Grilled Bacon Wrapped Beer Cheese Stuffed Meatloaf

Perfect Pairing:  Freezer meals

I really wish I had a better picture of these suckers.  Let’s just review… they are meatloaves stuffed with a homemade beer cheese, topped with bacon and an awesome glaze and then grilled.  What could possibly be bad?  Except my picture of them, of course.  You see, I had people waiting to eat and well photography was just low on my priority list at that moment.

I made these during our family vacation this summer.  It was actually kind of a staycation since we were all at my parents’ place.  We had an absolute blast playing in and around the water, boating, relaxing, laughing, eating, swimming, floating, playing bags, tea parties, kiddo dance parties, etc.   We also had the third annual Lake House Chef Challenge, but that is another post another time.  I have to share some of my favorite photos from the week.

My mom and I figured that we served about 400 meals that week.  If you know us you know that it was not frozen pizza and premade stuff.   We like to make things difficult apparently.  Below is the menu for the week.  You will notice that a lot of the items are featured on this site.  We had a big folder with all of the recipes so we were ready to go each day.

In case you were wondering, this is what one of the refrigerators looked like.  I am sure my mom will be thrilled I am sharing this.

We pretty much stuck to the menu! The lake is about 15 miles from a decent grocery store so we had to be REALLY prepared.  We also wanted to make as many things ahead of time as possible.  One of the things we made in advance was this dish.  I made the beer cheese and meatloaf mixture earlier in the month, assembled them, wrapped them individually in plastic wrap and stuck them in the freezer.  I let them defrost in the fridge and then topped them with the bacon and made the glaze the day we grilled them up.  It worked out really well. 

FYI…. The beer cheese is pretty awesome as a dip with pretzels.

 

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Un-Recipe Files - Vanilla Fruit Salad

They say life is all about simple pleasures.  I have to agree with that.  One of my favorite simple pleasures is a good fruit salad.  How great is it to have a big bowl of ripe fruit all clean and cut for you?  It is even better if it is the perfect proportions of produce.  I get so annoyed when you are at a restaurant and they give you 1 strawberry, 4 grapes and a few pieces of tasteless honeydew.  Bleh.

I am perfectly pleased with straight up fruit but this salad has a vanilla sauce that adds a nice sweetness and makes it a little extra special.  There is no real recipe for this salad.  I drained the juice from a can of peaches and a can of pineapple chunks into a large bowl.  Next, I whisked in about half a package of vanilla instant pudding.  Then, gently fold in the fruit.  I used strawberries, grapes, blueberries, and the canned pineapple and peaches.  It was so delicious. 

The next day I added more fruit and there was still plenty of sauce to coat another batch.  Delicious! 

 

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Lemon Orzo Salad

Perfect Pairing: Summer Songs

I made this salad for my family over vacation and it was a hit.   The almonds give it a little crunch, cranberries a little sweetness, and the lemon dressing keeps it fresh.  Quick, simple, delish. 

I like to cook my orzo in chicken broth to give it some depth, but that is optional.  You can certainly use water or veggie broth if you are keeping it vegetarian.

It has been awhile since I provided some tune suggestions.  Overdue!  Below are my personal songs of the summer.  I have listened to each of them an obnoxious amount of times.  I just got a new car that lets me plug in my iphone.  Life changer.  

Make Me Crazy, Brett Dennen and Femi Kuti – No surprise I like this one, it has a great reggae feel to it.

Addicted, Morgan Page and Greg Laswell – I’m addicted to this song.  On repeat.

Pressing on a Bruise, Brad Paisley and Matt Kearny – I am on a major country kick this summer.  Can’t get enough of it!

Springsteen, Eric Church – My dad introduced me to this song.  That was a new experience!  I was proud of him.  Side note for the ladies…. Notice Eric in the hat and sunglasses at towards the end.  That alone makes this worth watching.  Smokin.  I’m a sucker for a guy in a ball cap.

Don’t Ya, Brett Eldredge – He’s not hard on the eyes either…

 

Cold Chicago, Humming House - I hate thinking about Chicago being cold, but this song is so fun.  It is hard to not tap your toe to this one.

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Cucumber Salad

Perfect Pairing:  Garden Cucumbers

If you have a garden in the Midwest you probably have an abundance of cucumbers right now.  Not that I would know what that is like because I pretty much kill everything I try to plant.  I am not being overly dramatic, this is real life.  Fortunately for me I know nice people who do know how to grow things and generously offer up some of their home grown produce.  I never turn that down!  I have been living off garden tomatoes this week. So, so good.

Anyway, cucumbers.  I love them.  This salad is so easy, tasty and light.  Thinly sliced cucumbers (I used a mandolin) are mixed with red onions and fresh dill in a simple sweet vinegar dressing. 

 

Here are some other ways to use up those garden cucumbers!

Sesame Cucumber Salad

Greek Turkey Burgers with Tzatziki Sauce

Smoked Salmon Breakfast

Cucumber Sandwiches

 

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Nutella Crunch Ice Cream Cake

Perfect Pairing:  Freezer Space

When I saw this cake on Foodgawker I knew I had to make it.  There are only three ingredients, vanilla ice cream, rice krispies, and nutella.  These are all very good things.  It kind of reminded me of everyone’s favorite Lake House Brownies.

