Sunday, January 8, 2023

Hatch Chili Pepper Meatloaf

This hatch chili pepper meatloaf is flavorful and tender. It’s a meaty well-seasoned main course, made with both ground turkey and beef. So easy too!

Food Lust People Love: This hatch chili pepper meatloaf is flavorful and tender. It’s a meaty well-seasoned main course, made with both ground turkey and beef. So easy too!

When it’s Hatch chili pepper season (generally August and September in Hatch, New Mexico, depending on the weather) I buy lots of those great peppers, roast them in the oven, peel and freeze so we can enjoy their flavor all year round. 

I use them in lots of dishes, like my Creamy Hatch Chili Pepper Spinach Chicken (where you can see my roast and peel method) and even pimento cheese. As you’ll see in the pimento cheese recipe, if you don’t have Hatch peppers in your freezer, they can also be purchased in cans. 

It’s Sunday FunDay and we are celebrating Elvis Presley’s birthday by sharing recipes to honor him! Had he lived this long, Elvis would be 88 today. Everyone knows about the iconic sandwich he loved, but did you know that his actual favorite dish is meatloaf? 

Or so said Elvis impersonator, Mark Hussman in an interview with the Chicago Tribune many years ago: "Elvis ate a lot of Southern food, he loved steak, and he loved meatloaf. His favorite food was meatloaf. He ate it every day for month one year."  

That sounds a bit much but his former wife Priscilla Presley once confirmed that at one point, Elvis wanted his Sunday Meatloaf for every evening meal for six months straight! 

According to yet another source, once a week, Elvis would request meatloaf on the menu, a recipe subsequently printed in the Presley Family Cookbook. I did find that one online and considered making it but while my Hatch Chili Pepper Meatloaf is not the original Presley family recipe, I like to think Elvis would approve. My own family certainly did! 

Hatch Chili Pepper Meatloaf 

This meatloaf is one of my favorite dishes with the Hatch chili peppers. They add a lovely fresh and slightly smoky flavor to the meat. If you aren’t a fan of spicy, by all means substitute green pepper. 

Ingredients
4 slices sandwich bread or 2 hamburger buns
1/2 cup or 120ml milk
1 small onion
2 eggs
1 1/3 lbs or 600g ground beef
1 lb or 450g ground turkey
2 roasted peeled Hatch chili peppers
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup or 80ml ketchup
2 1/2 teaspoons dry mustard powder (like Colman’s)

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Rip the bread into rough pieces and, in a small bowl, pour the milk over it, pushing the pieces down into the milk. Soak until all the milk is absorbed.


Put the onion in the food processor and process till chopped finely.
Add the hatch chili peppers and process again briefly.


Mash the soggy bread with a fork and then add to a large bowl with all of the other ingredients. 


Mix well.

Tip the lot into a loaf pan lined with foil. (The foil is not essential, especially if your pan is nonstick, but it does make clean up so much easier.)


Bake for about an hour or until the meatloaf is browned nicely and internal temperature reaches 155°F or 68°C. The temperature will continue to rise, reaching a safe temp of 165°F or 74°C for the ground turkey. Cover with foil for 10 minutes before slicing to serve. 


I suggest serving this juicy meatloaf alongside some rich mashed potatoes, gravy and the vegetable of your choice.

Food Lust People Love: This hatch chili pepper meatloaf is flavorful and tender. It’s a meaty well-seasoned main course, made with both ground turkey and beef. So easy too!

Enjoy!

As I mentioned above, it’s Sunday FunDay and we are honoring Elvis today! Check out the links below. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on the Farm

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.



Pin this Hatch Chili Pepper Meatloaf!

Food Lust People Love: This hatch chili pepper meatloaf is flavorful and tender. It’s a meaty well-seasoned main course, made with both ground turkey and beef. So easy too!

 .

Monday, December 26, 2022

Spiced Pear Muffins #MuffinMonday

These spiced pear muffins are light, fluffy and full of fall flavors. The aroma as they bake is wonderful and will make your whole house smell fabulous. 

Food Lust People Love: These spiced pear muffins are light, fluffy and full of fall flavors. The aroma as they bake is wonderful and will make your whole house smell fabulous.

If you’ve been reading along here for a while, you know that the last Monday of every month is Muffin Monday. I get together with a group of bakers and we share muffin recipes. 

This month, I brought these to the vet clinic that helps Lone Star Boxer Rescue and our partners Austin Boxer Rescue with our pups as a thank you for their service all year round. I also brought some homemade peanut brittle. We love them and couldn’t rescue the dogs we do without their help, so I wanted to bring them an extra special Christmas treat! 

Spiced Pear Muffins

If you don’t have sugar crystals or demerara sugar for the cinnamon sugar topping, you can substitute regular sugar. This recipe is adapted from one on A Baking Journey.

Ingredients
1 medium pear
1 2/3 cup or 200g flour
1/3 cup or 70g brown sugar
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
2 eggs
1/2 cup or 120ml canola or other light oil
1/2 cup or 120g Greek yogurt

Cinnamon sugar topping (optional, but highly recommended)
1 1/2 tablespoons demerara sugar or sugar crystals
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Method
Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. Line your 12-cup muffin pan with paper liners or grease the pan well with oil.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt and spices. 


Peel, core and cut the pear into small pieces. If you cut them too large, they tend to sink to the bottom of the muffin batter. 


Add the pears pieces to the flour mixture and stir to coat. 


In another mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs, canola and yogurt until smooth.
 

Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture.


Fold until just combined. 


Divide the muffin batter between the cups in your prepared muffin pan. 


For the cinnamon sugar topping, if using, mix together the sugar and ground cinnamon in a small bowl. 


