If you are quick, you will notice that April 29 is a Tuesday. It is not a typo. We had “Meatloaf Monday on Tuesday” this week. Doesn’t have the same ring, does it? We got invited to dinner at a friend’s home to hear about the work God is doing in a small country on the continent of Africa through the work of our friend’s brother who is a missionary. She was making homemade chicken pot pie and home made apple pie. There was no way we were turning that down. The hand of God has been on this friendship for the last 20 years- it stills my heart to have had no idea how it would look in 2025, but I know the Lord knew. The story of her brother’s work was amazing and dinner was perfection. One of those great cooks in my life.
We had been out of town for the 4 previous days with these two boys. There was no ‘Meatloaf Sunday’ for them but lots of playing, reading and foods they love. You learn much when you spend days living together. They are a true gift and we are so grateful for this time with them. Their dad was speaking at a conference in Colorado so mom was able to go along and enjoy a bit of downtime. Just look how grown up they are becoming.
At first I thought about skipping meatloaf this week but why not just have it on Tuesday since we would be watching Brooke’s boys. Also, I still have the recipe Brooke gifted me so I thought I could serve her dish to Terry and the boys. I was amazed how much meatloaf Noah ate. Even Sammy joined in at dinner time. Since I showed the oldest two boys, here are the youngest two. This was during Noah loving the meatloaf and dipping his veggies in ketchup. He loves ketchup, so maybe that is why he loves meatloaf. He also loves Papa so maybe he was following his lead.
Brooke was one of the guests at my retirement party that does not like meatloaf or make it so she gifted me Joanna Gaines recipe from this cookbook. That is Brooke’s finger pointing out the recipe for Week #26. She is a big fan of Magnolia Table, Half-Baked Harvest and several other professional chefs for recipes.
I get a little skittish about ‘professional’ recipes but this one was very easy and did not have fancy ingredients or lots of steps. It was only the second one that had me sauté the onion. And this one was in butter. This is the first time a recipe through 25 weeks called for butter. This is only the second to use tomato sauce. Terry asked if that is why this meatloaf had a bit of an orange tint to it. I do not remember that the first time, but maybe.
Terry noted from the start that it had a different texture than others. Also, he did not say that the house smelled delicious and I noted that the meatloaf did not have many juices in the pan. I bought the 85% lean as suggested in the recipe. I made carrots and potatoes with it and those were not as good as Week #5 as they were not cooking in any meatloaf juice. The potatoes were crispier so Noah acted as if they were french fries. And in the ketchup they went! This was one of a handful of meatloaves to date that have called for cheddar cheese. I used only the 1/4 cup finely chopped onion. Terry did not even comment on that at all. If I am being honest, I did not like this one very much at all. I am not a big fan but was starting to like meatloaf a little bit. How could I not with 26 weeks of it for dinner?! If this was served I would say, “no thank you, I don’t eat meatloaf.” But Terry really liked it. He said it was up there with mine. I did not think it tasted anything like mine. He gave it a 9.25. Yes, this is the first time, he went to the second decimal. He is funny. I think he was trying to be funny. However, that is a good rating. Brooke giving this me this recipe made me wonder about her other favorite Insta account to follow, Half-Baked Harvest. I might ask her to dig up if Tieghan makes makes a meatloaf. I could tack it on the end of this project. If she does, I am certain it will include brown butter. She always uses brown butter. Thanks Brook-o for the recipe!
Terry did say when he came into the house all he could smell were the Orange & Cranberry Scones I was making. Must be some serious orange smell to beat out meatloaf. Made them for my sister for Game Night this week. She has been asking, so why not.
I guess it is time to share another mishap this week. I was loading the car for our trip to Chicago to watch the boys and my shoe got caught on a bag handle and down the bag went. Salsa broke open and was everywhere. I cannot remember being as accident prone when I worked. Maybe I was meant to sit in a board room or in meetings where I cannot have accidents? Maybe all the places I am going and the things I am doing, leads me to more mishaps? Either way, the Lord made me so I will not fuss. And I will continue to be thankful that they are all minor accidents. Even the ones I do not share. There are more. Trust me.
Here is a bird update. This is Week #4 of Bluebird house watching. There are 24 boxes. Today I had to remove 18 House Sparrow eggs. I am not an expert but it would seem to me that the pretty little Tree Swallows, that are all over the park and flying around these boxes, are doing all the work to build these beautiful nests of grasses and feathers. Then at the last minute the House Sparrows drag in a bit of trash and lay their eggs. That is what I found in about 4 boxes today. It is really hard to pull those nests out and allow the eggs to fall. I was feeling kind of yucky about it and my daughter-in-law, Bethany who is a bit of an expert bird watcher made me feel so much better. She said in a text to me that House Sparrows are a HUGE problem for them too and she supports what I am doing with the nests. She called them bullies and said they eat all the seed so other birds cannot get any. The park also called them invasive and bullies. I took them out, but it did not feel good. I have more questions for poor Landon at JAMPD. He will be so tired of me by August. Here are a couple of pictures. Now, if someone tells me these are not House Sparrow eggs I will be heartbroken. Last week I could not destroy them because I was not sure. The next day Landon checked the eggs in question and said they were indeed House Sparrows. He took care of that nest and eggs. I had to suck it up today and just do it. 18 is just a lot of baby birds. On a side note, I saw other park workers today who where literally on their hands and knees, inch by inch, weeding a huge area of plants. In a 30 minute time span I met one lady who maybe moved 2-3 feet. That is some serious weeding around some very important plants. Maybe I should weed as just today I had one bird fly at my head, one scare me to scream when it flew out as I opened the box and I got two cuts with blood dripping down my leg. I need to always wear pants. However, running doesn’t always call for pants.
It was a big photo week!
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