Minestrone

Tonight I made Minestrone.  Now there is really no set recipe for this kind of soup, so I looked online.  Found a recipe from Taste of Home that looked pretty good.  Called for beef, carrots, onions, cabbage, rice, and other stuff.  So I cooked it up.  Made some cornbread muffins and a salad too.  Let me just say, the minestrone needed salt!  After adding salt it was pretty good.  Good, but not great.  I think next time I make minestrone I will either find another recipe or just start adding stuff to make it to my liking.

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Meatloaf

I forgot to post this until just now. A week ago or so I made meatloaf for dinner. I used a recipe from Mom's collection and tweaked it to my liking.  I sauteed onions, celery, and peppers, then mixed in the meat and other spices.  Topped it with plain ol' ketchup, and put it in the oven.  I also made apple salad and deviled eggs.  If you remember, a while back i made Spicy Pickled Red Beet Deviled Eggs.  I didn't pickle the eggs this time.  They were good, but not as good as the other ones.  The pickling made them so much better.  The meatloaf turned out great.  The key to great meatloaf is to saute the vegetables before mixing them in the ground meat.  I also made mashed potatoes and gravy.  Num num!

Meatloaf

Meatloaf with ketchup ready for the oven

Apple salad

Deviled eggs

Yummers!

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Restaurant review: Anthony's Restaurant - Manassas, VA

I went with the family for dinner tonight at Anthony's Restaurant in Manassas.  I have been there several times before.  Love that place.  They do Greek and Italian food right.  Most times I get the Gyro Platter.  It is amazing.  Last time I was there I got stuffed grape leaves.  They were quite good.  Tonight I thought about getting the Gyro Platter again, or maybe the Gyro Pita, but I decided to go Italian instead of Greek like I normally do.  Got the Cannelloni.  Tube pasta filled with meat, topped with Marinara sauce and cheese, and baked.  It came with a house salad and garlic bread.  It was good...very good.  I was too full to order dessert or I would have ordered the special dessert, Red Velvet Cheesecake.  It sounded amazing.  Check out their website, http://www.anthonysrestaurantva.com/.  They have two locations, the one in Manassas and the original one in Falls Church.

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Black Bean Chili

I subscribe to Bon Appetite magazine.  In the current issue there is a recipe for Black Bean Chili with Butternut Squash.  Dad thought it really looked good and wanted me to make it, so I made it for dinner tonight.  I didn't have butternut squash so I used sweet potato.  And I didn't have bulgur, so I used barley.  That's right...I don't follow recipes.  I worked tonight so Mom made cornbread to go with it.  It turned out pretty good.  Not the greatest chili, but good for vegetarian.  I think the recipe needs some tweaking before I like it enough to call it a keeper.

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Chicken Lasagna

I have perfected the classic lasagna, which I call Five Cheese Lasagna, so I decided to branch out and try chicken lasagna.  I replaced the ground beef with chicken.  However, I didn't let it sit overnight like I was supposed to.  I only let it sit for about 3 hours.  That's not good because after I baked the lasagna it was a bit runny.  The noodles were not quite cooked enough too.  Oh, well.  Now I know I must let the lasagna sit a long time before cooking it.  It still tasted great, though.  Dad said it was the best one I made yet.  Yea, it was good, but it could have been better.   I also made garlic bread and a salad.  It was good, not perfect though.  Next time I make chicken lasagna it will be perfect, hopefully.

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