15 Points From Leftovers???

Remember me blogging about finding The Best American Recipes 2002-2003 at the Midland Arts and Antique Mall?  Well, we made the Bloody Mary Grape Tomatoes and I found probably a dozen other recipes I wanted to try.  In fact, I made a whole week's worth of menus around recipes I wanted to try from that cookbook.  The first one we tried was called Blue Plate Meatloaf.  I didn't think you'd ever see the photos, read the recipe or even know we'd tried it.  We found it very dense and uninteresting.  Both of us rather grudgingly gave it a three on our scale of 1-5. 

At that point I was worried.  Were the grape tomatoes an aberration?  Were the rest of the recipes going to be average?  Did I have a whole week of average recipes coming up?  ARGH!  Now, I've cooked for long enough that I know good and well that every cookbook has some clunkers.  And, I should've been calm and reasonable.  I wasn't.  I should have been.  Because the next recipe we made was a five.  We've now had the Greek Macaroni and Cheese THREE times.  That's right, THREE times.  And, there's enough there for a fourth time.  And, my darling husband who doesn't really care for leftovers has requested it for leftovers.  Let me just say it's incredible and you will see the recipe.  I promise. 

So, back to the meatloaf.  I used the leftover meat to make the meatloaf burgers that we absolutely loved.  So the basic premise was good.  It was just that the meatloaf was pretty dense.  My intent was to do what my mom did with leftover meatloaf:  fry it then smother it with tomato sauce.  She'd take a little butter and flour and make a roux then pour in tomato juice to make a sauce.  It was VERY good.  But, once I got the meatloaf sliced and floured, my brain remembered the barbecue sauce I used on the meatloaf burgers.  What if???  What if I poured a little Jack Daniels and a little shagbark hickory syrup in and kicked the barbecue sauce up?  I poured the sauce in a little saucepan and added the Jack and syrup and called Connie in to taste it. " OHHHH, he says.  Ohhhh, that's sweet.  Not too sweet.  Just right.  Very good."  We had a winner. 

Now, before I did anything with the meatloaf, I chopped up a head of broccoli that'd been cooling its heels for far too long in my vegetable crisper.  I tossed it with white truffle oil and popped it in the oven.  Typically, I've roasted broccoli for about 15 minutes.  Tonight, it went for about 20 minutes then I turned the oven off while I finished the meatloaf.  The broccoli was just plain caramelized.  Connie referred to it as broccoli candy.  It was.  I've never had broccoli that tasted as good.  I'm sure it helped that I dusted the broccoli with a little black truffle salt.  But, you know, it'd have been a five even without that.  Here's a link to the Truffle Oil Broccoli Recipe.

Neither of us expected much from the meatloaf.  It was leftovers.  I didn't even have the camera out.  We'd used it to take photos of the yard as we did our FIRST 2011 walkaround. So it was on the bar.  Connie grabbed it and shot a couple of photos as I served the dinner.  Guess what?  It was leftovers extraordinaire.  I'll make the meatloaf just to have it leftover!  And the sauce?  Oh La La!!!

Blue Plate Meatloaf with Bourbon BBQ Sauce

Ingredients:
for the meatloaf:
1/2 c fresh bread crumbs
1/2 c buttermilk
1/2 lb ground sausage
1/2 lb ground turkey or veal
1 lb very lean ground beef
1 small yellow onion, finely minced
1/4 c parsley, minced
1 large egg
1/2 t freshly ground black pepper
1/4 t salt

For the topping:
sliced bacon
ketchup
soy sauce

for the leftovers:
flour
freshly ground pepper
bbq sauce
Jack Daniels
shagbark hickory or maple syrup

Directions:

Mix the bread crumbs

and buttermilk well. 

Make sure the buttermilk is totally absorbed.  Then, mix that with the rest of the ingredients. 

Put the mixture on a rimmed baking sheet

and form into a meatloaf shape.  Top with sliced bacon then a little ketchup mixed with soy sauce. 

Bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes. 

To serve this leftover, slice it into 1" thick slices.  Flour the slices and brown in olive oil until the slices are nice and browned.  Make a sauce with commercial bbq sauce, Jack Daniels and syrup.  Heat the sauce and pour it over the meatloaf. 

adapted from The Best American Recipes, 2002-2003

Truffle Oil Broccoli

Mom and I were chatting the other day about go-to vegetables.  Broccoli's at the top of the list.  When I was a kid it was normally the frozen variety.  Now that the fresh stalks are available year-round, we rarely buy frozen.  But, plain old steamed broccoli is a bit boring in my opinion.  Connie's too.  A few years ago, I tried a recipe for roasted broccoli.  It was just amazing.  So, we switched our allegiance to roasted.  Sometimes I toss it with a little olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  Sometimes just the olive oil.  Other times, I finish it with a bit of lemon juice, soy sauce and sesame seeds.  As I was reaching for the olive oil the other evening, I spied the white truffle oil.  Hmmm.  I wonder how that'd work?  Never know if you don't try.  I tossed the broccoli with a bit of white truffle oil and roasted it just like always.  When it came out of the oven, I sprinkled it with just a little bit of black truffle salt.  Heavenly!

Truffle Oil Broccoli

Ingredients
fresh broccoli
truffle oil
truffle salt (optional)

Directions:
Cut the broccoli into florets.  Toss with some truffle oil.  Roast at 500 for 15-20 minutes or until some of the florets have turned brown and crunchy.  Serve sprinkled with a little truffle salt if desired.