She's a fascinating woman. Her biography:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/20/books/20tudor.html
"Ms. Tudor frequently said that she was the reincarnation of a sea captain’s wife who lived from 1800 to 1840 or 1842, and that it was this earlier life she was replicating by living so ardently in the past."
I love that the end of the obituary reads, "She told The Virginian-Pilot of Norfolk in 1996 that it was her intention to go straight back to the 1830s after her death."
I began making dinner by picking and washing the parsley then prepping the potato.This is an easy way to make a baked potato for two. A single potato is usually much too big for one so this makes perfect sense. The parsley is, of course, optional.
I discovered this technique in The Gourmet Cookbook.
First, heat the oven to 375. Put a couple of dabs of butter in your baking dish and melt. Since I cook these in the toaster oven, I just press the "toast" button and the butter melts while I cut the russet potato in half. Turn the potato on its side (usually it would rather lay flat) then cut it in half, on a diagonal. You could just cut the thing in half, but the diagonal is to show off the parsley presentation. Stick a leaf of parsley (or any herb, perhaps rosemary) on the surface. Sprinkle with salt (I grind coarse sea salt set on "fine" in a grinder). Place parsley side down in the butter.
Once prepped, I wait until the meatloaf has been baking 20 minutes or so before I pop the potatoes in the oven. 375 for 45 minutes.
Make the meatloaf mix:In a large bowl, combine (approximate measurements)
a squeeze of half a lemon (and pluck out those seeds),
2 TB chopped parsley (we are lucky to have some outside),
an egg yolk, and, as illustrated here,
fresh bread crumbs. I use a fork to scrape them off. The recipe calls for 1 TB but I think more is better.
Add 1 tsp (more like 1 TB or more) of chopped onion. If I have time I sautee it until soft in 1 TB butter. If you skip the sautee step,
also add 1 TB soft butter to the mix.
Grind in some pepper. I omit salt since the evil MSG containing beef broth (used for gravy) has plenty in it. (I WILL make my own beef stock, someday soon!)
Dump in 1/4 lb of ground pork and 3/4 lb ground beef. Usually the packages we purchase at the supermarket are twice that quantity. I just freeze the other half and label it "meatloaf mix".
Many meatloaf mixes call for veal. Baby cows! No thank you.
The only thing I don't like about making this recipe is getting my hands coated in raw meat! Really, the only way to do it is use your hands and blend it all together. Step up, disposable gloves!
After the loaf is formed, pour over the (hopefully not MSG laden) beef broth. Use 3/4-1 cup.Bake at 350 for 1 hour. I neglect to baste it, which is fine. Feel free to, if you think of it. I find that the gravy is a perfect moistener anyhow.
Below, is Tasha's recipe.
Once out of the oven, I use a big spatula to transfer the meatloaf to a serving plate. The leftover juices then get poured through a sieve (to get rid of the gunk) into a small saucepan. Heat on medium low and toss in a TB or so of flour, whisk, and a drop of sherry. Bubble away until thickened nicely, about 5 minutes or so.While this is going on, the potatoes should be done and cooling and the mixed frozen veggies should be cooking in the microwave. I poured 1/2 a package of them in the rinsed out baked potato dish, added a splash of water and pat of butter. Microwaved 4 minutes. Birdseye bagged veggies are priced right when on sale: $1/bag is a nice buy! Andrew loves and devours them....
They are also easy enough to zap in a small dish for a healthy toddler eat. This mix does not contain the "dreaded" lima beans ;D
