Meat Muffins: An Introduction

There are fewer meals in the US that feel as simultaneously comforting and retro as meatloaf. Everyone I know has a go-to recipe, adapted from a grandmother, mother or mother-of-all-crafters, Martha Stewart. My great-grandmother was famous for covering her meatloaf with strips of bacon, something my mother luckily picked up and implemented in the meatloaves of my childhood. It was a standard meal in my family's household and I've come to realize that most people share my nostalgic feelings for the food.

These days, however, the sustainably-minded and fusion-preaching hostess wouldn't dream of serving meatloaf and mash potatoes at a dinner party - it's too informal, too normal and nowhere near exciting enough for our foodie friends and neighbors. Which is why I've taken to creating 'meatmuffins' - still the same great idea of mixing meat with breadcrumbs, herbs and other flavors, then popping them into a muffin tin and serving up in cute little cups. Who knew meat could be adorable? And that's not all, making these mini-meatloaves is still a super quick endeavor as they take less time in the oven than a traditional loaf: 20-30 minutes @ 350, max! Plus, since they are pre-portioned, those of us who have zero self-control and will keep cutting slivers off the loaf every time we pass it until we realize there are no leftovers for a sandwich tomorrow can take two muffins and stop there.

The creative options are endless with these, too, which make them fun. So far, always using ground turkey, we've made a traditional basil/garlic pesto meatmuffin, spinach/lemon pesto muffin, bacon-mushroom meatmuffins (picture above) and a cheddar-pepper-taco meatmuffin. Delicious, easy to freeze or pack for a picnic (along with a baguette and some mustard, yum!), and fun to serve your friends. Meatloaf Meatmuffins, shall we say, are back on the table.

Here are some pictures from our recent Bacon-Mushroom Meat-Muffin extravaganza.


To one package of Jennie-O lean ground turkey we added: sauteed mushrooms (cooked and cooled), chopped raw red onion, chopped crispy bacon (cooked and drained on paper towels).

Then we added breadcrumbs (about a quarter cup), a hefty tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce and some powdered garlic because we were being too lazy to grate in a few fresh cloves.

We sprayed a muffin tin with PAM, and dropped a quarter cup of (for lack of a better term) meat batter into each cup. Twenty minutes in our oven, seat at 350F did the trick. These were moist, savory, had a little bit of crunch thanks to the bacon and onion. And man did they taste great in a sandwich the next day! We know it sounds weird, but try it - it's a weird thing worth eating!

Another post in which I talk about food. With pictures.

San Francisco is often cold in the summer - June and July are months of layering clothing, often a sweater under a jacket under a scarf and hat. Which is why, naturally, we get really excited when the temperature goes above 70 degrees. So excited, in fact, that we celebrate - and what better way to celebrate heat than with a fiesta?

One freakishly warm Wednesday night I left work while the sun was still shining and the air was sweet. I got all the groceries I needed: cod fillets, flour tortillas, a few ears of corn, avocados, watermelon, peppers sweet and spicy and vibrantly colored, a tin of fava beans and lots of limes. Twenty to be exact, because there's a green grocer near us who sells them $3/20 and I can't be bothered to do the math and buy fewer. I tossed those groceries around with some mangoes, red onion, cabbage, jicama and tomatoes we had lying about the house and turned the radio on. After an hour or so of leisurely cooking we enjoyed a feast of fish tacos with re-fava'd beans, mango/corn salsa, jicama/cabbage citrus slaw, homemade guacamole (is there any other kind worth eating?) and watermelon.

Sure the fog had rolled in by the time we went back for seconds, but it still felt like Summer to us.

Recipes coming soon - but here are some pictures of our feast!

Cod cooked in taco seasoning, orange, lemon and lime juice.

Final products - fesh burrito, citrus coleslaw, guacamole, corn/mango salsa.

Ready for dinner... pre-seconds!

Happy Birthday Shout-Out to Mama J!

