Wednesday Night Experiments

Stopped at Westborn on the way home to get stuff for Saturday. Last week my Mom had called and she asked me if I had a good meatloaf recipe. I was shocked! I told her I have spent at least 40 years trying to recreate the meatloaf she used to make when I was a kid. And, I never have made it as good as she did. I said, "Why not make your usual meatloaf?" and she said she forgot how!

So, Saturday, I am going to her house to make her a meatloaf dinner. My brother Carl is going to join us as well. And, I needed supplies for the meal (I haven't finalized the menu just yet).

Probably because I was focused on cooking, when I got home, I decided to make New England clam chowder again. Why? Because it seemed to me when I made it on Saturday, it was a little different (if you remember, I made it over the course of two days). Since it was just the appetizer, I really didn't think about it at the time, but it did occur to me later. So, I wanted to see if I missed any steps (and, I like clam chowder and I needed dinner, anyway, lol!)

Anyway, worked through it and sure enough, I did miss two steps. One was when the potatoes are done, but before you add the clams, I use the stick blender to thicken it even more (being careful to leave at least half of the potatoes intact). Before I got the stick blender, I used a potato masher, BTW. The other was, when I serve it, I put a pat of butter on top of the soup, along with a sprinkle of chopped parsley. Jyl dished it out and I mentioned the parsley, but forgot the butter.

Mystery solved!

A combination of TV watching and reading took me up to bedtime.