Thursday, March 22, 2012

Obsessing Over the Missing Meatloaf

Recently someone, in search of substitutes for  parchment paper on AskRuth, sent me this email...
"Happened to read your blog about parchment paper substitute.  I like your writing style - very thorough.  You mentioned David’s favorite meat loaf (when discussing plastic wrap), but I can't find the recipe on your site.  Help! The spinach sandwich between the meatloaf layers peeked my interest." 
I vaguely remember making the meatloaf she mentioned.  I think it was one of those I made over and over until I found a new "best ever in the world" recipe to make over and over and... repeat the cycle a bunch of times.  The parchment paper post was written back in 2006!.  Naturally, I had to check for the missing meatloaf for myself.  Not among the list of other meatloaves I've written up.  Not in my cookbook - Every Kitchen Tells Its Stories.  I even obsessively went through my posts for six months leading up to that article!  Nothing!  


So what's a girl to do?  Try to recreate it of course.  I took some elements of several recipes and came up with this 


And if I do say so myself... pretty darn tasty!   The chipotle honey glaze was from Mushroom Surprise Meatloaf  - seriously one of my best meatloaves ever!. It's from one of my favorite sections of fineCooking magazine - the "create your own". And I bet, you vegetarians and vegans out there can find your own magic loaf, replacing meat - meat for some vegetarian version, but I digress.   I sort of followed this recipe idea for the rest, adding spinach to the mushroom filling.   I do hope you enjoy the results.... we did!


But the main reason for this post... aside from sharing a wonderful dish... is because it made me think about why I started the blog, and why I continue to keep it up.   This article in Saltscapes Magazine that a fellow food writer wrote about me, sums it up best. At first, it was to connect to my daughters who lived in other cities and share their favorite recipes as soon as they wanted them.  


But then it became more about me... and the things I was interested in and passionate about.... farm to table.... farm markets....eating local...cooking with kids....chats with cool chefs and farmers who love what they do even though it's incredibly, physically hard to do so. And now I have to add that it's also about remembering, and  easily recreating or adapting an old favorite recipe.  Since some of my best dishes are created on the fly and if you asked me the next day what I put into it, I'd probably not remember, this is the perfect place to share... with family... friends... and ... myself! 


If you're a blogger, why do you write?   If you're not a blogger, do you keep a recipe journal?

2 comments:

Joanne said...

it's funny how, though I started blogging for one reason, it's totally changed over the years. now I write because I can't imagine NOT. It's just such a HUGe part of my life...the community, the support network, the creative outlet, the food. It's in part who I am.

Ruth Daniels said...

Ditto! And thanks for being so committed to your blog. It's awesome!!!!