Mama J is my mom, and she is the Queen of Birthdays. She believes in having a birth-season, not just a birthday, and as her kid I can admit I've grown accustomed to my birthday being A To Do, all because she made it one when I was a kid. We didn't have special parties at McDonalds or Chuck-E-Cheese, those weren't necessary when you like to entertain, and have craft paper and tape. Us Grierson kids, we always had home birthday parties with DIY crafts, decorations and games - and this was the 1980s, people, DIY hadn't even become trendy yet.

My grandmother, her mother, would make a cake that matched the theme of my birthday - favorites were my "teddy bear's picnic" birthday when I was five, my "disco inferno" birthday when I was sixteen and many more in-between. My mom would help me with the invitations, which - as she taught me - set the tone of the party. We'd make a guest list and spend the Friday night before the party getting ready, setting up, planning, talking, laughing and bonding. To this day being in the kitchen with my mom is one of my favorite places to be. We're normally in the kitchen cooking a gourmet dinner or working on a project or discussing the latest gossip, or running late to something. But it's always fun. With Mama J, you see, it's always a party.

So for her birthday I took the day off and we went up to Napa Valley for a ladies day of outlet shopping and yummy food. And man, did we have yummy food.

The day started with hot warm and fresh doughnuts from Dynamo Donut. I thought the "maple bacon doughnut" would be disgusting, she disagreed. She was right. It is like eating french toast without a fork and spoon using only one hand. A yeast doughnut with flecks of crispy bacon inside, a drizzle of maple icing on top, and bacon "sprinkles" to finish it off. The only thing wrong with it is that it goes away too soon. And it's embarrassing to want to eat five of them. Which is why - good news! - they have other delicious flavors to try. Like the chocolate spice which is literally spicy (like cayenne spicy) and sweet in a chocolate cake doughnut. Totally different and tasty.

After making that quick stop we headed over the Golden Gate to find ridiculously warm weather in Napa and many fun things awaiting us at the outlets. Make-up, clothes for Dique, it took all my restraint not to go to the many shoe stores!

Luckily, we ran out of time for shopping so we could get to our lunch date at Mustard's Grill. We pinky swore we wouldn't gloat in our gluttonous lunch, but it was so delicious I have to share. Mustard's is famous for their onion rings - they come piled high on a plate and are so thin and crispy you kind of forget they are fried and therefore bad for you. Then, she got a cheeseburger and I got a pulled pork sandwich. The truth is we should have ordered one and split it, but instead we did what we could do, while saving room for dessert, and put the rest in a box to take home to Dique. The lucky duck has a hollow-leg and a speedy metabolism so I know he'd enjoy it.

Now. Both sandwiches were fantastic. Mama J said her burger was probably the best she'd had in years. My pulled-pork sandwich was also incredible - sweet and tangy, messy - just everything you want. But the dessert. Oh man. The dessert was really the reason to go. In all honestly one should really go there for a full-on Fat Man Feast and order a plate of onion rings and a piece of their "Famous Lemon Lime Tart... and that ridiculously tall brown sugar meringue" because it's heaven in your mouth. The brown sugar in the meringue makes it dense and warmly sweet. The curd on the tart is the perfect citrus balance: very lemony and very limey without too much acid, nor too much sugar. And the crust. I could write a whole post about the crust, but that's because I'm a crust kind of girl. I'll just say - go check it out. You will not be disappointed. You will be full and maybe feel a little gross, but skip dinner and go for a run the next day. Promise. It's worth it.

The next day we celebrated Mama J's birthday again (see what I mean about birthday seasons?) with my brother and his family. You'd think we were done with all the cake and whatnot. You'd think that, but you'd be wrong. Thank goodness for all the running I'm doing these days....

Happy Birthday Mama J - may we continue to have many happy, busy and crazy nights in the kitchen and may we always celebrate with yummy food because it's what we do.

I love you.

Fourth of July Food Special

On the 4th of July 2009 Dique and I enjoyed a Mediterranean feast. While we joked that it wasn't traditional "American" fare, we decided that being patriotic can sometimes mean celebrating the melting pot this country is, and "eat outside the box" - if you will. One of my favorite foodie writers is Nigella Lawson, who swears making hummus is easy, cheap and worth it. Spoiler alert: she's totally right!

