Menu of the Day

As I may have mentioned in another entry, we have a rather famous group of businesses here under the general name of Zingerman's (www.zingermans.com). There's a world-class deli, an extraordinary bakery, a business that teaches excellent service techniques, catering, their own creamery, coffee roasters, etc. One of their relatively new businesses is the Zingerman's Roadhouse - a homage to American roadside food, done up with the usual Zingerman's panache.

One of the features of the Roadhouse, and something that brought this writer in initially, is the wonderful "macaroni and cheese menu."

Pretentious? Yes.
Silly? Yes.
Delicious? Also yes.

Well, in the spirit of silly things culinary, my DH and I, having a rare dinner at home to ourselves, starting playing around with a meatloaf menu, a la Zingerman's mac and cheese menu.

This was a much better game than the one started last year by all three boys (Danish Swimmer Boy, DH and Fantasy Boy) where the dinner conversation often consisted of continuing a long list of the most disgusting types of poptarts that could be created.

Anyway, here are some results:

1. Meatloaf Grande - ground sirloin, chopped chipotle peppers in adobo, queso blanco and tortilla chips, baked to a crispy perfection and smothered in ranchero sauce. Served with sour cream on the side.

2. Meatloaf on a Summer's Day - ground turkey, gently blended with fresh basil, garlic-sauteed portabello mushrooms and soft goat cheese from happy, ranging mountain goats. Baked delicately under a panko crust.

3. My German Grandma's Meatloaf - ground pork, baked together with chunks of granny smith apples and dried Michigan cherries, smothered in a dark cherry and kirsch sauce. Served with spaetzle.

4. Sedona Loaf - eggs, cream, spinach, dill, parmesan and chunks of sourdough baked together to golden perfection. Served with a yogurt-dill vinaigrette.

5. Bacon and Cheddar. Not sure how this works - there's no other ingredients involved. This was what hubby wanted, if it could be done. I'm sure this would get Fantasy Boy's vote, too.

Okay, I could go on and on, but I think this is probably more than enough meatloaf for anybody!

What's Cooking?

What? I need to cook when I've created all these wonderful recipes? Well, we actually had an excellent dinner of veggie sloppy joes, which got us started on the whole idea of meatloaf... first we were going to do a sloppy joe menu and then this developed.