Wipeout Meatloaf

The hubs and his mother are really in to that show Wipeout. They had a Wipeout Season Premier party the other night and I did the cooking, with some help from The Hubs of course.

We made meatloaf, a dish I’ve gotten down to a blind science.

Before we got cooking the hubs had a brainstorm. Lets add bacon in to the mix. Skeptically I went along with it. In theory his idea was sound, but we'd never tried it before.

To my delight dinner was great. My MIL cleaned her plate. Well, she cleaned her plate of everything except the canned greens. *Shrugs* The hubs and my daughter we all yummy noises as well. Figured since the family enjoyed it so much, i'd share the recipe here.

Bon apetite.

*

Wipeout Meatloaf

Ingredients:

15 slices of Bacon (or turkey bacon)

2lbs Fresh Ground Chuck (or ground sirloin)

1 medium size green bell pepper

1 medium size red bell pepper

¼ or a quarter of a large white onion

½ teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon black pepper

Pinch of white pepper (optional)

1 large egg

¼ cup milk (helps to add moisture to the loaf)

1 cup plain breadcrumbs (for moisture and binding)

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees C.

In Large skillet brown the bacon to desired texture.

While bacon is browning chop your vegetables and set aside.

In a separate bowl mix milk and egg until light yellow & bubbly. Set aside.

Chop or crumble bacon. I stack the strips on top of each other and chop them with a knife.

Place meat in a large mixing bowl and season with salt and peppers. Mix well.

Note: I use my hands to mix. Its so much easier then a spoon.

Add egg mixture to meat. Mix until egg mixture is no longer visible.

Add bread crumbs, mix well.

Note: The meat should be moist but not wet. If it’s still wet after mixing add more bread crumbs, 1/4 cup at a time.)

FYI: Meatloaf tends to get dry during the baking process, the bread crumbs and milk, or a panade, will help to ensure a moist, juicy loaf.

Add vegetables, mix well. Add bacon, mix well.

Pack meat into 9 x 5” loaf pan or roll in aluminum foil.

Cover with aluminum foil and place in oven (preferably in the center of the middle oven rack)

Cook for 1 hour.

At the 1 hour mark remove foil cover and Bake for an additional 20 minutes or until core temperature reaches 155 degrees C.

Let cool 10 – 15 minutes and serve.

I think it looks more like a fruit cake then meatloaf.

Please drop me a line if you make this. Would love some feedback.

Mali ;~)

The Continental drift.

While doing research for a book, I came across Pangaea. Some of you might already know of it, but I had no idea the theory of a Supercontinent existed. Mainly because I never pondered what the earth (continent wise) looked like 250 million years ago. 

 

I more questioned things pertaining to daily life, i.e. how the first Neanderthal couple figured out the logistics of sex and then pregnancy. In my head they spend 9 months confused and freaking out until she finally pops. (Later topic of discussion.)

Refocusing, first hypothesized by Alfred Wegener, Pangaea is a single landmass (or supercontinent) that was comprised of earth’s current continents some 250 million years ago.

Due to the continental drift, an idea introduced by Abraham Ortelius and later fully developed by Alfred Wegener, Pangaea drifted apart into several pieces over millions of years thus giving us the continental configuration we know today.

My research in to Pangaea led me to its predecessor Rodinia, a bigger supercontinent. But my research into Rodinia was some what of a dead end. There isn’t much information about it, but there was enough information to get the wheels of imagination turning. 

Rodinia has since been added into my story. I gave myself a shit load of holes to fill with this one, but hey, I’m a writer and filling in the gaps is what we do.

The "Continental drift" of course became my next target. I wanted to know if we were still "drifting"?  And if we were still “drifting” would we come back together at some point? And if so, when?

After hours and days of scouring the WWW for a legitimate answer, which btw I never got, I received enough theoretical answers to satisfy my curiosity. As far as believers are concerned, we ARE still "drifting" and will eventually "drift" back into one single Supercontinent. 

I also learned that Rodinia was not the first supercontinent. 

*insert inspiration overload here*

I don’t know about the rest of you, but this was exciting news for me. There are so many things one can do with this information. Well, a fictional writer like myself anyway.

 In short: I’ve learned something new.     

FYI: The PALEOMAP Project is the go to place for continental drift visuals. They have illustrations that cover earth’s tectonic changes for the last 1100 million years. They also have some pretty nifty illustrations  of earths formation 250 million years from now. 

Family Guy Tag Photo

Finally finished this Tag photo for Facebook.

Instructions:
Save Image to PC
Upload to Facebook, Myspace, etc.
Tag friends with a fitting character.

It's fun to dream......

I recently received a laptop (Dell Inspiron) as a gift. I love it, but the thing was looking a little plain, so i jazzed it up with some skin courtesy of Miss Rhonda "Ronni" Childress and Dell.SkinIt.com.



The art work was done by Ronni
I love to dream asleep or awake, explains why this piece is so fitting.

Dell.SkinIt.com allows you to design a unique skin via photo upload and a very simple design tool. Once your creation is complete they mail you a custom made sticker and fool proof instructions.

P.s. I don't work for Dell, I'm just a very satisfied customer. 

The Tree was there first

This tree resides around the corner from me. Saying it freaks me the Fuck out would be the understatement of the century, but there’s no other way to explain the feeling it brings,

“It freaks me the FUCK OUT!”