Meal No. 4004: Lamb & Mushroom Meatloaf

Another Williamson Wednesday took place just over a week ago, when dear friend Amy was at the table for dinner and an evening of hanging out. That was a good opportunity for our latest go at lamb and mushroom meatloaf, always a crowd-pleaser with its unique combination of ingredients. It comes from a cookbook from the Asheville-based Tupelo Honey Cafe, and I first made this all the way back in 2013 for Meal No. 801. Standard alongside in my mind is another Tupelo Honey Cafe favorite: smashed sweet potatoes. I turned our recent Texas toast rolls into garlic bread, and roasted whole green beans with a really nice Shenandoah Valley herb mix filled in the rest of our plates.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

Meal No. 3914: Lamb & Mushroom Meatloaf

Last Monday, with high hopes it might be a suitable menu, I offered up another one of the house favorites: lamb and mushroom meatloaf. It always feels like a possible risk to serve this, given that I do not know how new guests might feel about lamb, or about meatloaf. Fortunately, this easy and delightful guest is down with both. With the standard ride-along of smashed sweet potatoes and suitable third item of hoisin roasted green beans, this meal often tips over into feast territory for me.

[If it seems like a numbered meal was skipped over, it's because I added yet another salad meal from the previous night to an earlier blog post.]

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

Meal No. 3739: Lamb & Mushroom Meatloaf

My gosh: when it's been almost 40 years since laying eyes on a dear college friend, the evening of the reunion simply cannot arrive quickly enough. That's what made me so very happy Thursday a week ago to hear the car drive up in the lot and behind its wheel to find the one and only Kelly Clark. The long gap in our UNC-birthed friendship is on my shoulders, thanks to a 14-year delay in responding to an email! Of course, because he moved to New York after graduating from UNC, and then lived overseas some of the intervening years, and now has nestled his family into quaint New England, it's not as though we're going to run into one another at the Harris Teeter.

I'd promised to make dinner and something that captured and spanned the state was the clever idea that drove the menu design. We'll head west for the main meal, borrowing from Asheville's Tupelo Honey Cafe, the source of the recipe for lamb and mushroom meatloaf and smashed sweet potatoes, pictured above. Roasted herbed asparagus joined the plates as well.

Dessert took us to the other end of the state, where might often be found the popular Atlantic Beach pie, our home state riff on key lime pie with lemon as the featured flavor. Tying the menu up into a neat bow is that this wonderful dessert gained national attention thanks to an NPR feature on Chef Bill Smith of Chapel Hill's Crook's Corner bringing it to the fore. It could not have been a finer evening, here in Carolina, and I'm glad we'll have more to look forward to on Kelly's frequent trips to nearby Greensboro.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

"One Phenomenal Pie: Atlantic Beach Pie," from Chef Bill Smith. Published in Our State Magazine, May 2014. Also featured in "Found Recipes" on All Things Considered from National Public Radio, broadcast April 13, 2013. First made in the RoHo: July 2014.

Meal No. 3573: Lamb & Mushroom Meatloaf

A short two-week interval between was enough cushion for bringing back the once-popular-but-now-rare lamb and mushroom meatloaf, along with signature smashed sweet potatoes and roasted broccoli florets. That's what was served up Easter Monday when Kristen and Mookie were here for dinner. It turned out to be pretty darned good, too, inviting seconds of various elements of the menu.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

Meal No. 3564: Multi-Mushroom Lamb Meatloaf

The rare occasion that brings friend and colleague Robb Warfield to the house must be celebrated in style. That's why Tuesday's dinner proved perfect to break out an enduring favorite from the Tupelo Honey Cafe bookbook: lamb and multi-mushroom meatloaf, along with smashed sweet potatoes and hoisin-roasted whole green beans. I'm getting dangerously close to the 20-year mark of knowing Robb, beginning when he helped launch the new Atkins High School magnet programs here in Winston-Salem. We still work together today, although it involves me flying over to Senegal where he is superintendent of Dakar Academies.

Special company called for a special appetizer, and it was easy enough to serve up a fresh dish of warm Swiss, Gruyère, and bacon dip as the evening got underway.

