Ultimate Meatloaf

I have never really liked meatloaf. My husband however loves it. When I saw Tyler Florence make the "Ultimate" meatloaf I thought I would give it one more chance. I am so glad I did. The meatloaf includes a tomato relish and I think it really makes the meatloaf. The recipe included bacon over the top but Mike and I agreed it could be left off, shocking I know! The recipe also included bread soaked in milk instead of breadcrumbs, different. I served it with homemade mashed potatoes and fresh green beans. Mmmmmmm

Tyler Florence's Ultimate Meatloaf with tomato relish

Tomato relish:

Extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 bay leaves
2 red bell peppers, cored, seeded, and finely diced
2 tomatoes, halved, seeded, and finely diced
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1 (12-ounce) bottle ketchup
1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Meatloaf:

3 slices white bread, crusts removed, torn into chunks by hand
1/4 cup whole milk
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 pound ground pork
2 eggs
Leaves from 2 fresh thyme sprigs
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 to 4 bacon slices

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Coat a skillet with a 2-count of oil and place over medium heat. Saute the onion, garlic, and bay leaves for a few minutes. Throw in the red peppers and cook them for a couple of minutes to soften. Now add the tomatoes. Stir in the parsley, ketchup, and Worcestershire; season with salt and pepper. Simmer the relish for 5 minutes. Remove it from the heat.

Place the torn white bread in a bowl and add the milk to just barely cover, swish the bread around in the milk and let it sit while you get the rest of the ingredients for the meat loaf together.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef and pork with 1 1/2 cups of the tomato relish, the eggs, and thyme; season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the excess milk from the bread and add the soaked bread to the meat mixture.

Lightly oil a cookie sheet. Transfer the meat mixture to the center of the cookie sheet and form into a log about 9 inches long and about 4 inches wide. Coat the top of the meatloaf with another 1/2 cup of the tomato relish. Lay the bacon across the top lengthwise.

Bake the meatloaf for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the bacon is crisp and the meatloaf is firm. Rotate the meat loaf while it's baking every now and then to insure that the bacon browns evenly. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and let it cool a bit before slicing. Serve with the remaining tomato relish on the side.

Dear Nutella...I love you!

I had never had Nutella until about 4 years ago. My sister said I had to try this hazelnut spread. She was right. Nutella is the best thing to spread on well just about anything! It is also rather delicious on a spoon =] I needed to find new ways to get Nutella in my belly so here is Nutella ice cream. It turned out like Nutella chip ice cream but still SO good.

Nutella Ice Cream
1 cup Nutella
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup whole milk
1 - 1/3 cups heavy cream
2 tsp vanilla extract

Combine the Nutella and sugar until smooth. Add the milk. Blend on low speed until smooth and the sugar is dissolved. Stir in the heavy cream and the vanilla.

Place in your ice cream maker and let it run for 20-25 minutes. Let it sit in a freezer overnight.

Vegas baby!

This past weekend Mike and I took an early anniversary trip to Las Vegas. We got a great deal on rooms so we figured it was okay to celebrate early for a bargain. We ate some of the best food either of us have ever eaten...ever, so I decided I should blog about it. I think Mike got irritated every time food would come and he would pick up his fork and I would say WAIT! Take a picture! But he did it anyway, such a good husband!

Friday we stayed at the Golden Nugget. I was rather surprised at how nice the hotel and our room was. I would definitely stay there again. Fremont St is a great place to people watch. Once we got fancy in our going out clothes we went to Red Sushi inside the Golden Nugget. I was shocked at how awesome the food was. We split an entree of Chicken Katsu and NY Steak, SO good! It also came with sweet potatoes that were steamed then pan fried...YUM!Dynamite Roll

Red Tiger Roll...one of the best rolls I have ever had!

And a Sapporo, of course!

The next morning we had reservations at Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill for brunch.

Mike has scrambled egg enchiladas. He loved them, especially the sauce.I had chicken and sweet potato hash. I am not crazy keen on sweet potatoes but I loved this!

After brunch we decided to check in to our room at The Mirage. We had booked a suite but were told that we had been upgraded to a penthouse for free! We were only one floor from the top of the hotel. It was rough but we managed =]

Saturday night we had tickets to see the Cirque De Soleil show 'LOVE'. It was by far the most amazing thing both of us had ever seen. Hard to describe but amazing!

After the show we had a late dinner at BLT Burger inside The Mirage, where we stayed Saturday night. BLT Burger is fancy burgers, fancy fries and fun milkshakes.

I had the classic cheeseburger. We didn't manager to get a picture of Mike's but he had a burger with bleu cheese, mushrooms and onions, all his favorites. The burger was perfection.

We also ordered fried pickles. Mike was unsure of them but I thought they were super good. I love pickles with a weird passion though. I wouldn't eat them everyday but they were fun!

Before we headed home the next morning we had already decided to go back to Mesa Grill for brunch again because there was so much we wanted to try. I had the Ranch Style Eggs Tostada, sauce was amazing! The eggs were the fluffiest eggs I have ever eaten. I enjoyed this one more than the hash the day before.

Mike had the Spicy Scrambled Eggs with Apricot-Mustard Glazed Ham and Buttermilk Biscuits. He liked it but enjoyed his meal the day before more.

Typically Mike and I have the worst luck with trying restaurants that we don't know. We usually get horrible service or ever worse horrible food. We never get upgraded to first class or a room upgrade for free so this trip was really amazing because we had the best luck ever....but not with gambling. But that is okay! We had a great time and have an awesome memory of our first anniversary.

Happy Valentine's Day

These are a little something I made in honor of Valentine's Day, mini cupcake truffles.
Hope yours was loverly!