The Best Meatloaf I've Ever Made

I made this for dinner tonight. I doubled the recipe because I had two sets of missionaries and another couple come over. We only had a little left for leftovers tomorrow. Everyone loved it and I really liked it too. This is probably the recipe for meatloaf that I' going to stick with for now on.

INGREDIENTS

• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1/4 cup minced onion
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
• 2 pounds extra-lean ground beef
• 3 slices bread, toasted and crumbled
• 7 buttery round crackers, crushed
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 3 1/2 tablespoons sour cream
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 1 (15 ounce) can tomato sauce, divided
• 1/4 cup milk
• 3 tablespoons ketchup

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
2. Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the onion and garlic 5 minutes, until onion is tender. Remove from heat, and season with salt and pepper.
3. In a large bowl, mix the onion and garlic, beef, crumbled bread, crushed crackers, egg, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 can tomato sauce. Gradually stir in the milk 1 teaspoon at a time until mixture is moist, but not soggy. Transfer the mixture to a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
4. Bake uncovered in the preheated oven 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C), and continue baking 15 minutes, to an internal temperature of 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
5. In a small bowl, mix the remaining tomato sauce and ketchup. Pour over the top of the meatloaf, and continue baking 10 minutes.

New Cards

So I joined a card making group. There are 8 people in the group. What this group does is we make 8 cards and then meet together and just talk and swap cards. Here are the ones I made today in a mad rush because it's tomorrow and I hadn't even started until 1:00 today.


Mckenzie helped by painting.

Pumpkin Crunch

This is kinda like a pumpkin cobbler. After serving this no one will be unhappy, unless they are allergic to pumpkin or something.

1 C pumpkin puree (not the pumpkin pie filling w/ spices)
1 Yellow Cake Mix
1 Can evaporated milk
3 eggs
1/2 C sugar
4 t pumpkin pie spice
1/2 t salt
1 C chopped pecans
1 C melted butter

Mix pumpkin, milk, eggs, sugar, pumpkin pie spice, and salt together. Pour in a greased 9 x 13 pan. Sprinkle all the yellow cake mix over the mixture, melt the butter and sprinkle over the mix. Then, spread pecans over that. Preheat the oven to 350 and bake for 50-60 min. It's makes the house smell soooooo good! Serve either hot or room temp. Great w/ vanilla ice cream or just whipped cream.

Also, I've only had this w/o the pecans. I'm sure it's good with them too.

Café Rio Sweet Pulled Pork

2 1/2 pounds pork
1/3 cup water
1/8 tsp garlic salt
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/2 cup green chili sauce
1/2 cup brown sugar

Put pork, 1/3 cup water, garlic salt, salt, and pepper, in the crock pot.

Cover and cook on high for 4 hours.

Drain, shred pork, stir in 1/2 cup green chili sauce and 1/2 cup brown sugar.

Café Rio Rice

3 c water
4 t chicken bouillon
4 t garlic –minced
½ bunch cilantro
1 can green chiles—or equivalent fresh
¾ t salt
1 T butter
½ onion
3 c rice (see note)

Blend cilantro, green chiles and onion together in food processor. Bring water to a boil and add all ingredients, simmer covered 30 minutes.

Cafe Rio Chicken

1 small bottle Kraft Zesty Italian Dressing
1 T chili powder
1 T cumin
3 cloves garlic—minced
5 lbs chicken breast

Cook all together in a crock pot for 4 hours, shred meat and cook 1 additional hour.

Cafe Rio Dressing

Café Rio Dressing
1 buttermilk ranch dressing packet (make as per recipe)
2 tomatillos (tomato like vegetable with a husk around them)
½ bunch of cilantro
1 clove garlic
Juice of 1 lime
1 jalapeño (Use the seeds too if you like it spicy. You could substitute a few drops of green tobasco for the jalapeno.)

Use a food processor to blend all the ingredients well. Refrigerate.