Turkey Meatloaf

Nummy Nummy Turkey Meatloaf!

We switched over to ground turkey as a staple over ground beef quite some time ago. I have continued to tinker with my meatloaf recipe and think it's juuuust about right for us now. The lower temperature and longer baking time keep the meat nice and moist. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients

1 package Ground Turkey, about 1.5 lbs.

1 large egg, lightly beaten

1/2 cup seasoned breadcrumbs

1/4 cup milk

2-3 tablespoons sun dried tomatoes in olive oil, minced fine

1 1/2 teaspoons dried basil, or 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped fine

1 1/2 teaspoons dried parsley, or 2 tablespoons fresh, chopped fine

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 small onion, chopped

2-3 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon butter

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 cup ketchup to top meatloaf if preferred (Trader Joe's organic ketchup rocks and it keeps the top from drying out.)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Coat 4x12 inch loaf pan with non-stick spray. If you do not have this size pan, a regular loaf pan will work, just increase oven baking time as listed.
3. Combine first 9 ingredients in a medium bowl and set aside.
4. To a warm skillet, add olive oil and butter. Brown onions and garlic until soft.
5. Add onion/garlic mixture to turkey mixture. Combine and place in the loaf pan, patting into all corners.
6. Cover with ketchup if preferred.
7. Bake for 65 minutes. For the smaller pan, bake for 80 minutes.
8. Take out and let site for 5 minutes before slicing.

If you make this, I'd love to hear what you thought of the recipe!

Enjoy. :-)

Crafting and Crocheting

I know I haven't been posting much, but a lot of blogs are in the works and nearly done! The end of the school year and preparations for summer activities have kept the CelticMommy family rather busy!

First, I bring you a few quick photos and, tomorrow morning, a recipe for some tasty turkey meatloaf. But tonight, pretty pictures! The boys have been having fun crafting. I swear, customizing shirts with freezer paper stencils never gets old! Here are Em and Ro's latest creations. This summer, we plan to cover a few other shirts with fabric cut-outs. I'll make a quick tutorial for that soon.

On the crocheting front, I've finished a bunch of hats and mitts for Stitches from the Heart.

Combined with my fellow knitters and crocheters, these items are being taken to Stitches in Santa Monica on Thursday and will hopefully adorn a preemie or newborn child's head soon after! There are oodles of free knitted and crocheted patterns out there if you would like to donate some stitches from your heart.

Favorite free hat pattern #1.

Favorite free hat pattern #2.

Favorite free mitts pattern.

Last photo of the day is a new bathmat for Em and Ro's bathroom. I used the crumpled griddle stitch pattern for the center from The Ultimate Sourcebook of Knitting and Crochet Stitches and a simple SC border. By crocheting with two strands of cotton, the bathmat went super quick and it is plush enough to soak up the water. Oh, and it's machine washable! BONUS!

Tomorrow's blog with be about turkey meatloaf. Yummy! 'Nite all!

Anticipation

*With thanks to my children who waited to eat the cantaloupe so mommy could take another photo!*

One of my earliest and fondest memories from my childhood is of sitting on a bench in my apartment building. My great gramma had handed me a slice of cantaloupe with the rind on. I think it took me at least fifteen minutes to eat it.

By the time I was done, my face was covered in sweet cantaloupe juice... even my bangs and braids were sticky! My shirt was a mess and my whole upper body needed to be washed pretty much... which was a bonus as that meant it was now pool time. I think, because of this memory, I have always loved and always will love cantaloupe over honeydew and watermelon.

Flash forward to now, to my own children who also love all melon types. It just dawned on me about 15 minutes ago that they have never had melon with the rind on it... eaten the way I did. I look out into my garden at the spreading watermelon plants and it makes me smile to think that, one day in the not-too-distant future, I will be able to offer them our own, homegrown melon.

I will plunk them outside on a lawn chair with a juicy slice.
I will smile and watch them eat their melon alllll the way down to the very very end.
I will laugh as I turn the sprinklers on to wash the juice from their faces!

-- to be continued --

Summer Begins

Reorganizing the craft supplies for water coloring and other seasonal summer activities. Baskets of books for Em and Ro scattered in every bright spot.

Where did those water balloons go? Finding a new box of sidewalk chalk... pitchers of ice water at-the-ready. Cucumbers on the vine and watermelons on the way! How many berries on the bush, how many tomatoes are juuuust about there?! Let's check! Let's look Momma... I see one to pick... can we pick it?

School and homeschool are almost to an end... summer is beginning!

By Leaps and Bounds!

At first, you think it is going to be an ordinary week...


Then, a first tooth loss for Em and a note to the tooth fairy asking to keep the tooth! Asking about how she knows he lost the tooth. Asking do I have any of my old teeth. Asking... asking... asking...


A revelation for Ro that he has my ears and Daddy's toes. Peering in the mirror he wonders about those gorgeous eyes of his (they are my birthmothers' eyes) and why he has dots (freckles) on his skin... are they Mommy's dots or Daddy's? And what about...


Okay, a big Monday of discovery!

Today I am greeted with facts about our garden, "Momma, the cewmumbers are growing from the flowers... do you see!?"

And a reading four year old.

And a making-connections six year old. "Mom, when you married Daddy, you didn't have the same name right? You had a different name... that is how families grow you know. What was NaNa's old name?"
-and- "Mom, you have to balance the plane so that it won't tip over. See how the two sides are almost the same... it stays up that way."

Some days are just wonderful days. Others a growth by leaps and bounds!
I try not to blink and miss it.

P.S. Just as I am about to hit publish, in they walk with a bug specimen... "I want to take it to school! What do I feed it?"