New Year

New Year, new ideas, new recipes, well that is the plan at any rate. Went I started the blog it was to attempt to overcome some serious writers block for an e-fan-zine that I was writing for at the time. Happenstance and circumstance being what they are, I left “The City Scoop” in mid-Spring of last year. It was a sad, yet amicable parting of the ways. I was kind of getting tired of the game, after 4 years of playing and wanted to move on. A friend of my husbands got us both into World of Warcraft. From a culinary stand point the game is much easier, as one of the things that you do in game play is make food, from recipes. Some items are easy to translate into real world food, Beer Basted Boar Ribs and Infused Mushroom Meatloaf, others not so much, Gooey Spider Cake and Rhino-lisous Worm –burger. And each new expansion comes out with more food!!!! I love trade skills…

From the latest expansion, The Wrath of the Lich King, comes “Infused Mushroom Meatloaf”. This is a recipe from a repeatable daily quest, located in the magical floating city of Dalaran, given by the NPC Katherine Lee. In game, to make this you take 4 infused mushrooms, found in Dalaran’s magically infused sewer system, add 2 “chilled meats”, looted off of any one of the myriad of animals in the new mega-zone Northrend, and mix in a meatloaf pan over a cooking fire. Once done you deliver the goods to a trinket vendor who gives you 9 gold, a Dalaran Cooking Award and a spice bag. In the RL world I infuse the mushrooms, picked from the grocery store, with garlic, lemon, bacon and Worcestershire sauce. While my meat is chilled, it comes from steers, not rhinos, mammoths, or “Shovel tusks” (whatever those are) though you can add veal, pork, chicken, turkey, etc.


Infused Mushroom Meatloaf

1 Pint of mushrooms cleaned, stemmed and diced
5-7 rashers (slices) of bacon diced
1-2 cloves of garlic minced
The zest and juice of ½ a lemon
2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce divided
1-1 ½ pounds Ground beef (I like 80/20 but leaner is ok) or your mix of meats
1 egg
½ a medium onion diced
½ cup of ketchup
¼ teaspoon of Tabasco sauce
¼ cup of seasoned bread crumb (optional)


Pre-heat the oven to 375.
In a large skillet render the bacon until the drippings look like light soap bubbles. Then add the garlic and stir for about a minute, making sure the garlic does not burn. Next add the mushrooms and cook until the give off all of their liquid. Add the lemon zest, the lemon juice, half the Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Reduce (boil off) the liquid until the pan is almost dry. Remove mushroom mixture from the pan and let cool.
In a large bowl add the rest of the ingredients, the meat, egg, onion, ketchup, bread crumbs, Tabasco, the rest of the Worcestershire sauce and salt and pepper to taste. Add the cooled mushroom mixture. Mix with your hands until combined, no more than a minute. You want to be careful on the mixing, over mixing leads to tough and dry meatloaf. Heck over handling meat in general leads to the Dark Side. Never “flip” meat more than once and never EVER, smooch burgers!!!!!!

Bake at 375 for about 45 -75 minutes or until the center of your loaf reaches a temperature of 150-155 deg. F. yeah I know that is not the 160 deg. The USDA wants us to cook things to; however you are going to let the meatloaf “rest” for 15 minutes for the juices to redistribute and the internal temperature to rise those last few degrees.

Slice and serve with your favorite meatloaf sides, I like Brussels sprouts sautéed in the same way as the mushrooms and mashed cauliflower.

Option 2:
If you like your onions a little more done, try sautéing them with the bacon before you put in the garlic. Bacon, onions and garlic is the base for many of my families recipes, handed down from my Grandfather Kelley Pettit.