuce.  It was good without, though.  Tomatoes from the garden made them much yum.

For my second burger, I put a corn fritter under the burger.  Hahaha!  Don't make fun.  It was good.

I think I made too many fries.  We only ate about half of them.  Oh well.  More for later.

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Black Beans and Rice Pilaf with Salmon

We've had some canned salmon sitting in the cupboard for a while.

I decided to do something with it tonight.  So I though about it.  What to do with canned salmon?  Canned salmon isn't really all that good.  Hmm, rice and beans are good.  Black beans and rice pilaf with canned salmon on top.  Sounds good.


So I made the pilaf with rice, black beans, onion, a bit of elephant garlic, mushrooms, yellow squash, and bell pepper.  First I sauteed the onion and garlic in oil until translucent.

Then I added the mushrooms, squash, and bell pepper.

Sauteed that until the veg was soft then added the black beans and the three cups of rice.

Sauteed that for a bit to coat the grains of rice with oil, then added six cups of chicken stock, salt, and pepper.

Brought it to a boil, covered it and let it simmer for 20 minutes.

The finished pilaf.

The finished product.

It was good.  Would have been better with fresh salmon of course.  Still, it was quite good for just basically coming up with this on the fly.


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Restaurant review - Chuckwagon Restaurant, Nokesville, VA

This place has been around for a while now.  Maybe a year.  I never ate there before tonight.  I've heard some stories about it.  Some good, some not so good.  First of all, for me, the name just weirds me out.  Chuckwagon?  Really?  I know you are located in Nokesville; I know you opened in what used to be the Nokesville CoOp; I know you are trying for a whole down home, homestyle, no frills, country restaurant; but Chuckwagon is just weird.  Anyway, so I went tonight not expecting much.

We were greeted as soon as we got in (good sign) and seated immediately.  There was a few other customers there.  Our server (very friendly guy) came right away and got our drink orders.  Asked if we wanted any apps.  We got the cheese fries, at his recommendation.  Drinks came out soon after, followed by the cheese fries.  Good cheese fries, I must say.  Loaded with cheddar and crumbled bacon.  (Good so far)

They do daily specials here.  Tonight was Italian Night.  My mom and I both got the special, All You Can Eat Pasta and Marinara.  We both got it with meatballs.  Janina got the other special, Chili Mac Pasta.  Dad got the Chuckwagon Burger.  Austin got the the shrimp basket.

If you go to their website, www.mychuckwagon.com, the menu there doesn't look all that.  They have since updated their menu, and I must say, for the best.  All the prices are cheap.  Most expensive thing is a NY Strip Steak for around $15.00.  Even that is a great price.  That is actually what I was thinking about getting before deciding on the pasta special.

The food came out in great time.  I was pleasantly surprised.  Big bowl of pasta and meatballs with 2 slices of garlic bread.  It was much good.  I tasted Janina's Chili Pasta.  Mhmm!  Dad loved his burger.  Only thing was, Austin's shrimp basket seemed a little skimpy next to our big pile of food.  I think it was all priced the same at $8.95.  Anyway, Mom shared some of her pasta with him, so all was good.

I would go back.  It seemed to me that they have worked out their kinks.

I guess the whole Chuckwagon thing works for them.  The decorating inside is rather cheesy.  Your stereotypical country (am I allowed to say "redneck?") decorations.  It all works I guess.

Final thought: if you are looking for a good, cheaper, no frills dining experience, then by all means go to the Chuckwagon.

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