"the best cooker ever"....

Every night when we sit down for dinner my 4 year old rubs my arms, face, gives kisses and tells me "Mom, your the best cooker ever!" HaHaHa- poor kid.  I am FAR from a good cook much less the "best cooker ever".
You know those "let's clean out the fridge" nights?  That was tonight.  Kenny set out some chicken&pork sausage this weekend that he planned on grilling but didn't.  I had a few squash in the fridge that needed to be cooked before they went bad. (I HATE throwing things out before they've been used).  So I decided to make meatloaf, squash casserole, mashed potatoes and yeast rolls that I had come across on pinterest today.


"Meatloaf"


Sweat some onions out and add garlic.

While that's happening, mix your meat together and add the goods.  (This is the part that absolutely churns my stomach as a vegetarian. Squeezing out sausage from the casings is the last thing on my "to do" list).

(just noticed the sausage looks quite unappealing.......oops)

I don't know what you put in your meatloaf but this is what I put in mine

My man Alton Brown has a pretty kick tail way of shaping a meatloaf and ensuring even cooking.  You'll need a loaf pan and some cooking spray. Spray your loaf pan and pack in your meatloaf.  Transfer that to a slotted broiler pan and voila!!  Perfect meatloaf form.

I mixed brown sugar/ketchup/Worcestershire sauce and brushed it on top after 30 min of cooking.

Zee finished product:

Okay so here's where I had PLANNED on posting nice step by step pics of my squash casserole and dinner rolls but they both were major whomps.  I don't go by recipes when cooking, I make them up in my head- and the squash casserole that I was counting on tasting like the one I had at work yesterday (yes, I said work) was more of a stewed squash with cheesy water substance. What the world.  I'm permanently deleting that slop from my memory.

On pinterest earlier today I found this recipe.  I also took awesome step by step pics, let's review:

Mix your water/oil/yeast like the recipe calls for and wait 10 minutes for the yeast to get foamy.

I added the rest of the ingredients like the recipe called for.  The recipe ALSO said the batter would be gooey.....so I thought "okay, no problem. Mine's looking REAL gooey".  It then instructs for you to spray your hands with cooking spray and form 12 balls.  Um......

Gooey wasn't even the word for it. This was like the stickiest yeastiest pudding EVER.  It wouldn't even remotely form ANYTHING.  So I used my thinking cap and just threw the dough (batter?) into a muffin tin.  Re-read the recipe and found my error: I used 2 1/2 cups of flour instead of 3 1/2. DUH. *face palm*  but in my defense I was OUT of flour.  So yeast muffins (what the heck?!) it is.

And this ladies and gentlemen is what happens when you dine at the "best cooker ever"'s (did I do that right?) house:

A delicious plate of meatloaf, mashed potatoes, squash topped with cheesy water and a yeast muffin on fine china.