PW's Meatloaf

It's time to cook with PW again :-) This week it was Melanie's turn to pick the recipe, she chose Pioneer Woman's meatloaf. I am going to keep my full post here on this blog today but will also add it to my Cooking blog (for prosperity sake) ;-)

I like meatloaf but I don't make it often and I don't have a favorite recipe, so I was eager to give this a try. Check out Mel's blog for the recipe. The first thing that is different to any other meatloaf I've made is that PW uses white bread soaked with milk. Usually the recipes I've tried just tell you to add dry bread crumbs or oats as the filler.

Here's all the ingredients in a bowl . . .

that's simply all you do to make the loaf... get your hands in there and squish it all together, here's mine all mushed up. . .

next you take this out and put it on a roasting pan. Can I just add here that this was the trickiest part for me. I'm sure my mixture was too 'mushy' I could hardly pick this thing up, in fact I COULDN'T pick this thing up. I had to dust it with flour just to get a hold of it. But eventually I got it on the pan and I layered the bacon over the top. . . .

then I tucked the bacon underneath like PW tells you. I was hoping this would stop the meatloaf from just spreading out (which I think it did). Then you make a mixture of 1 cup ketchup and 6 tblsp of brown sugar to brush over the top.

I actually only had 1/2 cup of ketchup left, so I added only 3 tblsp of sugar and it seemed plenty enough for the top (with some left over to brush on during the cooking). It's already looking good isn't it?

You bake this for 45 minutes then brush on more ketchup and bake for another 15 minutes! That's just an hour total - for a 2lb meatloaf? The recipe I usually do is for a 1lb meatloaf in a bread pan and I cook that for 1 hour. I seriously doubted this 2 lb thing would be cooked in one hour and I think I was right. I took it out after a total of 1 hr 5 mins, and poked it with a knife in the center, the juice still looked a little pink to me so it actually went back in for 20 minutes. That's a total of 1 hr 25.

The Verdict: I was glad I gave this some extra cooking time and I was very happy with how it turned out. I love the taste, you can definitely taste the Parmesan cheese in it (something else I've never put in other meatloaves). And the bacon and sauce on top is super yummy. The whole house smelled like bbq while it was cooking, I could hardly wait to taste some. I made this in the afternoon, by the time Jason got home from work it had been in the fridge for a while, but I cut him a thick slice of it, 'zapped it' in the microwave and made him a meatloaf sandwich (like PW suggests), he LOVED it. An hour later he went back for another slice.

Would I make this again? Absolutely! I never got a chance to have it as a meal with mashed potatoes and corn so I would do it that way next time I make it. Also I think I will try halfing the recipe and making a 1lb loaf and try it in the loaf pan just to see the difference. I'll let you know if/when I do that. So this one's definitely a keeper.... Hop on over to visit Mel and find out what she thought.

Next week it's my 'recipe pick' and I've chosen a pasta dish. . . but which one? You'll have to come back next Tuesday to see :-)

I'm linking this to Tasty Tuesday over at Jen's blog. Be sure to visit the link and see some other wonderful recipes. I love the new 'image' Mr Linky :)

What are your plans. . . .

I've linked this post up to The Nester's Tassel Party today April 22nd. If you're visiting from the link I left over there welcome and thanks for coming to visit. Feel free to leave a comment on this post (I get new emails when you do) so I will know you've been by even if it's an older post and would love to return your visit. I bought Nester's Tassel Book and love it... these are a few of the tassels I've made so far.


. . . . for Easter this year? How do you celebrate? Do you have Easter traditions, have the family over for dinner, bake a ham, have an egg hunt for the kids? I thought Easter was 2 weeks away, then I realized I was thinking that last Monday and here we are at the beginning of another week and Easter is actually this week! Boy, I need to get a move on and get some planning done - I haven't even bought a ham! Traditionally (at least for the past few years since we moved to TX) my mom-in-law and I have taken turns to make our 'traditional' Easter feast of baked ham, potatoes, veg etc. They come over after church (or we go to their house) and spend the afternoon together. This year I will be doing the cooking, which I always love to do.

I don't have many Spring or Easter decorations but I've already started setting the table with what I do have (I'll share pics on Thursday) and after buying a few ribbons last week I made this . . . .

Isn't he cute. I've been wanting to make more tassels after my first attempt a few weeks ago (which I posted about HERE) . This time I took the next step in tassel making and used ribbons and 'filler' too. I was rather pleased with how he turned out.

The problem with buying tassel supplies right now though is it's hard to find things to use that are already 'hanging' or that have a place to hopefully drill a hole so you can hang them. I think the best time will be Christmas when all the ornaments will be on sale again.

I found this nativity ornament at Goodwill last week(99c!) and thought I'd try to make a tassel with it.

