Ina's Meatloaf

I just realized that the titles of this week's post and the one before it sound like an advertisement for Food Network! I guess I am making more FN recipes lately since I now have a personal connection. But I've always loved Ina Garten—her show, Barefoot Contessa, and her recipes. She and her food are both so down-to-earth, approachable, lovable.

Our friends Andrea and Justin came over for dinner last night and I wanted to make something different...mainly, something not chicken. I went to the FN website and searched Ina's top-rated recipes. Sure enough, the whole first page was chicken dishes—if you've ever watched Barefoot Contessa, you know that her adorably dorky husband Jeffrey loooves chicken!—but then I got to Turkey Meatloaf. The comments were all raves, and I was intrigued.

It's been a long time since I've had meatloaf—definitely not in recent memory. But pretty much anything Ina touches is delicious, so I had no doubt it would be good. However, some people are squeamish about meatloaf, so I ran the idea by Andrea—she was all for it. At home, Zack was a little bit more skeptical—not so much about the meatloaf idea but about the use of turkey meat in it. He's still getting used to the lack of ground beef in my cooking repertoire. Still, he was up for giving it a shot.

For sides, I determined that meatloaf just naturally goes with potatoes, which are another thing I don't cook that often. I bought some really nice fingerlings at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange (my favorite spot, as you've probably noticed!) and simply roasted them with olive oil, salt, pepper, and Tony Chachere's seasoning. This is Zack's favorite—he puts it on sandwiches, salads, you name it—and it was excellent on the potatoes. We'll be bringing back a jar of it for Andrea and Justin when we go to New Orleans over Thanksgiving—it's hard to find up here.

Brussels sprouts were my green vegetable of choice. This meal—well, the meatloaf and brussels sprouts—could be themed "things kids hate." I decided to stray from my usual route of roasting the brussels sprouts, mostly because my oven was occupied with the meatloaf and potatoes. So instead I boiled the sprouts until they were pretty tender, then sliced them and sauteed them in olive oil and garlic to make a sort-of brussels sprout hash. It was nice to switch it up a bit and I really loved this preparation.


The meatloaf turned out very tasty—the onion, stock, Worcestershire, tomato paste mixture kept it extremely moist. It was probably not the best choice for a busy weeknight, though...it took about an hour and a half to cook through. (I should have read the recipe more carefully and I would have known!) We caught up and had salad, and then when we did sit down to eat our main course around 9 pm, all of the meatloaf skeptics were converted. It isn't a very attractive dish, but very flavorful and comforting. I never doubted you, Ina.


And then, as if it were fate, INA GARTEN herself walked into the office today. Everyone at FN was just as excited as I was to see her, because apparently she barely ever comes into the city. Would you, if you lived in her amazing house in East Hampton? I think not. She gave me a warm, friendly handshake and introduced herself to ME, as if I didn't know who she was...come on now! We chatted for a couple of minutes—I told her I was a big fan and made one of her recipes just last night. It was a highlight of my Food Network experience thus far.

Channeling Paula Deen

My Southern-inspired meal

Last night, I hosted my fabulous book club at our apartment. We started it shortly after I moved to New York, and at first I'd assumed we'd serve chips and dip at book club meetings, maybe hummus and pita or even a cheese platter if we were feeling fancy. But my friend Lindsay set the bar high at the first meeting at her place. She cooked a full dinner for us, complete with a delectable from-scratch chocolate cake for dessert. For my turn to have the six girls over, hummus definitely wasn't going to cut it.

This month we read a great book, The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It takes place in Jackson, Mississippi in the 1960s. I decided to go all theme-y and make something Southern-inspired. I ran with the very first thought that came into my head: shrimp and grits. It's one of my favorite Southern staples and I haven't had a single grit since I left Atlanta, where they were on the menu at just about every restaurant we entered, from dives to temples of haute cuisine. I'd never made grits myself before, so I wanted to try my hand at it.

Alright, so it wasn't a Paula Deen recipe--I wouldn't feel right doing that to everyone's arteries. Browsing the bank of recipes at Food Network, I settled on one from Tyler Florence, perhaps because I met him a couple of weeks ago and helped prep pumpkin-banana pies for a special he was doing. Tyler's "Ultimate Shrimp & Grits" seemed relatively straightforward.

I wondered at first if I could even find grits in New York, but my friend Abby (a big grits fan from Florida) informed me that they were prevalent. Sure enough, there were several different kinds on the shelves of Gristedes at 21st and 8th, and I settled on the "old-fashioned" variety. I bought a pound and a half of fresh shrimp from the Lobster Place in Chelsea Market, and was pretty much good to go. Most of the other ingredients were already in my fridge or pantry.

Shrimp and chicken sausage simmering with chicken stock, onions, garlic

Even when it's not Paula's, shrimp and grits is not a very low-cal dish. I wanted to lighten Tyler's recipe up a bit, so I used andouille chicken sausage with the shrimp and only a touch of cream in the grits. I also made braised collard greens--another item I found easily in New York, at the Manhattan Fruit Market--without any ham hocks or bacon, which some Southerners would consider a travesty. I bought some turkey stock and simmered the greens in it for about an hour, until they were tender and most of the stock had been absorbed. Then I added a little apple cider vinegar to the greens. They were so flavorful! Abby, who was opposed to collard greens at first, told me that I changed her mind about them.

The secret society i.e. book club enjoying dinner

Since I'm not much of a baker, I decided to forgo an attempt at a Southern dessert. Still on a ice cream sandwich kick (see previous post), I decided to make a riff on them instead. They are well-loved in all parts of the country, after all. As a throwback to college, I bought a box of No Pudge brownies at Whole Foods. You just add non-fat yogurt to the mix, stir, and bake--we made them weekly back at Penn. We were perfectly willing to ignore the fact that No Pudge is not quite guilt-free if you split the entire pan among 3-4 people, but I digress.

Abby's excited about the return of PB chip No Pudge

One of our favorite No Pudge additions back then was peanut butter chips, so I bought those too. I used a large baking pan to make a thin sheet of peanut butter chip brownies, let them cool, and then cut small brownie circles with a thin-rimmed glass (a cookie cutter would've worked better but I don't have any). I placed the brownie circles into the freezer for a few minutes and let the ice cream (Ciao Bella vanilla gelato again) soften a bit; then I made the sandwiches the same way as last time and left them in the freezer overnight. I'm not sure if I like the cookie or brownie ones better, but they are both definitely staying in my "easy dessert" repertoire.

I got one of the highest compliments I think I've ever received for my food when my friend Rebecca said it was "the best meal I've ever had." Exaggeration or not, totally made my day and I love you Rebecca!