The first time Robb was scheduled to sup here was almost 13 years ago, and it was a bust because my hot water heater had gone on the fritz and I couldn't make dinner as a result! As has dependably been the back-up on similar occasions, that night so many years ago we just dashed around the corner to Foothills for our meal. I'm glad this year everything worked out and we could keep the dinner party here in the glorious confines of the Roediger House.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

"Swiss and Bacon Dip," from Rachael Ray. Available online at the Food Network website.

Meal No. 3426: Lamb and Mushroom Meat Loaf

A dish that was once perhaps too popular and much loved here has been brought back after a two-and-a-half year hiatus: lamb and mushroom meat loaf, based on a recipe from the very popular Tupelo Honey Cafe in Asheville. [Interestingly, we have just passed the 10th anniversary of the first time I made the THC lamb meat loaf!] Thursday a week ago was the most recent occasion, because dear friends Amy and Gern were over for supper and I do believe this is one of the dishes they are fond of. To me, the natural and best-suited accompaniment is also from Tupelo Honey Cafe: smashed sweet potatoes. And I always am happy to have some roasted broccoli florets. The extra touch on the menu, though, was a pan of maple buttermilk dinner rolls which were pillowy soft and tasty as heck.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

Maple Buttermilk Bread based on "Soft and Sweet Buttermilk Honey Bread," by Beth Kirby of The Local Milk blog. [Published 09 April 2014]

Meal No. 3242: Shrimp and Grits with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce

The noontime meal for me on the first day of December required reaching back almost four years into the archives and coming out with shrimp and grits, Tupelo Honey Cafe-style, with roasted red peppers and a nice buttery sauce instead of a heavy cream one. I served it over Louisville-ground yellow grits, also heavy on the butter, and it was quite a delicious lunch.

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"Shrimp and Goat Cheese Grits with Roasted Red Pepper Sauce," in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011), p. 100-101, 179.

Guidance for making the creamy grits: Luquire Family Stone Ground Grits, milled in Greenwood, SC.

Meal No. 3018: Sautéed Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Roasted Red Bell Peppers

Seven years after starting the renovation and addition project that led to the creation of the kitchen space I love so much, I piloted a never-before-tried recipe for sautéed rainbow trout, depending on a recipe from the cookbook I'd been given. Seven years after that, I decided to make it for the second time. It represented a special-seeming supper for a quiet Thursday night, when winter's capacity to be ugly and dreary was strongly felt. A meal like this can certainly make one feel a bit better about everything, particularly when the sides include creamy grits and roasted asparagus cuts.

It was one of those cold damp drizzly bone-chilling January days, and to get over the numb hands and the fruitless search for warmth, I lit up Fire No. 76 and kept it going through the evening. I was freezing most of the day.

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Based on "Sautéed Sunburst Red Rainbow Trout with Spinach and Roasted Red Bell Peppers," by Elisabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. In Tupelo Honey Cafe: New Southern Flavors from the Blue Ridge Mountains. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2014), p. 144-145.

Adaped from "Creamy Grits," from Luquire Family Stone Ground Grits, milled in Greenwood, SC.

Meal No. 2792: Lamb and Mushroom Meat Loaf

Well, the nice weather was awesome for its three-day run, but last Friday saw a return to temps in the 40s and rain rolled in around mid-day. That's all it took to switch the meal gears over into the comfort realm, so I made lamb and mushroom meat loaf along with roasted broccoli and a choice between the last of a batch of leftover roasted sweet potatoes or a lump of instant potatoes.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf," in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011), p. 150.

Meal No. 2756: Lamb and Mushroom Meat Loaf

We were under the impression that the first snow event of this winter was to intrude upon us as last week wrapped up, but Friday was not much of a snow day. Some beautiful big flakes in the morning didn't even stick on the typical surfaces, and when more snow appeared later, it all amounted to a dusting at best. In between the bouts of wintry disappointment, I set to work in the kitchen so as to serve an early afternoon meal featuring lamb and mushroom meat loaf, spiced roasted sweet potatoes, and seasoned green beens. It proved to be a scrumptious filling meal.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf," in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011), p. 150.

