Meatloaf Just To Warm You Up

            On rainy, kind of crappy days I find that I am drawn to making food that warms you up from the inside out. The kind of food that is simple and strait forward but delicious and satisfying all at once. Nourishing to both the body and the soul is what we are aiming for. There are few things that hit that sweet spot for me and one of them is meatloaf. It is something that I ate as a kid that I was just mad for. It also helped my cause that it was always made by either my Grand or my Mom, two pretty bad ass cooks. So this is a bit of a riff on their meatloaf. It makes me happy just talking about it. It also will fill your kitchen with one of the best smells ever, so that is a plus. My family would serve it with mashed potatoes and green beans. That being said, in my opinion, it is best served as a sandwich. I know you are all shocked to hear me say this. Be warned however, meatloaf sandwiches can lead to the best kind of food coma. My kid sister Tiff can testify to this fact. So here is some comfort food for you all to try. You will not be disappointed.

Meatloaf to the tune of Something to Talk About by Badly Drawn Boy

1lb lean ground beef

½ lb lean ground pork

1 onion finely diced

1 egg

¼ cup bread crumbs

1 cup grated cheese

6 strips of double smoked bacon

A good splash of Worcestershire sauce

A good splash of hot sauce

Salt and pepper

A good drizzle of catsup (optional)

-Pre-heat your oven to 375 degrees. Line a loaf pan with the strips of bacon.

-Mix the beef, pork, onion, egg, crumbs, ½ the cheese, sauces and salt and pepper all together in a big mixing bowl. And divide it in half.

-Press half of the mixture into the loaf pan. Spread the remaining cheese over that. Press in the other half of the meat sealing in the cheese. Drizzle with the catsup if you like. Bake for 45-55 minutes.

-Let rest for at least 10 minutes then slice and serve. Magic, Baby.

Bar Food For My Fight Fan Brethren

            There are few things that I enjoy more than getting together with a bunch of buddies and watching the fights. A bunch of grown men beating the crap out of one another and drinking some beer seems like the perfect excuse to put together some kick ass bar food. Yep we are dealing with fried stuff that every once and a while you need to indulge in. Here are a couple of favorites that always seem to please the dudes when they hit the coffee table. They are also really easy to put together and all your buddies will be begging for you to do it again for the next big card of fights. So here are two faves, Chicken wings and perhaps the biggest order of nachos you are likely to see until you decide to try and one up me. So in the immortal words of Bruce Buffer... “It’s Time.”

A Mountain of Nachos to the tune of Black Out Tonight by The Dropkick Murphies

1 bag of tortilla chips

1 onion diced

2 bell peppers diced

Chopped tomatoes

1 small can of sliced black olives

3 jalapenos sliced

1 lb of flank steak diced

4 thick cut slices of bacon diced

2 tbsp chilli powder

1 tbsp ground cumin

A ton of grated cheese

¼ cup vinegar

Salt

½ a can of beer

-Here is the only real work that you will need to do and you do the day before so you are pretty much set the day of. Toss your jalapenos in a small sealable container with a good pinch of salt and the vinegar. Shake it around until the salt dissolves and toss it into the fridge over night. This pickles the chilli peppers and takes some of the up-front heat out of them.

-Heat up a pan over medium high heat then add a little oil and then your meats sear the meat off. Add your spices and fry until your kitchen smells like Mexican food. Add your beer and let it reduce until your meat has a good coating of saucy goodness let cool and stick it in the fridge until you are ready to assemble like the avengers.

-All you have left to do is put it all together and bake them at 350 degrees until all that cheese is melty and good. I will take it on faith that you all have had nachos and can figure out how to put it together. Rock and Roll, you know have killer nachos. Enjoy.

Sweet Chilli wings to the tune of Hell’s Bells by ACDC

Sauce:

¼ cup honey

¼ cup catsup

A good squeeze of Saracha, more if you like hotter foods

1 tbsp sugar

¼ cup vinegar

4 cloves of minced garlic

-In a small sauce pan, over medium high heat, fry your garlic and then add all of the other ingredients. Stir and let it reduce until it thickens up. This is the toughest part of the entire recipe. Remove from the heat and let cool and refrigerate it if you are making it a head of time.

The wings:

2 lbs of chicken wings

1 cup of flour

1 tbsp of salt

Pepper

1 cup of oil, I use vegetable oil but whatever you like.

