After having experienced some of the cuisine in Germany,  I have come to the conclusion that much of our  “American” cuisine has roots in Germany;  potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers and meat loaf.  The average German deli offers a wide range of meat loaves with variations in spices, herbs and meats.

Today I made a meat loaf with ground baby beef (veal) and baby sheep (lamb).  My husband loves this!

How can one tell if the beef and sheep were truly babies when slaughtered?  Well, the meat is a pale, delicate pink, sort of like English and Irish babies.  Although, of course, I would never eat a human baby!  Maybe my ancestors did but that was on another continent, during a different time, and it wasn’t my fault :)

Interlude.  Our airfreight arrived on Friday and contained our espresso machine.  My husband made coffee and I found an old, unwrapped, crushed biscuit in the bottom of my purse from Le Litteraire in Sens.  It was almost like being there!

I found this poster at a second hand store for $38.  After looking at reproductions of it on the net, I noticed that it wasn’t exactly the same; Depots Partout was missing from the reproductions.  Researching further, I discovered that this was a poster by Leonetto Cappiello, considered the father of modern advertising because of his innovations in poster design.  My poster seems to be worth from $300 to $12,000 dollars.  I love not knowing :)

Staring dreamily at the poster, I consumed a breakfast of toast, egg, tomato, cheddar, bacon and grapefruit juice.

Meat loaf.  Meat loaf is one of the easiest meals I make.  You can make it with just about any combination of ground meat, add bread crumbs, eggs, herbs and some liquid to keep it moist.

Normally, if I was using a tomato base for my liquid, I’d make a quick homemade sauce with onion, garlic, diced tomato, oregano and basil, but I decided to use the canned tomatoes I bought at Wegmans that already had the herbs added.  Never again will I buy these tomatoes!  They were sweet.  Bleah.

I hate this butcher block top that’s on my island.  It looks like it was used for butchering cats or something.  Bandit, the curious cat, never jumps up on the island.  Clue.  My new top should be coming in a week.  I added a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to the diced tomatoes.

Baby potatoes.  I adore cute food!

I still haven’t found normal size garlic; the cloves are small and wimpy, except for something they call “elephant garlic” whose cloves are larger than baby potatoes.

Colorful food is pleasing!  It makes me smile.

I prepared a batch of baby potatoes with baby red bell peppers for roasting, thinking about Jade the vegetarian.  She who must not eat meat.

I’d be willing to wager that if I found a French magret de canard in this ex-British colony gone rogue, she’d de-convert in a flash :D  In the meantime, it doesn’t help that I like and make good vegetables.  Still, she’s starting to have the Cassius look at meal times.

She’s salad with baby, plum colored tomatoes and cucumbers.

Veal and Lamb Meat Loaf

1 lb ground veal

1lb ground lamb

2 eggs

1/2 cup bread crumbs

1 1/2 tsp salt

1/2 tsp black pepper

2 cans diced tomatoes with aromatics (not Wegmans) with 1 tbsp olive oil added

Mix the veal, lamb, eggs, crumbs, salt and pepper together.  Add 1 cup of the diced tomato mixture and mix well to blend.  Form into a loaf and place in a lightly oiled roasting pan.

Roast the loaf in a 350 F oven for 1 hour.  Pour half of the remaining diced tomatoes over the loaf and return to the oven for 30 minutes.

Allow the loaf to cool for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve with the remaining tomato sauce.

 

 

 

 

Read the original on: Cooking in Sens