meatloaf, mac-n-cheese, and the Music Man

Okay so my weekend was great! I finally made 2 recipes that I have been storing and saving for. I also got to check out the local Family video in town and rented The Music Man.

The Meatloaf - I have never liked meatloaf. My husband loves it. One night at Bible study a friend had made barbecue meatloaf and I didn't want to appear rude so I tried it and it wasn't bad. You see I don't like the taste of  ground meat. I don't like meaty burgers that aren't seasoned well, and I have never liked meatloaf, because it taste like meat with ketchup on it. I definitely don't like ketchup on my meat. Anytime John wants meatloaf we would go to a buffet where he could eat meatloaf and I could eat something else. When we lived on Blackwelder Ave. we had cable tv and my favorite channel was the Food Network.  One day I saw the Neelys making a BBQ Turkey Meatloaf and it sounded like something I could try. After all if the meatloaf tasted like barbecue sauce then I might be able to stomach it. The same show they made their mac-n-cheese. I definitely could get into that. The problem with many chef recipes are that they A require many ingredients that are area specific, meaning that they are hard to find in good fresh quantities everywhere else. Or B are very time consuming and require many steps that average cooks don't have time or effort for. This was definitely the case with this meatloaf recipe. First it required their seasoning and their BBQ sauce. I could have used other barbecue sauce and seasoning but it's best to do it their way first and then adapt later. We had to buy spices we haven't had in the spice rack for awhile. Like dry mustard and paprika, Crab Boil seasoning? We don't eat crabs here so I have never had that in the house. After cooking the barbecue sauce for an hour and 15 minutes I realized that I didn't have any paprika. So I sent my hubby on an errand to get paprika and ice cream. We would definitely need the ice cram to tide us over till the meatloaf was ready. After all the work to make the barbecue sauce and the barbecue seasoning, then assemble the meatloaf. I was exhausted, but it was a very tasty meatloaf  with strong barbecue flavor and although it wouldn't be my first choice to eat, I would be able to make it again and have it once a year or so. The only thing I would add is that it is very hard to tell if the meatloaf was done and since I had never made meatloaf before I would like to know what the internal temperature is supposed to be. But it was done in the amount of time they gave us.

The Mac-N-Cheese - Now this macaroni-n-cheese recipe was much easier to make. I knew that cooked bacon was going to be on top so I made bacon for breakfast the morning before and saved 5 pieces to crumble later. The hardest part about making this recipe was making the Roux. I have never been really good at making roux. I am so afraid of burning the flour that I never seem to cook it long enough. It also isn't really clear on how thick the cheese sauce should get before you pour it onto the noodles. So I think my cheese sauce was a little too thick. But ultimately I think it turned out really well. It was very tasty. John has never liked mac-n-cheese and I was sort of hoping that I could make a mac-n-cheese that he would like, but no dice. I will not give up my quest to find that perfect mac-n-cheese that my whole family will eat. All in all these recipes were good, but I don't know if they were worth the effort. But I do not regret making them. I want to continue to make new recipes to increase my cooking skill and keep my repertoire open to new things. Do you have a favorite recipe? 

The Music Man - This was a wonderful musical classic made with the best of them.
Robert Preston and Meredith Wilson did a fantastic job of portraying the characters. I did find most of the music to be odd though. Shaboopy I think is the name of one song and I was cracking up because it was talking about finding a girl that wasn't a prude or a hussy. But the reason I was laughing was every time they said Shaboopy I heard She's Poopy. She's Poopy. I  don't know what it really means. But I thought it was funny, as my daughter runs around the room, I am asking myself, Is she poopy? I would definitely watch it again.