On This Day: 06/01/2010

Towering, packed boxes in the spare room
Organized thesis materials (more on the hideous chair to come)
75% of a roll overKeys by the door.

Henry Laughing

Where have we been? Not blogging. By the time I get around to blogging, its late and the computer is in a room where a 5 month old is sleeping. Sorry. But to make up for it, here is a video we finally managed to get off of our camera. Should he have been sleeping? Yes. Did this lighten the mood from the terrible Suns loss? Maybe.

Have a great Memorial Day weekend!

The Clark Family

Thanks again Lori!

Happy Mother's Day, one day late

I hope all you mothers and future mothers had a wonderful day yesterday.

I hope it was full of lovely white bouquets, apple cinnamon french toast with fresh berries, delicious naps, pork tenderloin with roasted Yukon Gold potatoes and asparagus, vanilla bean ice cream with more fresh berries and a game or two of Boggle-because mine was.

Thanks Steve for making My First Mother's Day wonderful and super special and a little smoky :)

Family pictures to come...I promise.

Eaten: Mini Glazed Meatloaves

The lovely Celia sent me this link to a wonderful recipe blog. I know what you're thinking...Another foodie blog? One that makes things we would never eat?

Well My Kitchen Cafe is fabulous because all the recipes are super simple and use basic ingredients. Over the next couple of weeks I am going to be posting the ones I have tried with my notes (in blue) but feel free to check out the site yourself.

These meatloaves were super yummy and since you brown them on the stove first, they have a nice crisp crust which is the best part of meatloaf, crisp crust, tender middle. And the glaze is nice and tangy. The perfect sunday dinner. And really quick too.

Glazed Mini Meatloaves
adapted from The Best 30-Minute Recipe via Mel's Kitchen

Makes 4-5 mini meatloaves.

Meatloaves:
17-20 saltine crackers, crushed fine (about 2/3 cup) (I used bread crumbs)
1/4 cup whole milk (I used 1% because that is what we had)
1/3 cup minced fresh parsley
3 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 large egg
1 1/2 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used regular mustard)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 1/2 pounds ground meat (I used a combination of lean ground chuck and lean ground pork)
2 teaspoons oil (I used canola oil)

Glaze:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup packed light brown sugar
4 teaspoons cider vinegar (I used regular vinegar as I couldn't find the cider in my pantry until days later)

Adjust an oven rack to the middle position and heat the oven to 425 degrees. Stir cracker crumbs, milk, parsley, Worcestershire sauce, egg, mustard, onion powder, garlic powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper together in a large bowl. Add ground meat and combine until uniform. Shape mixture into oval loaves (I doubled the recipe and got 10 mini loaves, so when I make the recipe without doubling it, I plan to shape into at least 5 loaves – they were definitely big enough to be perfectly filling!).

Heat oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until the oil is rippling. Add meatloaves (without letting them touch sides) and brown well on one side, 3-5 minutes. Carefully flip loaves over and tidy up edges using a spatula (I didn’t need to do this – my meatloaves managed to hold their shape really well). Brown on this side for another 2-3 minutes.

Meanwhile, mix glaze ingredients together until smooth. Transfer mini meatloaves to a foil-lined baking pan and spoon the glaze over the top of each meatloaf. Bake for 18-20 minutes, until the center of the loaf registers 160 degrees on an instant-read thermometer (or do like I do and cut one of the little babies open and if it looks done – pull ‘em out of the oven!).

Sneak Peek

We had our family pictures taken and this is just a little teaser. More to come later... Thanks again Lori!

Henry 18 Weeks

I have neglected you, blog. Sorry but every spare internet minute I have has been used to figure out our move to Athens. Luckily I am almost done and I can get back to real life again.

For now, here are some shots of Henry at 18 weeks.