A Life, Lived

Internet Truths

As evidence, allow me to present the following . . .

SIGH

Meat Loaf Stuffed with Prosciutto and Spinach

A few years ago Food and Wine magazine featured this as a part of a feature on comfort food. Lately I have been craving comfort food with cooler temperatures and craziness at work.

I don't often make meatloaf - likely a throw back to my childhood when Wednesday's was meatloaf and without fail we'd have a slice of something gray on our plate for dinner. Settle - I am NOT insulting my moms cooking (I would NEVER do that). My sister used to cook. Everyone insults HER cooking.

This meatloaf was nothing like those slices of grey matter that sowed up on my plate as a kid.

This luxurious yet easy take on classic meat loaf gets stuffed with spinach, carrots, prosciutto and cheese. The vegetables can be leftovers, says Mario Batali: "Just make sure they're cooked long enough to be very soft—if they're al dente, the meat loaf will tear when you slice it and wreck your day." Mild and tangy caciocavallo cheese, made in Italy from cow's milk, is excellent in the filling, but provolone is a fine substitute. We used the provolone.

We only made half the recipe which I regret! I should have made the whole thing and frozen one for future eatin'.

Live and learn.

Enjoy!

Meat Loaf Stuffed with Prosciutto and Spinach

2 large carrots, each cut lengthwise into 6 slices
4 cups spinach (3 ounces), thick stems discarded
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 pounds ground pork
2 1/2 cups fresh bread crumbs
2 cups freshly grated pecorino cheese (6 ounces)
6 large eggs, lightly beaten
Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
12 thin slices of prosciutto (4 ounces)
1/2 pound caciocavallo or provolone cheese, cut into twelve 1/8-inch-thick slices
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
4 sprigs of rosemary
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup water

Preheat the oven to 400°. In a saucepan of boiling salted water, cook the carrots until tender, 7 minutes. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a plate. Add the spinach to the boiling water and cook just until wilted; drain well and add to the carrots.

In a large bowl, combine the beef with the pork, 2 cups of the bread crumbs, the pecorino, eggs, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1/2 teaspoon of pepper; mix well with your hands.

Line a work surface with a 15-inch-long sheet of plastic wrap. In a bowl, mix the flour with the remaining 1/2 cup of bread crumbs. Sprinkle half of the crumb mixture all over the plastic wrap. Transfer half of the meat loaf mixture to the plastic and press it into a 12-by-10-inch rectangle, about 1/2 inch thick. Lay half of the spinach leaves over the meat, leaving a 1-inch border on the short sides. Arrange half of the carrots over the spinach, and top with half the prosciutto and sliced cheese. Starting from the long end of the plastic wrap closest to you, tightly roll up the meat loaf, tucking in the filling and using the plastic wrap to guide you; discard the plastic. Repeat with another 15-inch sheet of plastic and the remaining bread crumbs, meat mixture, spinach, carrots, prosciutto and cheese. Drizzle each meat loaf with 2 tablespoons of oil.

Put the rosemary sprigs in the bottom of a broiler pan and pour in the red wine. Cover with the broiler pan grate. Set the meat loaves about 2 inches apart on the grate. Bake in the center of the oven for 40 minutes. Turn the broiler pan around and pour the water through the grate. Continue baking for about 35 minutes longer, or until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center of each meat loaf registers 165°.

Transfer the meat loaves to a carving board and cover loosely with foil. Discard any cheese from the bottom of the pan and strain the pan juices into a small saucepan. Boil the pan juices over high heat until reduced to 1 cup, about 5 minutes. Pour into a serving bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Using a serrated knife, slice the meat loaves 1 inch thick and serve, passing the pan juices at the table.

 

Airplane Etiquette

I realized today that I have flown 30 times since Christmas - back and forth to Ottawa for work. With the other flights I have taken for fun things like vacation we're looking at close to 50 this year.

That is a ton of time in a metal tube hurtling through the air!

I started thinking about this post a few weeks ago when, on a late friday night flight home from Ottawa, I saw a guy board with a Segway. Who brings a Segway on a plane? How is that even allowed?

Anyway. Here are Jerry's Rules for Plane Travel.

Don't carry-on excessive luggage or oversize bags. If a person might fit in your bag it is too damn big. Check it.

Board quickly. Don't linger at the entryway -- it backs up traffic in the jetway. I don't care if you need a last minute to talk with someone on the phone - step aside or risk being roadkill.

Carry your bag in front of you as you walk down the aisle. Over-the-shoulder luggage can whack passengers that are already seated. It's not a good way to make friends rather, it makes you a tool.

If you need to move another's belongings while placing items in overhead bins, ask them. I once watched while someone placed my carry on onto the floor, placed their 4 bags in the bin . . . and sat down. My less friendly side quickly rose to the surface.

