Note: As I have previously mentioned, Blogger has been acting up for me recently. It is not uploading pictures (as opposed to just flat-out refusing!), but some of them are coming out sideways. I have decided to just keep blogging and ask you to turn your heads ninety degrees when the occasion calls for it to properly view the picture!



Anniversary Dinner: Meat Loaf Wellington

This week Mike and I celebrated our third anniversary, and I wanted to make a special dinner to celebrate. Meat Loaf Wellington is one of Mike's favorites - it does have a lot of steps, but if you follow them closely it's not particularly hard, but the result tastes and looks like it's very complicated!!

I decided to try using ground buffalo, which my local Publix recently started carrying. I was using a little less than the recipe calls for, but I mistakenly used the original amount of cheese, so you will later see that it came oozing out a little! Otherwise I was very happy with the buffalo.
With the meatloaf ingredients mixed in. Ground buffalo does have a bit of a different feel to it - it's less "granular" feeling, more....moist, maybe? I think the finished result is also a little more moist than beef.

You put down a piece of aluminum foil (that Reynolds Release nonstick foil stuff works especially well if you have any) and form the meat into a rectangle, then sprinkle the cheese to within one inch of the edges.

This is the tricky part - using the foil, you have to roll up the meat like a jelly roll. If you go slowly it'll be fine, it's very forgiving. I usually have to fix some bare spots after I'm done!

You put the loaf in the oven to cook almost all the way, then pull it out to drape crescent roll dough over it.

This new prodcut from Pillsbury is perfect for a recipe like this - it's crescent roll dough without any seams! I draped it over the meatloaf and tucked over the edges, but next time I will probably trim it to fit with my kitchen scissors.

Twenty minutes later, THIS beauty comes out of the oven! Fair warning: this smells absolutely wonderful while baking, so keep a cattle prod around to drive away any husbands or animals you may have in the house.
I paired the meat loaf with roasted garlic green beans.
The finished product!* This is an excellent treat - the buttery crescent rolls, paired with the cheese and meat.....yum!! A great anniversary meal!!

*Note that the original recipe calls for topping the meat loaf with cheese and parsely, but I don't do this.

Meat Loaf Wellington

My grandfather, an Iowa farmboy, had a favorite meal - fried chicken and mashed potatoes. When my grandmother made her legendary fried chicken and mashed potatoes, grandpa knew he was doing okay by her. The same goes with Mike and my Meat Loaf Wellington. It's a Taste of Home recipe, and for the amount of euphoria it produces in my husband, the level of work involved is actually very low. It's just regular ol' meatloaf, which you spread out on aluminum foil and put mozzarella cheese in the middle. Then you roll it up and stick it in the oven. Easy-peezy.

Then, you take it out of the oven (I use a meat thermometer and take it out when it reaches rare) and drape crescent roll dough over the top. The recipe calls for using the whole roll of dough, but I find I only need half. I probably could use the whole thing and completely cover it, but I prefer to use the leftover rolls for breakfast the next day :)

That, my friends, is my recipe for a happy husband!

Meat Loaf Wellington

Tonight I decided to make Meat Loaf Wellington for dinner. I tried the recipe back in December when I found it in a Taste of Home magazine; it uses crescent roll dough for the outside and has lean ground beef and mozzarella cheese inside. This time I made half of the recipe, and used the other half of the crescent roll dough to roll up some crescent dogs for lunch tomorrow. On the side we had a steamed vegetable mix from the freezer and a fruit salad (granny smith apples, bananas, kiwi, and blueberries from the freezer).

The verdict
I was pleased with this recipe last time, and this time it didn't disappoint me. As far as Mike is concerned, anything with meat, cheese, and bread is perfect. The fruit for the salad came from the Fresh Market (except the freezer blueberries), and I'm always amazed at how good the fruit is from there. I also love how they sell spring mix salad and spinach in bulk, so I can buy a little of each and have a variety in our salads, but not have any go to waste. This meal was also great because I was able to use up things from the freezer for our move: blueberries, vegetables, and Cool Whip. Anyhoo, I give this meal 5 out of 5 stars for taste and 3 stars for health.