Superbowl Supper- Meatloaf and Brown Butter Mashed Potatoes

In continuation of my quest to execute all of the recipes in Smitten Kitchen, I decided to have my parents over for a Superbowl Supper.  (A week later, I am still unsure who played, and I haven't seen a single commercial).  But, there's no reason too small to host a small supper party!  Also, I'm vegetarian, and there is a whole section of meat recipes in this book, so I need an audience.

As with everything I cook, one small recipe or project quickly slippery slopes into marathon.  In this case, I needed some bread crumbs for the meatloaf, and we don't buy bread, so I made some.  And, since I was going through the trouble, I made 4 small rustic loaves.  I use Jim Lahey's No Knead technique, mostly.  When I want a slightly chewier bread, I add a few big sloshes of olive oil.  In this case, I did 2 loaves of olive oil, and 2 loaves of green olive rosemary, gave one of each to the neighbors and served the rest.

Since I'd made the bread, I decided to make an appetizer dip.  In MN a party just isn't a party without a creamcheezy dip. I thawed a frozen jar of tomato garlic confit (which I made in huge batches with extra heirlooms we had from the garden, with no plans in particular for it). I melted a few big chunks of cream cheese into it, added some lemon and a few shots of fermented hot sauce and covered with some shredded cheddar, and threw it in the hot oven for a bit and finished with broil for a sec.

I also wanted to make a salad, and I really make it a point to buy mostly locally grown produce.  This time of year, that limits us here in MN to things like cabbage and greenhouse grown/ hydroponic greens.  Splendid Table's Buttermilk-Garlic Slaw with Smoky Paprika sounded neat. I don't eat real mayo for eggy reasons, and we didn't have any premade mayo substitute. So, I made my own of olive oil, white wine vinegar, lemon juice, and a little Dijon mustard and salt- I winged it on the proportions and ingredients after looking at several vegan mayo recipes- most of them involved weird ingredients (starches, sugars, fillers, processed stuff) which I didn't want to deal with.  It turned out to be thinner than regular gloppy mayo, but it was a light flavorful tangy spread.  The slaw turned out great, and stayed in the fridge nicely for a day.  We ate it on day 2, too, but it lost crispness and the dressing was runny.  It was still very edible, though!    

The meatloaf recipe was pretty straightforward and not difficult, nor was the tomato glaze, which I didn't try because of the worchester sauce.  But, they looked nice.  The brown butter mashed potatoes were really good, too.  I forgot to take a picture, but they were golden and light. 

I'd just gotten this new used DEscoware pan from Etsy, and I couldn't wait any longer to try it.  I found canned peach sauce, and canned apple pie filling, and I had rhubarb ginger sauce frozen, so I made a cobbler.  I used this dough recipe, and it was super good.  I served them with whipped cream sweetened slightly with cola syrup.  With all the preserved fruit, this was a super simple nice reason to keep the oven on for another hour, and also delicious for breakfast.