Monday, February 28, 2011

Erupting Volcano... and the Aftermath




"Yesterday, I ate a volcano," Theo wrote for homework. I wish you could have seen the look on his face -- he was cracking himself up.

Elizabeth Streich, a good friend and follower of this blog, invited me to her house to create a volcano out of meatloaf. I loved her idea, and was very excited to get started. While  her adorable two-year-old, Matthew, napped, she and I got to work.

We chopped and sauteed our veggies, and combined our meat with sour cream (her idea -- keeps the meatloaf moist!), Elizabeth's homemade breadcrumbs, eggs, and other random ingredients we pulled from her pantry and fridge...

...and as we worked, we deliberated about how we'd actually make this thing -- looking back, my fondest memory from the night. You could say the conversation was, er, heated?

Ultimately, we shaped foil like a volcano as a foundation, mounting the meat on top.We inserted an empty tomato paste can to form the opening.

We pulled it out of the oven just as my husband arrived with our kids -- and a giant bag of lights.

(You know you have a true friend when she doesn't have you committed for showing up to her house with equipment to do a photo session with...meatloaf.)

We removed the tomato paste can, moved the volcano to a serving dish (kinda looks like the volcano is in Hawaii, right?), and heated up some tomato sauce to pour in the center.

Here's the volcano, erupting!


The aftermath:


But wait, there's video:

13 comments:

  1. Mmmmm, I'd love me some Volcano meatloaf =D I think I need to..yes yes, I must make meat loaf!

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  2. Elizabeth StreichTuesday, March 01, 2011

    Great post, Elyse! And perhaps the yummiest meatloaf I've ever had! Props to Elyse for idea to put all the veggies in the food processor for a super smooth loaf. delish!

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  3. Elyse! As I read this incredible entry about your beautiful belching meatloaf, I thought of the perfect music to listen to while eating it: "Disco Inferno" and "On Top of Spaghetti" What do you think?

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  4. I think I love the contrast above all! The fact that you're not a one-note pony is what makes your blog so great! ;)

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  5. did the foil make it taste tinny at all? love that your creations are also edible :)

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  6. Good question, Annie. I doubt it--if there were tinny notes (guffaw!) they would have been overpowered by the brown sugar glaze.

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  7. Elyse... I love that Theo got such a kick out of his joke!

    Cynthia

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  8. This is amazing-makes me think of Hawaii!
    Where did you ever come up with this idea?!
    Kathleen

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  9. Now if you only had some extra virgin olives to sacrifice.

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  10. It's so beautiful! Theo's ridiculous topic sentence was a leap of witty imagination to make ten year old Jonathan proud and giggly.

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  11. This is really a nice post, that you have updated us with all of nice information that can be very useful for future.

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