New "casserole" for supper and last night's meatloaf.

In the spirit of Rachel's new blog: "What's for Supper" http://whatwerehaving.blogspot.com/, I thought I would share my last two days of supper planning and cooking.

Here's what we're having for supper as soon as Joe comes in from the garage.
Cooked noodles, Alfredo sauce, cut up chicken breast, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, cheese. All stirred together in a pot on the stove and then put in the oven for a little while to make it more like mostaccoli in consistency. We'll see how it goes over.....

I made the alfredo sauce, and I've got to tell you how easy it was. I have made alfredos that start with roux and they have always tasted a little paste-y to me. I have never been satisfied with an alfredo I've made before. I am not sure that I am thrilled with this one, but for the ease of preparation, I give it an A+; and for the taste, an A, as well.

Anyway, I took 2 sticks of margarine, some chopped, dry garlic, & 1 cup of Parmesan cheese. Put these all in a bowl and whipped them up with my hand mixer until the margarine was fluffy. Added 2 cups of Milk and continued whipping. The margarine and the milk never really blended together, but they were mixed enough to make it work. When the noodles were done cooking, I drained them, put them back in the pan and stirred in this margarine, parm., and milk mixture. I kept the heat under the pan to low, and added a good handful of mozzarella cheese to this whole mixture, too. As it all started to melt together and get stirred up, it started to thicken up pretty nicely.

I added the chopped up chicken, diced tomatoes, mushrooms, olives and stirred it all together. Divided this into 2 casserole dishes, topped with a 'nother sprinkle of shredded cheese and popped it in the oven for a good 1/2 an hour. It looks appetizing sitting on the stove top now (waiting for Joe......), and I have some pull apart bread in the oven now to go with it. I tasted it twice already -- and it's delicious! That alfredo may not be the thickest I've ever made, but again, the ease, and the fact that I was baking it added to the rave review here!

I'll let you know how it goes over tonight.

Now for last night's meatloaf -- I've got to share my "specialty" -- "MEATLOAF SURPRISE"!! I don't know where I read this, or why I started doing it years ago, but now, meatloaf without the surprise is almost unacceptable around here.

I just make my basic meatloaf mixture -- beef, egg, milk, bread crumbs, spices (my boys like salt, pepper, a little garlic and onion, and sage.) I cook my meatloaf in a pan. I actually have a "meatloaf pan" for this. It's a bread pan with holes half way up the sides and all over the bottom -- it sits inside a regular bread pan, so that all the grease drips out of the loaf and into the bottom pan. Anyway, I line the bottom and sides of this pan with meatloaf mixture and then put 2-3 hard boiled eggs on top of that 1/2 the mixture. Finish filling the pan with the rest of the meatloaf, covering and surrounding the eggs. Bake as you normally would -- 1 hour @ 350 or 400.

Now, when you slice it and put it on plates, each slice of meatloaf will have a slice of egg in the middle, too! The first time you pull this off at home is like a "TA-DA!!!" moment. My kids were thrilled and Joe was intrigued. I've made it a couple of times thru the years without the surprise and always get mixed reviews on "plain meatloaf". This is the recipe that my daughters-in-law are going to hate. The boys are going to say, "Well, this meatloaf is good, but my mom puts an egg in it." Having put a raw egg in her loaf, the DIL will respond with, "I DID!!". The son will have to explain that his mom put one in the middle -- "you know, like cooked." Future Daughters-in-law, I apologize now and will show how easy it is when you ask.