"Roasted Sweet Potatoes," from Chelsea Lords of ChelseasMessyApron.com. [Published 04 March 2019]

Meal No. 2679: Beef and Mushroom Meat Loaf

On Tuesday of last week, as the season of autumn officially commenced, my love of September was reaffirmed by the gorgeous sunny weather and delightful outside time. I ventured out for provisions at Costco and Sam's Club but was glad to return home, store away the bulk items, and settle back in for a fine Roediger House afternoon. At dinnertime, I decided to try making the Tupelo Honey Cafe's lamb and mushroom meatloaf, but with ground beef this time. I pulled in a few additional flavor mix-ins to complement the change in protein, or so I hoped in the making of it. Creamy mashed potatoes and seasoned green beans turned it into a very complete meal, as in: complete with a bulging belly by early evening.

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Based on "Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

Meal No. 2667: Lamb and Mushroom Meat Loaf

Thursday was a take-it-easy kind of day, after the long weekend of yard work and then a couple of days focused on work tasks and an afternoon virtual teaching session on Wednesday. I kept the laundry going all day and caught up on some kitchen stuff. Hunger hit early, and so the full meal of the day was had around 2 pm...and it was very much deep in the heart of awesome: lamb and mushroom meat loaf, homemade creamy mashed potatoes, and delicious roasted hoisin-glazed whole green beans. I took the extra step of having some brown gravy as well. Lordy, this was a fantastic feast in all regards and respects.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf," in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011), p. 150.

Meal No. 2658: Herb-Roasted Whole Chicken with Savory Pan Gravy

It was lovely but got a bit hot again back on August 26th, and my ambitious outside agenda was not realized to any measurable extent. But I went ahead and made a feast of a dinner anyway, featuring an herb-roasted whole chicken and a savory pan gravy, along with smashed sweet potatoes and roasted broccoli florets. You know what made the dinner extra special? Getting to share it as a driveway picnic (social distancing is still in full force here!) with Roediger House regulars Mookie and Kristen.

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"Herb-Roasted Whole Chicken with Savory Pan Gravy" (p. 136-137) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128),  in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011).

Meal No. 2625: Lamb and Mushroom Meat Loaf

I don't know how it works at your house, but I'm of the opinion that it will be the end of the workday, a Friday, or a holiday weekend when one of the two house air conditioning systems decides to go on the blink. It was right at 5 o'clock last Friday when I had come in from working outside and passed through an 82°F kitchen...which led me to investigate the unit down in the cellar hoping it was just frozen up again. Alas, that didn't seem to be the explanation, so leaving it shut off didn't take care of things. I decided not to bring out the on-call guy over the weekend, and all the sleeping was done up in the attic guest nook over the weekend, which made Sumner extremely happy since he can bed down there with human company, instead of crashing in his crate as per usual. Yesterday, my longtime technician John came from Webb Heating & Air Conditioning. It was a relatively quick fix but not without a higher price tag: the motor was blown and had to be replaced. Now things are humming along...pretty cool.

Although the kitchen was 87°F while I was in the midst of making dinner Sunday night, which was even worse than I was expecting it to be, I still pressed forward with my meal plans...with a 450°F oven working hard for about an hour just so we could sit down to delicious Tupelo Honey Cafe-inspired lamb and mushroom meat loaf. With creamy homemade mashed potatoes, overloaded with butter (as they should be), and a homemade brown gravy, it was the kind of meal I worked hard in the yard to earn.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

Meal No. 2597: Lamb & Mushroom Meat Loaf

Saturday night at the Roediger House, a pretty awesome dinner of lamb meat loaf with homemade mashed potatoes and roasted broccoli. It had the added benefit of making enough that there were tasty leftovers for Sunday evening supper out on the driveway, as a brief interruption to the hard labors of the yard that day.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

Meal No. 2562: Lamb & Mushroom Meat Loaf

As April began a week ago Wednesday, the evening's dinner consisted of lamb and mushroom meatloaf, smashed sweet potatoes, and seasoned green beans. It was quite a load of food but some of my grocery shopping took place without knowing that the Roediger House would not be hosting any guests at all once the societal shut-down became our new strange reality. In fact, when I was stocking up, I had in mind that others might be partaking as well. These are unprecedented times, no doubt.

