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: