Pretty Awesome Turkey Meatloaf

This was originally a Williams-Sonoma recipe that's been tweaked several times. Its yummy.

1 tbls butter
1/2 tbls olive oil
1 small onion, diced fine
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 stalk celery, diced fine
10 fresh sage leaves, chopped
1 egg
1 tbls tomato paste
1 tbls Worcestershire sauce
3/4 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp ground white pepper
1 lb ground turkey
Ketchup

In a small frying pan, heat butter and olive oil. Saute onion and celery until soft, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and sage and saute 1 minute more. Remove from heat. In a small bowl, whisk together egg, tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper. Mix everything together with the ground turkey until well combined. Pat into a loaf pan that's been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Remove from oven an top with a slathering of ketchup. Return to oven for 5 minutes or until the sugar in the ketchup has begun to carmelize. Cool slightly, slice and serve. I served it with potatoes, beets and carrots that I roasted with rosemary and olive oil in another pan alongside the meatloaf and a mixed green salad.

Christmas Slideshow

Click here to watch a slide show of the Christmas festivities at our house

Little Lefse Lover

Christmas

Motherhood stole my brain, my blog and my body...but, I'm not complaining...

It was nearly a year ago since I was laid off from my job and reassigned to the home office. Being a full-time stay-at-home-mom or SAHM (I've assimilated to the lingo) was not in my plan. I was career focused. I loved my job. I loved my baby and my husband, too, but I wasn't prepared to have my entire life revolve around them. I thought that being at home all the time would result in the loss of my identity, feeling of purpose in the world and a loss of why hygiene and grooming are important. Indeed, all of these things have happened. I was prepared to be Superwoman. I was prepared to be a career woman as well as a wife and a mother. I wasn't ready for the loneliness, isolation and total loss of social skills that has come with being alone with a small child most of the time. In a small crisis of self-esteem and worth, I have found myself asking, "is being just a mom and wife enough for me? Even if I'm really good at it?"

So, why not finish a Master's degree, have and raise two children and start my own business all at once? What else am I going to do with my 30's anyway?

Happy Solstice!

To celebrate the Winter Solstice, we had a lovely little candelit dinner at home. I made a spicy squash soup that had garam masala and red chili pepper in it. Yum. Warmed us right up. We also had a lovely organic roast chicken with couscous and green beans. And, then, cake! Solstice cake! Chocolate on the outside to represent the dark days of midwinter and yellow cake on the inside to represent the sun and the return to light. Only six more months until summer... >sigh<

Long-haired Hippie Baby Forced to Cut Hairs

It had gotten a little unruly, but it was cute. We liked his funky hippie baby look and didn't really want to get it cut. However, long hair on a little boy poses a problem. Every time it tickled his face, he'd ball up his little fists and rub...regardless of whether they were filled with banana, soup, yogurt, milk, spagetti...

What's Cookin'?

We invited our friends over this past weekend for a holiday "cookie summit." We asked everyone to bring one batch of holiday cookies to exchange so everyone could leave with an assortment. Some made their cookies in advance, some brought dough and baked them here and some brought the raw ingredients and started from scratch. The oven was rocking all day. It was also Nathan's birthday so everyone was able to hang out all day, toast his 43 years and have a nice big bowl of chili and some Gosser Dark (a favorite of ours) from the kegerator. Good times. The result at the end of the day? Cookies! Cookies for all! Here's a list of the types of cookies made, consumed and frozen for later: almond spritz, snickerdoodles, Russian tea cakes, triple chocolate espresso, chocolate waffle cookies, chocolate mocha, sandbakkelse, Kris Kringles, bird's nests, peanut butter balls, brandy balls, gluten-free almond, frosted sugar cookies, caramel layer cookies and Ann's rhubarb cookies! I have many left over, so stop over if you need a sugar fix :)

In other food news, this week is our last regular season delivery from our farmer. We are down to the root and storage vegetables and will get more of those in our two extended season deliveries in January. Then we are on our own for veggies until May, which seems so far away. So! What to make? How about chicken and brown rice stew with assorted root veg? This is excellent. The sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and rutabaga are all mildly sweet making for a nice contrast to the heartiness of the chicken thighs and brown rice. I seasoned with thyme and a bay leaf and, my, its tasty! Warming soul food for below zero nights.

What Henry's Been Up To...

It's been a tough week for Henry. We discovered that he has a peanut allergy, he has a mild rash on his neck, he had four shots including the swine flu vaccine and he cut his first molar. Despite all the trials of being one, he continues to be a smiling, happy dude and is learning to walk. Here's a little montage of some of his daily activities.

Goofball

Walker