It is not lost on me how very serious this current coronavirus pandemic is, nor is it lost on me the tremendously fortunate position I'm in. I live in a home that is paid for. I have no car payments or student loans or credit card debt. I've been able to afford my own health insurance. My professional work might be suspended but there is nothing perilous about my financial situation. Food is plentiful and entertainments are easily indulged in. When I step out into my yard, I can enjoy watching my pup frolic or sit and watch the birds at the regularly-refilled feeders and I feel that I am relatively safe and that one day normalcy will return.

At the start of the city-wide (and then state-wide) stay-at-home order, I decided to create for myself a task jar with random slips of both fun and necessary tasks and chores. On the one hand, I think it's really helpful for self-discipline in the face of days upon days of unstructured time...and my tendency to procrastinate or indulge in simple distractions. On the other hand, I know it seems a bit frivolous and it definitely reminds me that this is a privileged life, heavily dosed with no small measure of unearned advantages. But there it is.

So, I'll report that the fourth day of task jar lottery was much kinder to me than I deserved: "Watch a Movie." So I did, after finding that Hulu was streaming a highly-regarded film that was on my movie-theatre docket for the week that the shut-down began: Portrait of a Lady on Fire.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meatloaf" (p. 150) and "Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing (2011).

Meal No. 2530: Oven-Roasted Baby Back Pork Ribs

In between a work trip to Virginia and an observations training day with aspiring principals in Greensboro, I had a day of catching up on routine tasks on the first Wednesday in February. But I also had time to make up a decent dinner for the three of us around the table that night: oven-roasted baby back pork ribs with homemade barbecue sauce, smashed sweet potatoes, and Brussels sprouts gratin. I was a bit surprised at myself for making the trip for seconds and not being modest about the additional amounts I consumed.

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"How to Make Great Ribs in the Oven," by Emma Christensen. From The Kitchn. [Published 01 July 2017]

"Homemade BBQ Sauce," from Alison Ebright "Ali" Martin of GimmeSomeOven.com. [Published 03 July 2014]

"Smashed Sweet Potatoes" (p. 128) in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

"Brussels Sprouts Gratin," by Alison Roman. From Cooking on newyorktimes.com.

Meal No. 2519: Herb-Roasted Whole Chicken with Savory Pan Gravy

As the weather turned here in Winston-Salem back on Thursday, January 16th, from our wonderful warm spell into cold winds bringing a spate of below-normal temps, I found myself deep in dinner prep for a welcoming feast for two: herb-roasted whole chicken, with the savory pan gravy that is perfect both for the chicken and the homemade mashed potatoes I made with it. And with all that, so what if the plate was rounded out by canned peas? I like 'em too.

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"Herb-Roasted Whole Chicken with Savory Pan Gravy," in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC (2011), p. 136-137.

Meal No. 2483: Lamb & Mushroom Meat Loaf

For four of us on hand Sunday a week ago at dinnertime, I served up some delicious lamb and mushroom meatloaf, along with reheated creamy four-cheese mac-n-cheese and buttered garden peas. This version of meat loaf always comes out tasty and good, so I'm glad I was gifted with the Tupelo Honey Cafe cookbook (from which it came) after a houseguest's visit to Asheville.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.

Meal No. 2394: Lamb & Mushroom Meat Loaf

It was kind of a sizable meal for the early bird special on Thursday, but I was headed to a 6:30 documentary screening and needed supper to be over before I left. It was still a great meal, though: lamb meat loaf, buttered mashed potatoes, and garden peas. I had more than my fill.

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"Lamb and Multi-Mushroom Meat Loaf" (p. 150), in Tupelo Honey Cafe: Spirited Recipes from Asheville's New South Kitchen, by Elizabeth Sims with Chef Brian Sonoskus. Kansas City: Andrews McMeel Publishing, LLC, 2011.