-Mix all of the salt pepper and flour together in a large mixing bowl. Dredge your wings in the mixture until they are fully coated in the flour.

-Add you oil to a large frying pan, over medium high heat, add your wings and fry them until the skin gets golden, crispy and awesome looking. Pull them out of the oil and fire them onto some paper towel to drain off some of the excess oil.

-Dump your sauce into a large mixing bowl and then add your wings. Toss to coat the wings with the sauce and put them on a plate. Done baby.

-If you are not a fan of the spicy Sweet chili thing you can always substitute BBQ sauce for the chili one. There is a killer one of my own devising in the cooking for Yukon Blonde post.

With BBQ Sauce

Whether it is for the fights, a Hockey game or a Sex and the City marathon this bar food should bring a smile to your face. At least I hope it does. Cheers.

Explaining the lack of Posts with a Sandwich

            So some of you may be wondering what Johnny has been up to seeing as there was a big gap in posts there for a awhile. Well here it is. I have taken on the cool and seemingly trial filled endeavour of baking bread. With the help of some books loaned to me by my friend Antonio I have been baking up a storm to try and produce good bread at home. I am getting the hang of it and all of my little guinea pigs are loving the trials of Johnny’s bread. The other thing that is taking up some of my time is that I have started to do some home curing. Yep the Condor is now making homemade bacon and pancetta. I know that you are all a little frightened and might even be drooling a little. So I have fresh baked bread and home cured and smoked bacon so what do I do with it..... BLT sandwiches. Here is how Johnny knocks out a classic sandwich.

BLT sandwiches to the tune of Into the Fire by Thirteen Senses.

4 slices of good bread

6 slices of good double smoked bacon

1 tomato sliced

2 leafs of lettuce. I used a red leaf lettuce.

Mayo

Dijon mustard

-Fry off your bacon so that it is crisp but not charred remove from the heat. Remove the bacon from the pan but save the rendered fat in the pan.

-Spread Mayo on two slices of bread and the mustard on the other two. The tomatoes go on the mayo side, the lettuce goes on the mustard side. The bacon goes in the middle.

-Now here in the trick. Heat up that pan you thought you were done with and then fry your sandwiches just like you were making a grilled cheese. This will crisp the bread up and add a little extra flavour that really makes the sandwich. You are done. Enjoy.

Kick The Flu's Ass with This One

            So everyone is getting sick. The time of year, stress, whatever you want to blame really but the fact remains sickness has swept in. So your boy Johnny has got a little medicine for you. You know we are talking chicken soup people. Now here is the thing I am apparently unable to make any soup in small batches so if you take this on you are going to get a lot of soup. This is not a bad thing just a small warning so you can share. Nothing makes me feel better than a hot bowl of soup when I am feeling crappy and this one is a winner for sure. By the way it freezes really well so you can do that too.

            There is something a little bit cathartic about making this soup. The simple act of putting it together makes me feel better about the world. I am not sure why but it does and that is enough. It has everything in it to make you get over the sick. It also allows you to use some of the stuff most people would normally throw away, like a chicken carcass. “Waste not want not” my beauties. So Johnny is going to hopefully make you feel better with his Chicken noodle soup.

Chicken Noodle Soup to the tune of Upside Down by Jack Johnson

1 chicken carcass

4 large carrots, 2 cut into big chunks, 2 cut into small bites

4 stalks of celery, 2 cut into big chunks, 2 cut into small bites

2 onions, 1 quartered, 1 finely diced

2 jalapenos, chopped

3 cloves of garlic minced

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cups of dried pasta, I used rotini

Salt and pepper

1 tbsp of oregano

-So this recipe happens sort of in two parts. So part 1. In a stock pot over medium high heat toss your carcass, big chunks of carrot, celery, and onion in. Cover ingredients with water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and allow it to stop rolling. Using tongs and a fork remove any of the chicken meat that is still clinging to the bones. Discard the bones as they have done their work.

-Let the brew simmer until the veggies are soft, around 30 minutes or so. Pull the big chunks of veg out and discard as they have now done their work. Skim off any fat that is floating on the top.

-While that is simmering sweat your chopped onions, garlic and peppers over medium heat until the onions are clear.

-Part 2, add in the rest of your ingredients except the pasta and simmer over low heat for about 40 minutes. Skim if you need to. Add in your pasta and simmer until the pasta is el dente. And thus you are done Chicken Soup to make you feel better. Don’t let the flu get you down my lovelies.