If you're listening to music with a Walkman, don't crank up the sound too much -- it is irritating to listen to. No one wants to listen to your crap music (for any loud music on the plane is crap).

Don't invade your neighbor's "personal space". Be considerate, the Golden Rule applies in the air. If you touch me I shall not be responsible for my actions.

You may think that your child is as cute as a button. Chances are that the person in front of said child who has had their back kicked 93 times by Johnny or Gail might not be as enamoured. Control your kid. If you can't, won't, or don't know how to do this then take the bus!

Feet often swell on long flights and many passengers remove their shoes for comfort. Feet often smell on long flights also. If you do take off your shoes, please wear slipper sox to contain the wafting aroma. Believe me, people notice. Better yet, get up and walk around to encourage blood circulation and reduce swelling feet.

Don't be a bore. There is nothing worse than being held captive be a talkative seat mate. Don't force your conversation on the person next to you.

If someone is driving you crazy with their (dull) life story -- it is permissible to tell them you're too busy, tired, sick or whatever to talk. But don't be rude. Some people are nervous fliers and talk compulsively.

Don't grab the seat in front of you when you are getting up -- it is very disruptive to the person sitting there. Use your arm rests to get up.

Don't kick the seat in front of you.

Don't clog up the aisles while the flight attendants are using the food and beverage carts. Let them do their jobs.

Be careful with food trays and hot liquids. Take care when you open the plastic salad dressing, condiment and beverage containers. They spatter easily.

The bathroom is not a make-up table or dressing room. Be quick and clean up after yourself.

Alcohol's impact is magnified at high altitudes. Don't get drunk.

This is not your office -- don't spread out your work papers everywhere. Be neat.

Don't try to read your seat mates work documents or laptop screen. It is really obnoxious.

Don't sleep on your seat mate’s shoulder, unless they want you to. This is not your bedroom -- be considerate of your fellow passengers. Your sex life may be interesting to you, but unless you're Gwenyth Paltrow or Brad Pitt, your seat mates don't want to listen to it or watch it.

Travel Tuesdays

Travel Tuesdays Lately Travel Tuesdays has afforded me an opportunity to look forward to our upcoming trip to Italy.

Three weeks from today we'll be in Bologna . . I have been in the city twice in the past couple of years but it shall be a first for Paolo.

Be sure to pop on over to Sandi's blog to see what else is happening on Travel Tuesdays!

The Top 10 Read Books in the World

Recently I saw this infogram online . . . likely as I was getting ready to curl up with a good book myself!

These are the top 10 read books around the world based upon books sold over the past 50 years:

How many have you read?

I have read 6 of them.

Concessions are NOT the Answer

I saw this yesterday on facebook as I was heading to the airport to fly to Ottawa and meet with the takeover teams there. There are many saying that unions should give concessions in order to a) help the economy; b) save the company; c) not be greedy; d) be like everyone else who has had to make do with less; or e) because we just don't like unions.

ARGH

How is it that the dialogue is never - let's ensure that corporations pay a reasonable tax rate on their earnings? Or let's ensure that CEO salaries are reasonable? Or how about let's close loopholes allowing the wealthy to continue to get rich while the rest of us suffer? My favourite is let's ensure companies provide employees with a decent wage, health care, and a pension so they don't have to rely on public services quite as much?

Anyway, here is the grisly cartoon.

SIGH

Photo Hunt - Fall

This week's Photo Hunt theme is 'fall'.

These shots were taken in the Berkshires when we were there for Canadian Thanksgiving.

RIP Twinkies and Ding Dongs

NOT

I’m sure you have, by now, heard the news. Hostess Brands, the company that gave us such remembered childhood treats as Twinkies, Ding Dongs, Devil Dogs and other baked foodstuffs that have fallen into disfavor in our more gourmand age, announced late last week that it would be closing for business, effective immediately.

With the wailing and gnashing one might have thought that a true crisis had occured. Say two nations at war, shelling one another relentlessly, with civilians caught in the mist of it all.  Nope, folks were bemoaning the loss of Twinkies, the one foodstuff said to be able to withstand a nuclear disaster (making cockroaches, the one living thing able to withstand the same nuclear disaster, very happy aparently).

It didn't take the folks at Fox News, the purveyor of right-wing venom, long to blame the 'death of the twinkie' on the unions. In this case the the Bakery, Confectionary, Tobacco Workers and Grain Millers International union, which represents thousands of striking Hostess Brand workers who refused to accept a new contract that would do everything from slash their salaries to their retirement benefits. Apparently workers should just sit back and accept a 32 % pay cut.

Time for a reality check.

Hostess has been sold at least three times since the 1980s, racking up debt and shedding profitable assets along the way with each successive merger. The company filed for bankruptcy in 2004, and again in 2011. Little thought was given to the line of products, which, frankly, began to seem a bit dated in the age of the gourmet cupcake.