I followed this recipe from Family Feast exactly, down to chilling the bowls and pan.  They give great instructions.  It takes up quite a bit of freezer space, but it is worth making the room.  They recommend letting the finished product freeze for 4-6 hours or overnight.  I believe I took it out around 4 hours and it was a little soft.  It would have been fine to eat right away but I wanted to take pictures.  This ended up being quite the scene. 

I removed the dessert from the springform pan and placed it on the pedestal I had picked out for the pictures.  It looked lovely!  Maybe a little soft, but I would make it work.  Plan A was to put it on the counter and stand above it on a chair.

Well the lighting was all off and it clearly was not going to work.  It was also melting very fast.  I knew I needed to hurry.  In my rush to jump off the chair I sustained an injury.  This particular chair has sharp metal corners.  I had spent the day by the lake so I was in my swimsuit and a skirt.  The sharp metal corner got me in the back of my leg right by the, uh…. Tush.  I don’t often swear but man I wanted to at that moment.  Grandma Rosie was right there so that was not going to happen.  Once I stopped seeing stars I carried the cake into a different room with better light.  Annnnd dripped the entire way.

OK, the dessert was in good light and I started snapping away.  It kept dripping. 

I finally got a somewhat decent picture and quickly got the whole thing back in the freezer.  The next day when it came out of the freezer it was the perfect consistency and sliced beautifully.  Also, it was absolutely delicious.  How could it not be amazing?  Totally worth the embarrassing injury and messy floor.

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Mini Chile Cheese Corndog Muffins

Perfect Pairing:  Yellow mustard

I am back to reality after an amazing family vacation at the lake.  We filled every minute with fun, and I am exhausted.  There was lots of floating, boating, bags, and laughing.  There were always little ones running around so there was also a lot of, “put on your life jacket!”, “don’t step there!”, “you must always have an adult with you”, “please don’t drive the mini gator down the driveway that fast!”, “no, you have to eat (insert number of bites of healthy food) before you can have dessert”, etc.  I already miss everyone!  If you are interested there are some adorable kid/food/vacation/life shots on my instagram account.

We had a lot of groups coming and going throughout the week which meant we cooked a lot.  I mean, A LOT.  My mom and I figured by the end of the vacation we had served about 400 meals.  Since the lake is about 15 miles from a decent grocery store that required a ton of planning.  We also had the third annual Lake House Chef Challenge.  More on that in another post! 

Before I get too ahead of myself I need to back up and talk about the fun party we had over the 4^th of July.   We called it a wienerpalooza party after getting the idea from a family friend.  Basically we had every kind of hot dog, brat, and topping you could possibly want.  Everything was cooked over the fire pit.  Here are some of my favorite shots from the party.

 

Our neighbor brought the most amazing smoked baked beans.  Everyone said they were the best beans they had ever tasted.  We also put out the way too easy chili cheese dip (queso and chili) with fritos, Summer Corn Salad, Thai Peanut Pasta Salad, World's Best Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies, and Salted Peanut Bars.

Callie was VERY excited to learn she could reach the potato chips.  She was not so happy when she was cut off from said chips.  They were served with my favorite Caramelized Onion Dip.

Lots of cute kids!

I was so excited to have my best friend, Jill, and her family there for the weekend!  Notice Callie is still after the chips...

Dad cooked everything on a "redneck grill" over the fire pit.

Of course, that ended up being the center of operations for everyone of the male gender.  Men love fire.

So since this was a wienerpalooza we didn't stop at just hot dogs in buns!  I also made Mini Chile Cheese Corndog Muffins.  I have made these a few times and there are never any leftovers.  They are so easy and tasty!  Of course they are perfect served with some good old fashioned yellow mustard.

 

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Onion Strings

Perfect Pairing: Hamburgers

I am going to start this post by fully admitting that this recipe is not healthy, not even a little bit.   I like to live by the 80/20 rule with eating, 80% of the time I am really good, and 20% of the time I am not so good.  Typically that 20% falls on the weekends, especially in the summer.  These onions strings are definitely smack dab in that 20%. 

Now that I have that disclaimer out of the way, I want to tell you to make these right away!  They are not beautiful, notice I didn’t even try to take a pretty picture, but they are to die for good.

I am currently in the final days of my summer family vacation.  We have had an amazing time and I am fully focused on making the most of the last few days.  Tonight is the annual Lake House Chef's Challenge, more to come on that later!  We had these onion strings on hamburgers this week and everyone agreed it was one of the best burgers they had ever had.    

A few things to keep in mind when making onion strings…

1. Make more than you think you need, like a lot more.  Once everyone gets a whiff of fried onions they magically disappear from the plate.
2. If possible, fry on an outside burner.  This eliminates a lot of mess, and your house won’t smell like fried food.  We use a cast iron skillet on a grill side burner.
3. Season your flour with salt, pepper, and cayenne.  Use more than you think you will need. 
4. Get your oil really hot so they fry quickly and do not absorb too much oil.  I wish I could tell you the exact temperature of the oil, but the thermometer was nowhere to be found.  The oil should be around 375 degrees.  You can test it by tossing one onion in the oil.  If it bubbles up immediately and violently, it is probably ready.  If it acts bored, probably not ready.
5. Drain the onions on paper towels.
6. Salt the onions strings liberally right after they come out of the oil. 

I soaked the thinly sliced onions in buttermilk in a 9x13 so they were evenly covered. 

 

We tossed them in the flour mixture right next to grill and dropped them directly into the oil.  And when I say we, I mean my dad and uncle. 

The Perfect Pairing for onion strings is a hamburger. 

Need I say more?

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