And Dique's mom had recently shared a recipe for a delish dish involving roasted eggplant, fresh tomatoes, pine nuts, garlic, lemon juice and other delicious things. So I decided to go to town and cook the day away. I made two kinds of hummus and nann, a spearmint/cucumber yogurt dip, Dique's mom's dish which I call Eggplant Mélange and a big veggie platter went down well with some pink grapefruit Greyhounds. The only thing missing was the baklava, which I haven't found the patience to try yet. Don't worry -- we managed.

And to bring in a little bit of Americana, we enjoyed our feast in front of a Back To The Future movie marathon. Totally patriotic, no?

Here are the details...

Eggplant Mélange

Plain Hummus, Spearmint/Cucumber Yogurt Dip, Oniony Hummus

Table of Indulgence #1

Table #2 had all the healthy stuff...

A veggie platter, in our book, has to include sauteed mushrooms. Because they are simply delicious. Period. Funghi is our friend.

Recipes forthcoming!

Supper Club: Some Background

One of my favorite things about Dique is his community of friends. Having lived here most his life, many of his friends date back to junior high school, if not elementary. One of the lovely ladies from his schoolboy days is our friend red-haired Molly, or Molly L., who started a Supper Club a few years ago. She is also a native San Franciscan so her social circle and city knowledge are to be envied -- which means more friends and good foodie finds for us!

Follow these simple steps and you, too, will have a monthly supper club in your area!
1. Make list of people you love, and people you know who love food.
2. Email all of them saying:
-Let's start a monthly supper club - I'll be in charge this month.
-[Enter name of restaurant you want to go to] is where we'll be headed this month.
-These are the dates on the table for dinner [enter dates that work for your calendar -- we try to avoid Saturdays and Sundays because people are busy with other plans]
-Send link or as much information about the restaurant as you can so people can get excited about the venue, food, etc.
3. Wait for responses, and book a reservation accordingly.
4. Go to dinner and have a grand time.
4a. Make sure someone has a calculator for dividing the check.
5. Ask for a volunteer for the next month's gathering.
6. Rinse and repeat.

Bada Bing. Bada Boom. Instant good times.

When Dique and I started dating, he'd have these "supper club night with Molly and her friends" that we would schedule our time together around. Eventually I was inducted into the Supper Club Hall o' Fame, but it took a while for the invite. If I'm being honest, I was a tad jealous of the Supper Club gang. He's hanging out with women? And he's going out to THAT restaurant that I've been dying to try? WTF?

You see, Dique and I spent many (many many) nights and days of courtship in the kitchen. Sure, we occasionally went out to dinner, but we love cooking and cooking together. It's one of the things that drew us closer - we realized very early on that we could cook a meal we'd want to eat in a restaurant and we could ensure the music was just right. Another benefit is that there was no corkage fee for the wine we brought. That said, we love going out to restaurants. And frankly, it's a combination of my very favorite things: reading menus, talking about food, eating food and having food brought to me. A little bit o' heaven.

The problem is that in this city there are so many places to eat and limited dollars to spend on them. Yes, there are cheap eats (and you can bet your proverbial bottom dollar I will blog about them) but for the most part, dinner for two at a notable eatery is $50-$75 after drinks, shared appetizers/desserts, tax and tip. A couple of times a month won't break the bank, but some of us have a mortgage to pay... and if you think restaurants here are expenses, try real estate.

I digress.

Supper Club is a great way for us to have an enforced "night out" where we can try new places or visit old favorites, have good conversation and not empty our wallets completely. We mostly try to pick places that are two dollar signs -- reasonable, doable and generally delicious. Sometimes we find a spot that's an economical gem, and other times we leave feeling we paid Neiman Marcus prices for a Macy's brand. However, we never regret the dinner. Ever. When we've laughed and eaten and we're headed home, we always are happy to be part of the club.