Blue Plate Special

Somewhere around 15 years ago, back in the US Diners became retro chic and staples like meatloaf and chicken pot pies came back into style.

In honor of V´s birthday, I made a comfort food dinner of meatloaf, scalloped potatoes and green beans.

I don´t follow a recipe for meatloaf - though I find here, I have to use a mix of ground beef and ground pork because the beef is so lean it dries out. In this case I added garlic, onion, red peppers, breadcrumbs, egg, dijon, worcestershire, black pepper, and salt and spread it with ketchup before putting it in the oven just because Mom did it that way.

I got the recipe for scalloped potatoes here. Modifications were substituting gouda for cheddar (I can´t find anything for less than 40€ that tastes anything remotely like cheddar) and adding sauteed onion to the cheese sauce. They even improve the next day.

He also got some DVDs and some rose plants to replace casualties that didn´t make it through our August absence. Many happy returns of the day, luz de mi vida.