Sprinkle some of it over each muffin.


Bake for about 20-25 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.  Place the muffins on a cooling rack. 

Food Lust People Love: These spiced pear muffins are light, fluffy and full of fall flavors. The aroma as they bake is wonderful and will make your whole house smell fabulous.

Serve warm or at room temperature. 

Food Lust People Love: These spiced pear muffins are light, fluffy and full of fall flavors. The aroma as they bake is wonderful and will make your whole house smell fabulous.

Enjoy! 

As I mentioned above, it's Muffin Monday, the very last one of 2022! Many thanks to my fellow bakers. Please check out the recipes we are sharing below.


#MuffinMonday is a group of muffin loving bakers who get together once a month to bake muffins. You can see all of our lovely muffins by following our Pinterest board. Updated links for all of our past events and more information about Muffin Monday can be found on our home page.


Pin these Spiced Pear Muffins!

Food Lust People Love: These spiced pear muffins are light, fluffy and full of fall flavors. The aroma as they bake is wonderful and will make your whole house smell fabulous.

 .

Sunday, December 4, 2022

2-Minute Quick Fudge

This rich, nutty 2-Minute Quick Fudge is so easy that children can make it all by themselves. Even better, its main ingredients are store cupboard and refrigerator staples: powdered sugar, cocoa powder, butter and milk. 

Food Lust People Love: This rich, nutty 2-Minute Quick Fudge is so easy that children can make it all by themselves. Even better, its main ingredients are store cupboard and refrigerator staples.

It’s perfect for slumber parties, unexpected midnight munchies and, especially important this time of year, it makes a great gift for neighbors and friends. Who doesn't like fudge?!

I miss the days when my daughters still lived at home and we’d have a fairly steady stream of overnight guests and sleepovers on the weekends. I was in my absolute element cooking and baking for a crowd. 

One of our favorite sleepover meals was homemade pizza. I’d make the dough and pizza sauce and set out all of the toppings. Each girl would get a ball of dough to spread out on a pan and top her own custom made pizza. It took awhile to make and bake them all so the pizza was both entertainment for part of the evening, and dinner. 

As they got older, I’d head off to my room to read after we ate, knowing that they were quite capable of baking up a pan of brownies and more on their own, if the munchies hit. The muted giggles and games and music from downstairs were joy to me. 

I originally created this recipe post for a sleepover theme blog event so I was determined to find a quick fudge recipe that children could make on their own with simple ingredients. No condensed milk or marshmallow fluff since a lot of folks don’t keep those in the cupboard. I didn’t want the stove involved either. Flames and unsupervised children should never mix. Unfortunately, most quick fudge recipes call for one or both those things. 

Until I found this one in my archives. I’d love to give credit where it’s due, but the source wasn’t in my notes. It did say that nuts were optional. I had scratched through Nuts to write Pecans. Because pecans are my favorite nut. And I added the mini M&Ms. 

The bottom line is, you can eat the base quick fudge all on its own. It’s perfectly chocolate-y and rich. Or you can add in whatever you like. Chopped candy bars, mint chips, peanut butter chips, mini marshmallows, other nuts? They’d all be excellent. 

2-Minute Quick Fudge

Technically, this does take just a bit longer than two minutes because you have to chop the pecans and measure all of your other ingredients out. It’s still super quick and worth it!  

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g powdered sugar
1/2 cup or 40g unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
1/4 cup or 60ml milk
1/2 cup or 113g butter 
1 tablespoon vanilla
1/2 cup or 57g chopped pecans, plus more for decoration, if desired
1/2 cup or 100g mini M&Ms, plus more for decoration, if desired

Method
Grease an 8 x 8 in or 20 x 20cm pan or line it with baking parchment across the bottom and up at least two opposing sides, so that the fudge can be lifted out of the pan by those ends. 

In a large microwavable mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, cocoa and salt in mixing bowl. 


Add milk and butter. Do not mix. 


Cook uncovered in a microwave oven on high for 2 minutes. Remove bowl from microwave and stir well to mix the ingredients into a lovely thick chocolate.


Add the vanilla, pecans and mini M&Ms.  Stir until blended. 


Pour or spoon the fudge into your prepared pan. 


Press it out evenly in the pan. 


Sprinkle on the extra mini M&Ms and pecans, if using. Press them down with a spoon so they stick into the fudge. 


If your kitchen is warm, you can put the pan in the freezer for 20 minutes to cool and set. My quartz countertop is cold this time of year so mine set up quickly without chilling. 

Cut into small squares with a sharp knife and serve. Store in an airtight container. 

Food Lust People Love: This rich, nutty 2-Minute Quick Fudge is so easy that children can make it all by themselves. Even better, its main ingredients are store cupboard and refrigerator staples.

Tip: If you are giving this fudge away as a gift, cut a piece of thick cardboard into a square. Cover it in foil and stack the pieces of fudge on top. Cover with cling film, ribbon optional. Voilà – a pretty gift package! 

Food Lust People Love: This rich, nutty 2-Minute Quick Fudge is so easy that children can make it all by themselves. Even better, its main ingredients are store cupboard and refrigerator staples.

Enjoy! 

It’s Sunday FunDay and today we are sharing recipes for holiday sweets and treats. Check out all the links below. Many thanks to our host, Wendy of A Day in the Life on a Farm and her able stand-in, Sue of Palatable Pastime


We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.



Pin this 2-Minute Quick Fudge!

Food Lust People Love: This rich, nutty 2-Minute Quick Fudge is so easy that children can make it all by themselves. Even better, its main ingredients are store cupboard and refrigerator staples.

 .