Tag Archives: Chuckwagons and Campfires

Not Your Mama’s Meatloaf

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Jodi Lea Stewart’s Meatloaf

  •  One pound hamburger
  •  One pound ground sausage (or use all hamburger meat)
  •  1 lg. egg slightly beaten w/fork
  •  1 small or ½ large onion, chopped
  •  1 jalapeño pepper, chopped fine
  •  1 med. stalk celery with leaves, chopped fine
  •  1 can Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilies, original
  •  1 small can chopped tomatoes
  •  Few dashes Worcestershire sauce
  •  1 tsp. garlic powder, opt.
  •  1 tsp. onion power, opt.
  •  Black pepper to taste
  •  2 tsp. salt, or to taste
  •  Old-fashioned, uncooked oats
  •  2-4 strips bacon

 In a large bowl, combine hamburger, ground sausage and egg. Add chopped onion, jalapeño, celery, Rotel tomatoes & green chilies, small can of tomatoes and seasonings. Use hands to mix well. Add uncooked oats until mixture holds together but isn’t soupy.

Turn mixture out into a roasting pan. I prefer a SpatterWare roaster sprayed with non-stick spray. The mixture will be rounded from the shape of the bowl. Keep that shape. Round and pat until you have a loaf not touching any sides of the pan. Don’t make it too flat. Never push it to the sides of the pan. Who started that? It’s yucky!

Add the strips of bacon to the top and squirt a little ketchup over the top to decorate if desired. Bake at 350-degrees, uncovered, for approximately 1-1/2 hours. Test for doneness. Promptly remove from the pan onto a platter to prevent grease absorption. Wait about 10-15 minutes before slicing.

 Comment:  We’ve  been making this meatloaf with slight variations in my family for as long as I can remember. When people say they hate meatloaf, I’m astounded! This meatloaf is good enough to serve to your snootiest company!

Comment: Bell pepper instead of jalapeno pepper is fine. The amount of seeds you leave in the jalapeno has a lot to do with the heat you can expect.

Comment: Our favorite accompaniments for this dinner are: Mashed potatoes, gravy, hot rolls or biscuits, salad and a few side dishes like fiesta corn or country-style squash.

Comment:  I use latex gloves when I stir the mixture. No way am I getting raw meat under my fingernails!

 

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If you like Sassy, Danger and Mystery …  you’ll love my novel! I hope you’ll pick up a copy of Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT. It’s available at your nearest Barnes & Noble Bookseller (note: ask them to order it from their Master List…they know it’s on there! :D ), on my website, B&N.com and Amazon. For your convenience, it’s also available for Kindle, the Nook and most other eBook readers.

Book Two of the Silki series, CANYON OF DOOM, debuts in early 2013. Watch for it!

While you’re here, I’d be pleased as a frog in a jar of flies if you’d have a look around my website. To sign up to receive notices of new blogs, recipes, appearances and media news, leave your email address above. I’ll take care of the rest. Y’all come back soon … I miss you already!

Pssst! – All media used in my blogs are either acquired by payment for their use or don’t require licensing for public use. Sometimes I use my own personal photos. Please play it safe and don’t recycle images, okay? (P.S. This one of Marilyn and Cary is free for all! Borrow like crazy if you want!)

Please be careful, Cary! Your media borrowing is so reckless!

 

 

Skillet Cookery…Crazy Cake – Happy Fourth of July!

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  • 1-1/2 cups flour
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 3 Tbls. cocoa
  • 1 tsp. soda
  • 1/2 tsp. salt
  • 1 tsp. vanilla
  • 1/3 cup oil
  • 1 Tbls. vinegar
  • 1 cup water

Add dry ingredients to a #8 iron skillet and mix well. Add oil, vinegar, vanilla and water. Stir well. Bake 20-25 minutes at 350-degrees. Cooks fast, so check often! It has no eggs, so it dries out if you overcook it. Watch carefully. Cool on a grate or on wadded up pieces of foil if you’re camping and don’t have a grill. I oftentimes use ½ cup water with ½ cup coffee instead of the 1 cup water. Yum!

Frost with your favorite chocolate icing. I love to use the Hershey’s Cocoa recipe. I follow it exactly, except I use a pinch of salt.  I use a lot on Crazy Cake!

Comment:  This recipe is so old, it  almost doesn’t exist! My mom, Aunt Dobbie and Aunt Dean all made Crazy Cake. No eggs, no mixer…and it has a bit of vinegar. You won’t believe the texture!

Comment:  If you follow the instructions and don’t let the cake overcook (dry out), you’re going to throw away all your 15-steps to the Perfect Chocolate Cake recipes. This one will beat them all out…I promise!!

Comment:  Crazy Cake is perfect for motorhome/trailer campouts. If you have any left over (rare!), leave it in the skillet and cover well with foil or plastic wrap.  

 

Raw in the skillet. I’m not a chemist, but I think the little bubbles are the vinegar and baking soda interacting.

Just look at that shine! It tastes as good as it looks!

My Aunt Dobbie’s recipe on the back of a bank check; My Aunt Dean’s recipe on the back of an envelope (dated 1954 on the front!). The recipe on the envelope is for the #8 skillet, and the one on the check is for a cake twice the size. Just ignore the “make holes and put…” instructions on the envelope. They don’t matter to the recipe, and it’s a long story as to what they are all about!

