My Week in Six Easy Parts, AKA The Post Where I Copy Tami's Saturday Senses

I love to copy be inspired by my girl Tami over at Teacher Goes Back To School. Because I love her, personally, and she's awesome, and she's always making me want to write because she is so good about doing it all the time. Meanwhile I'm over here and hella flipping lazy as all get out so I like, never do. But thanks to Tami, I'm going to write something.

She does a Saturday Senses post every week, and she was inspired to do that by Pink of Perfection's Five Sense Friday. One person inspires another and that person inspires another and so on and so forth. See how that works? That's like life and shit, right? Awesome.

So here's my week, sorta, in six easy parts.

Tasting: The sauce I made last night for my lasagna or lasagne that I'm bringing to my brother's house tonight for my sister-in-law's belated birthday dinner. It was off the chain. Basically sorta like the recipe I posted before, except, well, totally different. Same sausage, TJ's three cheese sauce, tablespoon of garlic powder, couple of teaspoons of red pepper flakes, 3 anchovy fillets (chopped up super tiny, they melt into the sauce), couple of teaspoons of capers, oh, and like a cup of Trader Joe's marinara. Probably needed even a tiny bit more sauce but it worked. It was SO SO SO SO SO SO GOOD. (FYI, for cheese I used like 2 ounces of TJ's Celtic Lite Cheddar and I think 2.25 ounces of TJ's goat Gouda [because I LOVE THAT STUFF]. And I drank Pacifico while making it.)

Hoping my lasagna will look something like this tonight. Yum.

Hearing: The Best Thing I Ever Ate on Food Network. My gay boyfriend Ted Allen was just on there. I love that guy. I love that for some reason our cable at work changed and now instead of like 6 channels we get 7 or 8 and one of them is Food Network.

One of my gay boyfriends, Ted Allen

Smelling: Coffee. I love the smell and it's such an essential start to my day. I'm always like, I should totally switch to green tea. And then I'm like, no. Because it doesn't taste like coffee.

Seeing: Someone I hadn't seen in a while and realizing they are even more handsome than I remember especially when they haven't shaved.

Feeling: As Fergie sings in "Big Girls Don't Cry," clarity, peace, and serenity. Because I spent some time with myself and centered. Just like in the song. And made the realization that the right decisions aren't the easy or fun ones all the time but there is peace in making those decisions.

Wishing/hoping:  That the next few weeks are not as rough as the past few weeks have been and that some things that are up in the air turn out my way. Because I'm selfish like that. No, seriously, I hope for some resolve and closure and more peace that will come with that. And I also hope that I have a great time on a little road trip with my mom and baby next week and that they don't drive me completely nuts because they think I'M the crazy one but we all know they are like two adorable slices of crazy bread and I'm the sane filling. I know. Scary thought, right? Seriously, I don't really need to hope I have a great time because I always do with those two.

What up n YOUR world this morning, what are the hip haps, what's the 4-1-1? This week? This month? I'd love to hear about whatever you'd like to share.



Bomb A#$ Meatloaf

Okay, here's the first thing you should know, I'm not even a meatloaf eater. Like, I can remember my dad making it and it was like okay, meatloaf sammie and some mashed potatoes and since it was me, I probably put the mashed potatoes into the sandwich because that's how I do, yo. And of course add some mayo and sure, who wouldn't eat that? But I never am like, oh damn. I wish I had some meatloaf. And I haven't eaten red meat on purpose since 1995 (except for certain loophole times but that is another story) on account of seeing Babe and not wanting to eat anything that talked in that movie. So if I go to a restaurant it's not like I'd order it because it's not gonna be turkey meatloaf.

I do, however LOVE ground meat. Like a turkey burger? Fuggedaboutit, I'm all over it. And there is this recipe my girl Nessy Poo makes calls Thundersticks™, a spin-off of one of her friend's family's recipes. You can read about them here and you need to because a) it's part of my meatloaf story and b) they're ridiculously delicious and will possibly change your life. So I think I was probably fantasizing about Thundersticks™, as I've been known to do a lot, and wondered what a Thundersticks™-flavored meatloaf would be like.

So I sorta took that recipe and this recipe I found on Food.com for turkey meatloaf and went to town. And the reason I'm sharing this with you guys is because after I made it and had some I was like, okay, this is pretty good, but I think I'm just not a meatloaf fan. And then the next day I heated some up and had a sandwich and I was like holy heck, this s#$t is the bomb! This is bomb a#$ meatloaf! Hence, the name.

This was pretty much my recipe, and I say pretty much because if you guys ever read any of my recipes you know I don't like measuring and stuff that much, for one thing, and also I made this like 3 weeks ago so I'm trying to remember how I did it as I go.

Bomb A#$$ Turkey Meatloaf

1 lb or so of ground turkey 
grated onion, maybe half a cup? (I totally should have written this s#$t down.)
chopped onion, maybe a quarter cup or so, just because wanted some more texture on top of the grated onion
2-3 cloves of garlic, I grated mine 
1 egg or 1/4 cup of egg substitute (which is what I used)
3/4 cup barbecue sauce, divided (I think I used one I got from Lucille's Smokehouse BBQ, the hot one, because I like a little kick. Also, most recipes call for ketchup but a) I didn't have any and b) I'm not a big ketchup fan, anyway, but I LOVE barbecue sauce!!!)
1/2 cup Soy Vay, or I think I used the Trader Joe's version, Soyaki, because it's what I had
Worcestershire sauce... I shook a little in there... a teaspoon or a little more, maybe? (Again, should have written this down immediately after I made it.)
2-3 tablespoons of Sriracha (If you're not a big fan of spicy, then go easy, but I love it spicy.)
1/2 cup of breadcrumbs (I just crumbled up some sliced sourdough because it's what I had.)

A couple of notes: I did not wind up using salt and I found it didn't really need it. Nessy Poo's Thundersticks™ have cilantro, and I LOVE cilantro, I just didn't have any (do you guys see how if I decide to make something I'm not gonna get off my as$% and get in the car and drive to the store to go get it?). But I'm sure it would have been delish in this, too.

Anyway, I didn't even cook my onions first. Probably because I'm lazy but also because I didn't think I needed to. Oh, preheat your oven to 350 (I just said it like "three-fiddy" in my head because of that episode of South Park with the Loch Ness Monster story). Mix all this stuff together, but use about half of the barbecue sauce. 

Spray a cookie sheet with some cooking spray (or it might work if you put some foil down, I'm not a professional so I don't know how that effects cooking time and stuff, but it would make for a less messy pan), or use a fancy meatloaf pan if you have one, but I don't so I used a cookie sheet.

Put the mixture into the middle of the cookie sheet and form it into a loaf. Spread the rest of the barbecue sauce on top. NOTE: I made sort of a short, longer loaf. I just liked the idea of it and since I didn't have a meat thermometer that worked I figured it would maybe cook better and more evenly like that? So I wound up cooking mine for maybe an hour. Use your meat thermometer (I'm sure you have one that works and you don't keep forgetting to pick up a new one at Target) to make sure the internal temperature reaches 165 so you don't try to poison nobody, yo. 

Here is what it looked like:

I thought this was really good but I seriously did like it better the next day. If you try it please let me know, even if you're all like, "Jen, this tastes like straight caca!!!" Or let me know how you put your own spin on it. Or share with me YOUR favorite meatloaf recipe!

And as Jacques Pepin would say in a hella cute French accent, happy cooking!