Muffin Meatloaf And Potatoes a la Barbara

As readers of Help! I Have A Fire In My Kitchen know, I love meeting new people through this blog. It is often a great experience and certainly expands one's horizons. Barbara sent in these two recipes below. She is a fairly well known blogger with quite an interesting background. So let me first introduce you to Barbara (Don't call her Barb though, only Barbara or B!) through the two blogs I know she runs. (Pictures below are from Barbara's blogs.)

Her first blog is "Barbara's Tchatzkahs". Now before you go off to your dictionary trying to figure out just what a "Tchatzkah" is it is a Yiddish word that can mean many different things. However it is usually used to denote - "an inexpensive trinket or a toy". When someone saves a million little different things, you say, "What are all these Tchatzkahs for?" "It can also be spelled as "Tchotchka".) The word has other meanings as well. It can also refer at times and depending on the context to "a sexy but brainless girl" though not used in the pejorative sense. One would say "She is a cute tchotchkala".

Barbara's Tchatzkahs is a continuously and constantly updated blog on many topics. Politics (argh! yuck!), as well as thoughts, philosophies and ideas on life. Barbara is a devoted blogger without a shadow of a doubt.

Her other blog "Sanctuary For The Abused" is really critical and important. Here Barbara sticks to one subject - helping abused people get out of the deadly abusive relationship. This blog should be read by anyone who knows of anyone in an abusive relationship or is in one themselves. Barbara holds no punches in Sanctuary For The Abused nor should she. This blog is strongly recommended and important. Barbara also maintains a comprehensive list of articles, self-help sites, on-line support groups, personal stories from others, help for abuse for both men and women, and of course a comprehensive set of articles she herself as written. In other words, Barbara's blog, Sanctuary For The Abused is a one-stop must read, where you can hook up and find exactly what kind of information, service or advice you require. And Barbara is approachable so if you have any questions or comments leave them for her. She will answer you.

So it was with a lot of pleasure that I received the following from Barbara in an email:

I love your Fire in my Kitchen blog! You've given me many new ideas. I am a single mom (divorced) of twins, disabled and not the greatest cook in the world. I also don't keep kosher...

Anyway - I wanted to share my kids FAVORITE recipes. They have ORDERED me to make this once a week and it disappears! Any problems with keeping it kosher - let me know - maybe we can figure something out.

Well it was all kosher - and a good down to earth recipe. So here we go with Barbara's Tchatzkah Meal Recipe!

Muffin Meatloaf

Ingredients:

1. extra virgin olive oil (for muffin pans)
2. 1 1/2 pounds ground sirloin
3. 1 small yellow onion
4. 1 small green bell pepper
5. 1 large egg, beaten
6. 1 cup plain bread crumbs
7. 2 tablespoons of grill seasoning (I use Montreal Streak Seasoning)
8. 1 cup barbecue sauce (your favorite)
9. 1/2 cup tomato salsa (I use Ketchup - works fine)
10. 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

Utensils You Need:

1. One Large Bowl
2. One Small Bowl
   
3. Optional - Food Processor
   

Recipe Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450º Fahrenheit
   
2. Brush muffin tins (6 large or 12 medium) with olive oil
3. Put ground beef into a large bowl.
4. Cut up onion very small (dice it) or place in a food processor
5. Cut up small pepper very small (dice it) and throw away the seeds and insides or place in a food processor
6. Pulse the processor to finely chop the onion & pepper
7. Add the onion & pepper to the meat along with the beaten egg. Mix.
8. Add bread crumbs and grill seasoning to meat mixture. Mix together.
9. In a small bowl mix together the barbecue sauce, salsa or Ketchup and Worcestershire sauce.
   
10. Pour into the meat mixture. Mix thoroughly.
11. Use a large spoon or ice cream scoop (though make sure it is a scoop only used for meat products) and scoop equal portions of the meat mixture into the muffin tins.
12. Bake about 15 minutes. Let cool.
13. The meatloaf muffins may crumble some when you remove them. This is normal. But they are still YUM (according to my kids!)

Barbara often serves the Muffin Meatloaf with:

Potatoes a la Barbara

Ingredients:

1. 2 1/2lbs of potatoes (red, gold, Idaho... your choice)
2. 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
3. Dry garlic spread mix or onion soup mix

Utensils You Need:

1. Large oven safe bowl or Silver Foil Pan
   

Recipe Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450º degrees
2. Slice the potatoes thinly or cut into small squares.
   
3. Put in a large oven safe bowl.
4. Drizzle on about 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil - until potatoes are covered.
5. Use either dry garlic spread mix or onion soup mix - put into bowl and mix until potatoes are covered.
6. Microwave for 6 minutes on High
7. Then Bake in Oven for 15 minutes or until potatoes are soft. (I often put this bowl in with whatever meat I am cooking to save time.

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Fairly simple to make and good for the kids. The only thing I personally am not wild about is nuking the potatoes in a microwave. I know it saves oodles of time, but if you think ahead, cook the potatoes for around 90 - 120 minutes in a an oven @ approximately 300º Fahrenheit. That is all there is too it. And as Barbara said in her email, "Enjoy!"

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Tags: Cooking, Baking, Recipe, Cooking Related Appliances, Humorous Stories, Ingredients, Kitchen Appliance, Parve (Meat or Milk) Recipe, Kitchen Utensils, Kosher, Meat Recipe, Milk Recipe, Kosher Home, Spices, Single Parenting, Vegetarian, Cooking Stories