Patrick's Birthday

Patrick is already putting in requests for his birthday dinner and cake in April.  Looks like I'm not the only one that plans things four months in advance. . . .
Of course neither is South Beach even a little bit, but it's okay to splurge once in a while, and splurge we will.  I know that it will make me sick afterward, binging on non SB foods always do when I've been good for a long time, which will hopefully only encourage me to stay good.

First up - a bacon wrapped meatloaf he saw on the cover of a magazine called Fine Cooking, which I've never even heard of.  I tweaked the recipe just a tiny little bit based on preference and user reviews.

Bacon Wrapped Meatloaf
4 oz. cremini (baby bella) or white mushrooms, cleaned and finely chopped (1-1/3 cups)
1/2 cup minced yellow onion
3 Tbs. dry sherry
1 Tbs. minced garlic
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 oz. day-old rustic or dense white bread, torn into about 1/2-inch pieces (1-1/2 cups)
1/4 cup whole milk
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 lb. ground beef (85% lean)
1 lb. ground pork
2 Tbs. light or dark brown sugar
1 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
8 slices center-cut bacon

Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350ºF.
In a medium bowl, toss the mushrooms with the onion, sherry, garlic, 1-1/2 tsp. salt and 1/2 tsp. pepper.
In a large mixing bowl, combine the bread, milk, and egg. Stir well, lightly mashing the bread until most of the liquid is absorbed. Add the beef, veal, pork, brown sugar, Worcestershire, and the onion-mushroom mixture. Using a large, sturdy wooden spoon or your hands, gently mix just until all the ingredients are blended; you may need to push the meat against the side of the bowl to get the pieces to break up.

Put the meat mixture in a 9x13-inch metal baking pan. Shape the mixture into a rectangular loaf about 10x4 inches. Wrap the strips of bacon around the loaf crosswise, overlapping them slightly and tucking the ends securely under the loaf. Pat the loaf back into shape if necessary.

Bake until an instant-read thermometer inserted into the center of the loaf reads 160ºF, 60 to 70 minutes. Take the meatloaf out of the oven and position the oven rack about 6 inches from the broiling element. Heat the broiler to high. Broil the meatloaf until the bacon is brown and crisp, about 3 minutes. Let the loaf rest at room temperature for at least 10 minutes.

Use two flat spatulas to transfer the meatloaf to a serving platter. Slice and serve with the mushroom gravy.
Just in case you were wondering:  Calories (kcal): 340; Fat (g): 19; Fat Calories (kcal): 170; Saturated Fat (g): 6; Protein (g): 26; Monounsaturated Fat (g): 9; Carbohydrates (g): 15; Polyunsaturated Fat (g): 1.5; Sodium (mg): 610; Cholesterol (mg): 105; Fiber (g): 1;


Sherry Mushroom Gravy 
1 cup lower-salt beef or chicken broth; more as needed
2 Tbs. extra-virgin olive oil
2 slices center-cut bacon, minced
6 oz. cremini (baby bella) or white mushrooms, cleaned and sliced about 1/8 inch thick (2 packed cups)
1/2 cup minced yellow onion
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
3 Tbs. dry sherry
3 Tbs. all-purpose flour

Combine the broth with 1 cup of hot water. Heat the oil in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring to break apart the pieces, until just starting to crisp, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the mushrooms, onion, 1/2 tsp. salt, and 1/2 tsp. pepper. Cook, stirring often, until the mushrooms have cooked through and start to brown the bottom of the pan, 5 to 8 minutes.
Add the sherry and stir to release the browned bits from the bottom of the pan, about 1 minute. Sprinkle in the flour and stir constantly until the mixture has browned and is slightly dry and crumbly, about 30 seconds.
Whisk in half of the broth mixture and continue whisking until the liquid is absorbed into the flour, about 30 seconds. Whisk in the remaining broth mixture and bring the gravy to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, until thickened, 5 to 10 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper and thin with water or broth if necessary. Transfer to a small saucepan, cover, and keep warm. Reheat the gravy if necessary before serving.

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Served with butter laden mashed potatoes, this is certain to make us very happy to eat and then very ill for having eaten it.  Then of course there will be the meatloaf sandwiches the next day. . . I can hardly wait.  But there's more!!!  Maybe laying in bed on the weekend watching Food Network until we're too starved to stay horizontal any more isn't a good thing.  We saw Paula Deen try to awkwardly set up her son with a pretty blonde AND make an amazing looking meal.  I'd like the whole thing actually, but the cake certainly caught Patrick's attention.

