The computer's off to a slow start this morning and I'm hoping that's not an indication of how the day's going to pan out. There's just so darn much to do and so little time!
After the beautiful much needed rain cleaned the dust off Tucson on Saturday and the wind blew the rest of it away yesterday, this morning's shaping up to be an absolutely beautiful day, made even better by the presence of some of the Big Guy's leftover meatloaf in the refrigerator. Yes, people, contrary to popular belief you can make meatloaf on the barbecue - at least my Big Guy can and he's ready to share some of his secrets with everyone.
He loads these little football shaped beauties up with ground beef, ground pork and hot Italian sausage, moistens 'em with chopped fresh mushrooms and sun dried tomatoes, adds spice in the form of jalapenos, red pepper flakes and a lot of garlic, then shapes them into 12 ounce ovals and heads out to the barbecue. An hour later after his usual magic, we're enjoying this! Just look at that smoke ring?
Now when I said the Big Guy's sharing "some of his secrets" that's absolutely the truth. He's prepared to divulge his meatloaf recipe but his homemade barbecue sauce is another secret entirely.
By the way, if you're not all that fond of spicy food, I'm tellin' ya, just lower the amounts of jalapeno and red pepper flakes, but don't leave them out entirely. It wouldn't be a Big Guy recipe without 'em. Course that was news to me when we were just starting out. This is the first thing that darling man of mine ever cooked for me and at the time my tastebuds had yet to be indoctrinated into the Big Guy way of doing things. He didn't make 'em in front of me so I had no clue there was anything incendiary in them. The first bite was so hot, it darn near blew my roof off but now I don't find 'em spicy at all but then again, he may have changed his recipe just a tad. It just proves what a pansy I was.
The Big Guy’s Meatloaf Barbecue (an original from JBug’s & The Big Guy’s Kitchen)
These fabulous individual sized meatloaves freeze very well and are fabulous to have on hand either sliced cold in a sandwich, or warmed and served with creamed corn or your favorite veg. You’ll notice there’s not a spec of salt in it and it doesn’t need it either.
2 pounds ground beef (chuck or 80/20’s great)
1 pound ground pork
1 pound hot Italian sausage (loose without the casings)
1 cup chopped fresh mushrooms
1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes (drained of oil)
1/3 chopped pickled jalapenos
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons coarse ground black pepper
2 tablespoons red pepper flakes
3 eggs
2/3 cup panko crumbs
Barbecue sauce of your choice
Mix all ingredients except for barbecue sauce together by hand and form gently into loaves about 12 ounces each. Cook for 40 minutes using indirect heat on the barbecue (400 degrees). You may have to rearrange the loaves about half way through depending on how they are cooking. Brush heavily with barbecue sauce and continue cooking for an additional 15 to 20 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest for 5 minutes before slicing.
Oh my!
Posted by: Mary from Apron Strings & Wedding Rings | 04/12/2011 at 02:01 PM
Lucky aren't I?
Posted by: June | 04/12/2011 at 02:54 PM