Tonight for dinner I made Barbara's Little Cheddar Meatloaves (p. 62) with a side of Greg's Don't Tell Your Cardiologist About These Baked Potatoes (p. 31). Since these recipes both required cooking for 45-50 minutes at temperatures 100°F different than one another, I broke out my Hamilton Beach Roaster Oven, for only the second time in 6 or so years. I had bought this oven because my sister has one and it is so useful on the big baking holidays, such as Thanksgiving. Only - I go to Thanksgiving at her house every year so rarely am I faced with a situation where I need two ovens. So glad that I had it today, though!
I mixed up the meatloaves and topping first and formed the meatloaf mixture, as directed, into eight of the cutest mini meatloaves you'd ever see. Of course I mixed the meatloaves with my hands, because that is, in my opinion, the only way to make a meatloaf, although I felt the mixture was loose enough that a more fastidious chef could mix with a spoon if desired.
Then I went for the potatoes. The directions said I should liberally smear them with butter, then wrap a strip of bacon completely around each one. I decided that for a recipe with such a title, I should use real butter. For anyone planning on making these potatoes, the easiest method for smearing on the butter is to cut thin slices, then squish and smear it on with your fingers. Messy, but effective! Then I found that each slice of bacon could be basically cut in two, with one half wrapping almost all the way around, then the other slice placed perpendicularly to cover the other half of the potato. Then I wrapped most individually in foil, leaving only a pair of two small ones in bulk wrapping (yes, those doublets looked distressingly like testicles). I popped these into the roaster oven, topped the meatloaves and put them into the real oven, and spent a delightful 45 minutes cleaning up the dishes, cutting up some cantaloupe (I didn't want my son to go to bed with no dinner and I sure didn't expect him to eat meatloaf and potatoes), and playing a rousing game of hide-and-go seek with the kids. These are my kind of recipes!
After 45 minutes, the meatloaves were bubbling in a puddle of their own fat, just as meatloaves should. The potatoes were hissing a little, and not quite as tender as I'd hoped, but it was time for dinner so it was time for them to be "done" regardless. The meatloaf was good, but my husband found the topping to be too sweet for him: "I like the taste of meatloaf, and I can't taste it." I have a much bigger sweet tooth and I liked it, and I'm not just saying that because of how adorable they were. Next time I will whip up about half the called-for quantity and paint it on in a thinner coat, rather than dolloping it on with a spoon.
My husband and I agreed that the potatoes were nothing to write home about, and much less to your cardiologist about, but I thought the bacon could crisp up more so I put the remaining potatoes back into the oven for the duration of dinner (and then at least 20 minutes of more hide-and-seek time). When I finally took them out, the bacon had indeed become crispier and the potatoes were very, very good. At long last, they were something you should hide from your doctors! And, anyone who knows me knows how much I love keeping them in the dark!
It was a delightful dinner, and I thank Greg and Barbara for their recipes!
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