As if all this were not enough, Hostess Brands’ management gave themselves several raises, all the while complaining that the workers who actually produced the products that made the firm what money it did earn were grossly overpaid relative to the company’s increasingly dismal financial position.

Hard for the workers doing the hard lifting to accept a 32 % pay cut when the CEO is granted a $ 7.3 million dollar raise!

The speed at which the union bears the brunt of the blame for this Bain-like corporate debacle is shameful but not entirely unexpected. SIGH

o wrote “Hostess strikers had pension. PENSIONS! What is this 1962?” It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems to many like a relic. Just as Wonder Bread does.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/who-killed-the-twinkie.html#ixzz2CbUlMe9H

erhaps the most striking response to the Hostess news, in that sense, was the tweet from conservative John Nolte, who wrote “Hostess strikers had pension. PENSIONS! What is this 1962?” It was once taken for granted that an industrial worker who worked for a big company for many years would get a solid middle-class lifestyle, and would be taken care of in retirement. Today, that concept seems to many like a relic. Just as Wonder Bread does.

Read more: http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/newsdesk/2012/11/who-killed-the-twinkie.html#ixzz2CbUgDX5q

9 Thing You Should NEVER to With Your Thanksgiving Turkey

MY American friends are getting ready to cook a feast today. Just in time I present this wonderful cautionary advice which I saw on twitter. Please do not do any of this with your turkey!

1. Stuff it with cupcakes.

No. No, no, no.

This comes to you from the Cupcake Project.

Source: 4.bp.blogspot.com

2. Or with Cheez-Its.

This is a great disservice to both the turkey and the Cheez-Its.

Source: 1.bp.blogspot.com

3. Or with Twinkies.

Here's how, if you're some kind of monster.

Source: helablog.com

4. Fry it the wrong way.

BAD NEWS.

Source: media.heavy.com

5. Brine it in Coolattas and stuff it with Munchkins.

Arrrr, that be the monster they call The TurDunkin'. No man has tasted her and lived to tell the tale.

Source: unwholesomefoods.files.wordpress.com

6. Turn it into a cake.

Things that look like desserts but aren't desserts deserve their own special circle of Hell.

Source: search.chow.com

7. Microwave it.

Just don't, just please, please don't.

Source: farm8.staticflickr.com

8. Give it a bikini tan.

The only possible excuse for this is to provide a girlfriend for the Sexy Chicken.

Source: wac.450f.edgecastcdn.net

9. Or lemon boobs.

There's something wrong with you if you really want to know how to do this.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

Apple and Rosemary Pork Roulade

Don't let this fancy name throw you . . . 'roulade' may sound hoity toity but it really just means a roll. In this case we're speaking of a stuffed pork tenderloin. Nothing to make you run for the hills.

Pork and apples are fall flavours - anyone who has been following this blog for awhile knows that when the days get shorter and the temperatures drop my stomach and mind starts to crave what I call 'fall flavours'. I think that the folks at Cooking Light must be of a similar mind for they featured this recipe in their October edition - just in time for me!

If you're like me and you crave 'fall foods' you won't go wrong with this one. of course,t he fact that there are only 181 calories in a serving just make it better and better!

Apple and Rosemary Pork Roulade

1 teaspoon olive oil
3/4 cup prechopped onion
3/4 cup chopped Fuji apple
2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1 tablespoon cider vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary
1 (1-pound) pork tenderloin, trimmed
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt, divided
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Cooking spray
1/3 cup no-salt-added chicken stock (such as Swanson)
3 tablespoons unfiltered apple cider
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard

Heat a large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil; swirl to coat. Add onion, apple, and garlic; sauté 5 minutes or until tender. Add vinegar and rosemary; cook 1 minute. Place apple mixture in a small bowl. Wipe pan clean.

Slice pork lengthwise, cutting to, but not through, other side. Open halves, laying pork flat. Starting from the center, slice each half lengthwise, cutting to, but not through, other side; open so pork is flat. Place plastic wrap over pork; pound to an even thickness using a meat mallet or small heavy skillet. Sprinkle evenly with 3/8 teaspoon salt and pepper. Spread apple mixture on pork. Roll up, jelly-roll fashion.

Return pan to medium-high heat. Coat pan with cooking spray. Add pork, seam side down; cook 4 minutes or until browned, carefully turning occasionally. Place pan in oven. Bake at 425° for 15 minutes or until a thermometer inserted in the center registers 145°. Remove pork from pan; let stand 5 minutes before slicing.

Return pan to medium-high heat; add stock, cider, mustard, and remaining 1/8 teaspoon salt, stirring with a whisk. Bring to a boil; cook 2 minutes. Serve over pork.