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I hope you’ll pick up a copy of my novel, Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT. It’s available at your nearest Barnes & Noble Bookseller (note: ask them to order it from their Master List…they know it’s on there! :D ), on my website, B&N.com and Amazon. For your convenience, it’s also available for Kindle, the Nook and most other eBook readers.

If you like Sassy, Danger and Mystery… you’ll love my novel!

The second book in the series, CANYON OF DOOM, debuts in early 2013. Watch for it!

While you’re here, I’d be pleased as a frog in a jar of flies if you’d have a look around my website. To sign up to receive notices of new blogs, recipes, appearances and media news, leave your email address above. I’ll take care of the rest. Y’all come back soon … I miss you already!

 

Skillet Cookery…Country-Style Squash

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  • 3 to 4 slices chopped bacon
  • 1 large onion sliced med. thin
  • 2 med. tomatoes, chopped
  • 6 medium-sized zucchini , sliced
  • 2 yellow crookneck squash, sliced
  • Salt and pepper to taste

Brown bacon in a heavy skillet. Don’t completely cook it. Drain off some of the grease. Add rest of ingredients. Cover and simmer-fry for approximately 20 minutes. If bacon is very lean, add a little oil and/or water to keep it from scorching. Stir often. Cook until squash is desired crispness. I like mine slightly crunchy vs. soggy.

Comment:  This is a great side dish any time of the year. People who even slightly like squash love it prepared like this.

Comment:  I learned this recipe from my mother and have been making it since I was knee-high to an aphid!

 

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I hope you’ll pick up a copy of my novel, Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT. It’s available at your nearest Barnes & Noble Bookseller (note: ask them to order it from their Master List…they know it’s on there! :D ), on my website, B&N.com and Amazon. For your convenience, it’s also available for Kindle, the Nook and most other eBook readers.

If you like Sassy, Danger and Mystery… you’ll love my novel!

The second book in the series, CANYON OF DOOM, debuts in early 2013. Watch for it!

While you’re here, I’d be pleased as a frog in a jar of flies if you’d have a look around my website. To sign up to receive notices of new blogs, recipes, appearances and media news, leave your email address above. I’ll take care of the rest. Y’all come back soon … I miss you already!

 

Aunt Dora’s Light Bread

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  • 2 cups lukewarm water
  • 2 tsp. sugar
  • 2 pkg. yeast
  • 2 cups milk
  • 5 Tbls. sugar
  • 4-1/2 tsp. salt
  • 5 Tbls. Crisco, melted
  • 12 cups flour

Dissolve 2 teaspoons sugar in 1-cup water. Sprinkle yeast on top and let stand for 10 minutes. Scald milk. Add 5 Tablespoons sugar and the salt. Cool to lukewarm.

Add yeast mixture, remaining water and the flour. Beat well. Add melted shortening and enough of remaining flour to make easily handled dough. Knead until smooth and elastic.

Place in greased bowl and let rise until doubled in size. Punch down. Let dough rise again. Divide and make into two loaves. Let loaves rise until double in size.

Bake at 425-degrees for 15 minutes. Reduce heat to 375-degrees and bake for 30 minutes. Remove from pans onto a rack. Brush tops with butter.

Scalding milk: Old-fashioned but worthy in some cases!

Pour milk into a saucepan. Heat until it becomes lightly frothy with tiny bubbles forming around the edges. Stir constantly to prevent scorching. If you use a thermometer, heat to about 180 degrees.

A Smaller Version of Aunt Dora’s Light Bread:

  • ½ cup warm water
  • ½ tsp. sugar
  • ½ pkg. yeast
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1-1/4 Tbls. sugar
  • 1-1/8 tsp. salt
  • 1-1/4 Tbls. Crisco, melted
  • 3 cups flour

Follow the same instructions as for the larger recipe using the reduced amounts of ingredients. Let rise. Punch down. Let rise. Punch down. Make into one small loaf or squeeze dough through index finger and thumb to form rolls. Let rise. Bake. Serve.

Comment: These are the amounts I reduced the recipe so Ralph (husband) and I could make a pan of rolls for one meal back in 1946 – Aunt Dora Woods (married to Woods kid: Ralph)

Comment: This is an old recipe, so I have learned lots of shortcuts in the way I add the ingredients and mix it. Such as, I use Carnation instant dry milk, so mix the right amount in lukewarm water and no more scalding, etc. Try your luck and use your own method of mixing – Aunt Dora Woods (married to Woods kid: Ralph)

Comment: Trust me, this is some of the most delicious bread you’ll ever put a slab of butter on – Jodi Lea Stewart

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Of course, a visit isn’t a visit without a two-way conversation. I really want to hear from you.

I truly hope you’ll pick up a copy of my novel Silki, the Girl of Many Scarves: SUMMER OF THE ANCIENT. The print version is on sale at Amazon for only $9.85!!! For your convenience, it’s also available for Kindle, the Nook and for most other eBook readers. If you love the Southwest and kooky little characters that make you laugh aloud as authentic danger and mystery swirl at every turn, you’ll love this novel! The second book in the series, CANYON OF DOOM, debuts in early 2013.

While you’re here, please have a look around my website. To sign up to receive notices of my new blogs, recipes, appearances and media news, just leave your email address above. I’ll take care of the rest. Y’all come back soon…I miss you already!