So yesterday, I made a biggol dinner for my family to celebrate my husband being done with his tests. I had it all planned out. Go shopping at 9:30, start prepping at half past noon, then start cooking at 3 and be done by 5.
Ya know, I seem to forget a I am a mother of 3 children under 4 years old. I decided to give the children baths early in the morning so I’ll have more time to clean later on that night. That wasn’t done until 9:30. I had to make sure the house was clean before I left the house. That took two hours, and the house still wasn’t up to my standards, but hey I was running on a tight schedule. SO we were out of the house by at least 11:50am. We went to the PX and bought gardening supplies and yummy donuts, then on to the commissary to purchase a couple items I needed to for the night’s dinner. Surprisingly, the trip out was pretty painless. It was cold as hell, but we were done in 2 hrs with only one temper tantrum from the Diva.
I get home, try to hurry up and unpack, as my baby is asleep in his car seat. I think, “Yeah, he’s asleep I can get two dishes prepped and refrigerated in the time he’s asleep!” As I foolishly go with that thought, he wakes up wailing his head off! So I comfort him and feed him hoping he’ll be OK. Naw, he want’s more cuddle time. So I unpack the bags and all the kids are hungry and thirsty again, so I feed them while holding fat baby. I unpack my gardening supplies, but as I open one of the packages, all of mypellets from my mini greenhouse falls all over the floor and I’m on my hands and knees threatening my daughter not to touch any of them. I found them all except one, and I think I searched a good 30 minutes for them! More time away from dindins. I throw my sweet potato in my preheated oven and start my gravy whilst thinking about the missing pellet. In between simmering, I look for the missing pellet. Still lost. I also realizes I am 3 bacon strips short for my Let’s Celebrate with Bacon Day. No way in hell was I gonna go out again and get the missing strips, so I went on cooking. As I am cooking the kids (miostly the baby!) destroys the house. SO I’m cooking and trying to clean now. A lot of my meals needed my direct attention, so I had to leave the housework for later. I also had to stop after wrapping the bacon atound the meatloaf to tend to the baby. He’s thoroughly pissed at me at this point in time, so I devote 30/45minutes to him! I then finish prepping my biscuits. So the main dishes, (biscuits, meatloaf and gravy) are all refigerated ready for the oven. I realise that you NEED mashed potatoes with meatloaf, so I go on and make peel potatoes, then prep my fresh broccoli by cutting them into florets and putting them in a bowl for later. I also grate my cheeses (pepper jack and sharp cheddar) for my macaroni and cheese. At this point chris walks in the door- Thank GOD! I apologise for the mess, and he goes on and clean up and tend to the kids. My husband is super awesome, by the way! I finish the potatoes and place them in a heatproof bowl over simmering water to keep them warm* while I cook the rest of the food. I boil some water my macaroni noodles and more water to blanch my broccoli in. All that is going on with my meatloaf roasting away in the oven. I blanch the broccoli for about 4 minutes then pour cold cold water over them to keep the color and stop the cooking. I put that aside as well as the noodles until the meatload is 20 minutes from cooking. I saute the broccoli with a lil garlic powder and lower sodium soy sauce. I made an easy stove-top macaroni and cheese, as my oven is ridiculously small and there’s no way i hell I could fit both mac n cheese and meatloaf in the same oven! SO what did I do?
Mac n Cheese
2 eggs
12oz can evaporated milk
1 tsp english mustard (such as colemans)
7 oz of sharp cheddar cheese
4 oz pepper jack cheese
salt n pepper
(use whatever good melting cheese you like.)
1/2 lb tubular pasta noodles
4 tablespoons of butter, softened
I mixed eggs, 1 cup of the canned evaporated milk, mustard, and 3/4 of the shredded cheese in a bowl.
Boil noodles until al dente
Drain noodles
Lower heat, then return noodles to pot, then add 4 tablespoons of butter. Add cheese mix until cheese melts. Add remaining milk and cheese. Remove from heat and stir until cheese melts and sauce is thickened.
You can make a topping by frying up panko bread crumbs or any other fresh breadcrumbs in a skillet with olive oil until browned. Add a little fresh thyme, parmasean cheese, and crumbled bacon bits! SERVE IMMEDIATELY
Now back to the story. So I wa
Enjoy! Even my mac n cheese hating husband loves it! Of course my son goes nuts for it!
I cooked the Mac n cheese while the meatloaf rested and I immediatly put the biscuits I prepared earlier (cold cold biscuits makes the flakiest yummiest biscuits! ALWAYS prep in advance) in the oven and cranked the heat up to 220 with the fan on! I sauteed the broccoli as well, and rewarmed the gravy.
Dinner was done by 8:10pm, but totally worth it!!
Here it is:
As I type this, I am eating leftover meatloaf, mac n cheese and biscuits. OMG soooooo good!!!!!!!
Bacon Wrapped Meatlof and Mushroom Bacon gravy recipe came from March 2009 issue of Fine Cooking Magazine. I of course made little changes. Read for yourself for your own tastes!
Sweet potato bacon biscuits: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/sweet-potato-bacon-biscuits-recipe/index.html
And buttermilk mashed potatoes, mac n cheese (recipe is above), and broccoli is my own.
Buttermilk Mashed potatoes:
4 medium potatoes
salt
1/2 cup warmed buttermilk
1/4 cup butter, seperated
salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
Scrub, peel (or leave unpeeled), and chop potatoes in 1 inch cubes. Put potatoes in empty medium saucepan. Add enough water to cover 2 inches. Once boiled over high heat, lower heat to a slow simmer. About 15 minutes or until potatoes are tender when poked with knife or fork.
Drain water, then return potatoes to pot over high heat. vigourously shake pan to dry potatoes. Mash potatoes with 2 tablespoons of butter (I put my potatoes through a food mill for no lumps) to consistency desired. Add warmed buttermilk in batches. Stir vigourously with wooden spoon. Add salt and pepper, then put remaining 2 tablespoons of butter on top of potatoes. Serve immediately.
*if made in advance, bring about an inch of water to a slow simmer in a medium saucepan. Put mashed potatoes in a heatprooflarge bowl, then place bowl ontop od saucepan. Stir every once in a while.
My husband was happy! He’s happily eating a load of leftovers for lunch at work 
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