Double Decker Pineapple Upside Down Cake
Nonstick cooking spray

3 cups cake flour, plus more for pan
1 cup butter, softened, plus 1/2 cup, melted
2 1/4 cups sugar
5 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups whole buttermilk
1 1/2 cups firmly packed brown sugar
2 (20-ounce) cans pineapple slices in juice, drained well (reserve 2 tablespoons juice for frosting)
1 (10-ounce) jar maraschino cherries, drained well
Pineapple Buttercream Frosting, recipe follows
Chopped pecans, for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spray 2 (9-inch) round cake pans with nonstick cooking spray and coat with flour.
In a large bowl, beat 1 cup butter at medium speed with an electric mixer until creamy. Gradually add the sugar, beating until fluffy. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in the vanilla and set aside.
In a small bowl, add the 3 cups of flour, baking powder, and salt. Stir to combine. Add the flour mixture into the egg mixture alternately with the buttermilk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture.
Divide the brown sugar evenly into each pan. Pour the melted butter equally over the brown sugar. Arrange the pineapple slices and cherries over the brown sugar. Reserve remaining pineapple slices and cherries for another use.
Pour equal amounts of batter over the fruit and bake until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean, about 40 to 45 minutes. Let the cakes cool in the pans for 10 minutes. Invert the cakes onto wire racks to cool completely.
To assemble the cake, carefully arrange 1 cake layer, pineapple side up, on a cake plate. Carefully stack the remaining cake layer, pineapple side up, over the first layer. Frost the sides of the cake with Pineapple Buttercream Frosting. Press chopped pecans into sides of cake, if desired.

Pineapple Buttercream Frosting
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 tablespoons reserved pineapple juice
3 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat all the ingredients in a large bowl until well combined.

Yield: about 2 cups

Turkey Meatloaf

Now that we're back on South Beach (curse you, phase 1!!), we planned out a menu and did a huge shopping trip to get ready for the week.  Somewhere along the line, I thought turkey meatloaf sounded like a great option so we got the stuff.  When I went to make it yesterday, it occurred to me that all of my SB meatloaf recipes are phase 2 or later - everyone wants us to use some sort of grain as a binder.  I wanted to just go for it and not worry about a cup of bread crumbs or oatmeal in the grand scheme of things, but Patrick was adamant.  No starch!!!  Well crap, now what?
This is the recipe I have in my book, and here is one from Kalyn, but flax seed meal?!  I don't exactly have that laying around. . . I had to improvise, and while not ideal (the way the fat came out of the meat was horrifying - I poured at least a cup of liquid off throughout cooking - ew), the loaf actually turned out quite well, and really delicious.  Who knew?

1 package of Jennie-O ground turkey meat (I think they tend to be around 1 1/2 lbs)
1 can of Italian seasoned stewed tomatoes, well drained and smooshed with your hands  (the better you drain these, the less liquid you have to worry about in your loaf later)
2 cloves of crushed garlic
1 tablespoon of Italian seasoning
1/2 tbsp of salt
1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese (I'd recommend more if you have it - I would've used more but we were out!  Keep the calories in mind though and don't go nuts)
1 egg

Smoosh everything together - with your hands or a fork if you're squeamish.  Preheat oven to 350.  Spray a loaf pan with cooking spray, and fill with meatloaf.  Sprinkle a little more parm on top if you'd like (I borrowed a few shavings from my roommate).  Bake until 160 - it took us about 40 minutes.  You might want to check it a few times and pour off any creepy oily water.  Let it sit for a bit and serve with South Beach ketchup (and Sriracha if you're so inclined, and we usually are; Patrick went for it, I went without).
The Italian flavors were really delicious and I'd recommend the combo for any regular meatloaf as well.

We served these with goat cheese stuffed Portobello mushrooms which I cooked alongside, based on another SB recipe that I also couldn't fully execute due to a lack of pasta sauce and basil (should've saved some of those stewed tomatoes I guess).  I put some sliced roasted red peppers down in a baking dish, put some medium sized portobello mushrooms (not the huge ones you'd use instead of a burger, but not the baby creminis either) on top of that, and filled the mushies with a slice of goat cheese and a sprinkling of pine nuts and baked at 350 for about 30 minutes.  Yum.  :)