I learned a lesson in toddlerese last night. The Boy Wonder stayed home from school because he is, in his word, snurgley. By late afternoon he was feeling better and wanted to help make dinner so I invited him into the kitchen and told him we were going to have Mommy's special meatloaf. Silence. And then suddenly, "I DON'T WANT MEATLOAF! I DON'T LIKE MEATLOAF! MEATLOAF IS STINKY!"


Fair enough. The thing is, I'm pretty sure he's never had meatloaf . In a flash of inspiration I told him that since he doesn't like meatloaf we would have something else instead. "What?" he wanted to know. A giant meatball. I told him we'd make a giant meatball instead of the meatloaf. "Cool," he said, "I just love meatballs." And so the giant meatball was mixed, formed and cooked using the exact same recipe as for the aforementioned and rejected meatloaf. I am at once regretful for having deceived him and impressed at my own cleverness.


This particular meatloaf/meatball was made with a pound of ground turkey, mixed with an egg, some soft breadcrumbs, fresh ground pepper, and a little A-1 steak sauce. It was, if I may say so, very good served with polenta, grean beens and a bit of beef gravy. The Boy Wonder even tried some polenta, which made me very happy. He said it was "kind of mushy, but not bad." And so was saved another dinner.


There has been a change of plan for the weekend which has left me free to scratch my increasingly demanding canning itch. Not that I wasn't looking forward to the trip, because I was, but sometimes it's just nicer to be home, you know? Anyway, I'm out of marinated mushrooms and mango jam and have had a special request for grapefruit marmalade so I'd like to get working on it. Plus, there's sourdough v.2 to work on, as well as some experimenting with roast pork that I've been planning for months.


I also need to clean out the canning cupboard to see exactly where I stand with regards to jars, lids and such. Unlike some canners, I seldom to never actually put empty jars back in the handy boxes but rather stick them willy-nilly back on the shelves. The result is that at any given time I'm not sure how many jars of what size are available and whether or not I have rings available for them. I am resolved to organize myself in this area once and for all. Now that this weekend is free, sort of "found time" if you will, I am out of excuses.


I'd like to incorporate more pictures into this blog. I'll work on that, too, this weekend, in between the other stuff.