It turned out just ok to me, I'm not totally happy with it, but it's hard to re-do tassels once you've hot glued everything, this will still look nice around the holidays I think. Then I made another ribbon tassel using a cross I bought in Hobby Lobby. . . .

I like the brown and pink ribbons on this, but not sure that I'll keep it as I don't really have that color scheme anywhere in the house.

So, it's back to house cleaning for me this week, planning for Easter, and perhaps a visit from the Easter Bunny too!

I'm linking to Met Monday at Susan's blog Between Naps on the Porch. Hop on over and visit some other great participants.

Furry Friends and Fertilizer

It's fun to join in with 'blogland parties'. For one it helps me decide what to post about on certain days, but I also love to visit other blogs and see what others have posted. It's great meeting new bloggers that way. So, this Friday I'm joining Necel again for 'Furry Friends Friday' and Tootsie for Fertilizer Friday. Now that things are growing in the garden I'd like to join in with Fertilizer Friday each week so I can give updates of our veggies and visit other gardening enthusiasts :-) Be sure to visit both blogs to see some other fun participants.

Last week I told you I'd let you know how Boo got his name... Boo Hau (pr. How) being his full name. That's not his registered kennel name, we didn't register him at all. It's just the name Jason chose for him when we were all trying to think of what to call him. I can't really remember any suggestions Kristen and I made, but I do remember Jason suggested Wonton! Seriously? Wonton I asked. Errrr, that would be NO! Next thing he said was "OK, what about Boo How?" Hmmm, I liked Boo, very cute, but what on earth is Boo Hau. Turns out 'Boo Hau means 'not good' in Chinese! For some reason Jason and his pals at work were going through a phase using this saying to each other throughout the day as in "oh man, that's boo hau". The fact that the breeder had told us Boo was the little 'rooter tooter' of the litter seemed to enforce this name. So Boo Hau it was, but we often just call him Boo, unless he's really naughty and Jason will actually shout Boo Hau in a stern voice! Here's a picture of Boo on his first birthday :-)

Kristen insisted we have a party for him, and yes that's Little Cesar dog food with a candle in it. It was Boo's first try of it, filet mignon flavor. He's such a fussy pup, to this day he will still turn his nose up at it (he does this to all of his food) but eventually eats it.

Jason and I want to get in to the habit of fertilizing the veggies and trees each week but we'll probably do it on a Sunday when we both have a free day. I'd still like to take part in Tootsie's FF so I will just give garden updates and show you what's been growing with flowers and veg on Fridays.

The weather was terrible last weekend and I'm sad to say the tomato and pepper plants we planted out didn't make it :-( It was so windy - SO windy that this happened . . .

This, being the green house that was previously standing like this (below - actually tied to the wall I might add) . . .

The good news is none of those plants were in it just a few pots of seeds I'd planted a couple of days before, which hadn't even sprouted, so I don't feel like I lost much. The bad news being those plants were the ones I planted in the garden so the wind got them anyway.

On a brighter note, the Bradford Pear in the front yard is looking pretty this week. . .

and the sun will be shining all weekend so we should be able to get out and 'play' in the yard :-)

Spring Fever!

Spring is in the air and it's making me want to clean! But not just clean... I'm having the urge to go through each room and 'pretty it up' a bit. I've painted just about every room in the house since we moved in 3 years ago, but I've never really felt like every room was totally finished. Do you ever feel like that? There's always more accessories or furniture I would like to buy - I blame all you ladies in blogland that show such lovely photos of your cozy homes ;-) It motivates me to no end to get up and get started on my own, so this week that's just what I did, and I thank you for your inspiration:-)

First on my list was our master bathroom. There's not much you can do in a bathroom, or so I thought until I saw Melissa's lovely post about what she did in hers. I hope I don' t bore you with so many photos, but it's so hard to get the lighting right and the angle in such a small space.

I painted the room a couple of years ago and I have no idea what color green it is, some kind of sage from Behr paints I think.

The accent color matches my bedding (which I will post about at a later date). The rug and the curtain at the window came from Target.

I bought this pretty little bouquet at Kirklands this week, and after seeing someone else do the same with the candles, I added a little ribbon to them (I can't remember who's blog I saw this on recently).

On the other end of the bath I added a couple of photos and a green ivy plant I already had.

This is Jason's side of the room (above). I bought the monogrammed picture at Kirklands.



and remember the finial I bought at Goodwill a few weeks ago? I had plans to paint it either black or ivory, but I decided to use it here with some greenery as I thought the brown looked quite masculine!

This little angel and pillow hang on the hook next to the shower. When you tip the angel up she looks like a rose underneath.

And this is my side of the room(well part of it, you can see my vanity is much longer than Jason's in the first picture. This is the plant arrangement I bought at Kirklands that I had downstairs on the hallway table (all that has changed this week too, pictures will be coming soon)

And here's another look at my vanity.

Thanks for stopping by. I finally moved the black buffet in to the hallway, so I'll show pictures of that next week (if you'd like to see it).

Linking to Show Off Your Stuff at Fireflies and Jellybeans

Cooking with PW . . . and Mel :-)

I am thrilled that my new friend Melanie has decided to join me in my quest to cook through the Pioneer Woman's Cookbook. I know a few hundred miles separate us but we're not going to let distance spoil our girlfriend fun. So from now on we are going to try and cook something each week and post about it on our blogs on Tuesday.

Melanie asked me how we would do this, so I came up with the idea that we can take turns choosing a recipe each week. I thought this would be much more fun than just me picking all the time. As you know I made my 'cooking blog' specific to PW recipes (during this challenge) so won't you join me OVER THERE to see what we made this week. . . . wanna hint?


I'm joining in with Grace at Tempt My Tummy Tuesday today. Click on the link to find some other great recipes. And don't forget to visit Mel at Southern Comfort in a Northern Life to see what she thought of the 'puffs'. Thanks for joining in the fun Mel :-)

One Project at a Time

I finally got around to doing a project this weekend, one that I had in mind for a few weeks now, ever since I saw this at Hobby Lobby. . .

My insprition! Here's another one, the shade and base a slightly different shape (I took these with the camera on my phone) . . .

I have 3 lamps I bought that came in a set but the shades were boring old white! I've been wanting to do something with them for a while. I forgot to take a before picture so I found one from a few months ago when I was showing pics of my newly decorating living room and kitchen . . .

The lamp I was redoing was the tall one over in the corner on the left, but notice I have a smaller one on the side table too (I'll be redoing that one soon, but not exactly the same) . . .

So, while at Hobby Lobby that same day I bought some leopard print material and some trim, then I first cut a template using some large brown paper I have on a roll, by laying the lamp shade on it and rolling it round as I followed the outside edges with a pencil . . .

next I cut out the material using the template, adding a little for overlap . . .

and then the tricky part, I chose to use spray adhesive to stick the material to the shade... a rather tricky and sticky thing to do, but eventually I had this. . .

next for some trim,


and voila. . .

my Hob Lob inspired lamp :-) Not quite finished because I'd like more trim for the top which I hope to get today. I just guest at the amount I needed (probably bought a yard) and it fit exactly around the bottom not even having to trim a bit off!

I don't think the lamp will stay in that place, I have ideas to move a few things around - I'll share them with you when I do. SO, what have you been up to this weekend?

I'm joining Susan at Between Naps on the Porch today for Met Monday. Hop on over to see what everyone else has been up to.

Spring Thing

Today not only marks the start of Spring, but also the Spring Reading Thing over at Callapidder Days. I joined in with the last reading challenge back in the Fall last year and thought I would join in again, more for my own enjoyment than anything else, I love books but sometimes don't get to read as many as I would like. This challenge helps me to at least try! And I also like to visit other blogs and see what everyone else is reading.

Because I'm in a Book Club I know for certain I will be reading 3 books between now and June (that is when the challenge ends).I've thought about what other books I might like to read over the next few months and I've made a list for myself which I'm sharing here. I haven't gone crazy, as much as I would love to read more I am being realistic here.... Spring marks the start of longer days, lighter nights, garden work, growing veggies, and well to be honest, less time wanting to even open up the pages of a book, but here's my list anyway. If you love to read, hop on over to Katrina's blog and join in the fun. And leave a comment here so I can come visit you and read about what you're reading ;-)



Atonement by Ian McEwan - this is book club pick for April. I know there's a movie out too which I was told recently was very depressing! Not sure how I will like the book.










The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein - sounds like a much lighter read. May's book club pick










The Lace Reader by Brunonia Barry - Book club pick for June.












Made From Scratch, A Memoir by Sandra Lee - I started reading this a few weeks ago before I went home to England. It has since taken a back seat to other things, but I would really like to finish it off.









Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen - seen the movie many times, and wanted to read the book. I won this in a bloggy giveaway and have started reading a little each night. Hope to finish it for the challenge too.










Magic Tree House series - hoping to read a few of these with Kristen over the next few weeks. We are trying to read them in order and #9 is next 'Dolphins at Daybreak'.





and finally... I've heard so much about Francine Rivers but never read one of her books. I've heard this one in particular is REALLY good, so I'm going to challenge myself to read it before the end of June.









Today hardly feels like the first day of Spring. We had a thunderstorm during the night, the yard looks like it has a pond in it, we had so much rain, it's still very windy out there and cold. Much different to the lovely weather we had all week, but a great day to stay in and, yes you guessed it . . . READ :-)