Stuffed Meatloaf and Failed Hollandaise

Stuffed Meatloaf-

Since Carson has the meatloaf thing down, we decided to mix things up a little bit tonight and do stuffed meatloaf.  It is easier than it sounds. We basically mix all the ingredients for Aunt Laurie's Meatloaf recipe (White Way to Cook) in a gallon size Ziplock bag then squish it evenly to all four sides of the bag, expelling all of the air as we go. Once we have a shrink-wrapped slab of meat, we open the bag, then peel the two sides open so now it is an open faced slab of meat lying on a wrapper. Next we lay down a layer of bacon and cheese then roll it up like cinnamon rolls. Place the seam side down and bake as the recipe instructs. 

The next part of the meal prep brought a dramatic turn of events. I picked up some frozen veggie/potato cakes from IKEA and thought they may be emphasized with a spoonful of hollandaise sauce. This tricky sauce has never given me trouble until today. When I was whipping the egg/lemon juice mixture as I was adding the melted butter, my whisk broke. If it was a regular whisk this would be no big deal. But since I was using an electric whisk, when one wire snapped off, the 300 RPM motor continued to whip melted butter, egg yolks and lemon juice all over my kitchen, and myself. 

(All the yellow is egg/butter. I hope it comes out!!)

Distraught with additional clean-up, I did not remove the sauce from the heat soon enough and within 10 seconds, my beautifully creamed sauce had separated and poached the yolk. 

 Dang. 

Now, not only did I have to spend an hour cleaning up sporadic splatter, but I would have to forgo the sauce. 

As an after thought, I remembered a simple fairly fail proof white sauce, that my grandma White taught me how to make, that I decided would be an equally suitable substitution. 

Cream sauce:

1/4 c butter

1/4 c flour

1 c milk

S&P

Melt butter in sauce pan, whisk in flour, add milk stirring regularly over medium heat until thickened. Salt and pepper to taste. To make cheesy, add 1/2 c shredded cheese. 

The Meatloaf turned out perfectly. 

The veggie cakes... 50/50 liked/hated. Aj and I really liked it, the sauce definitely contributed. Ash and cars were dry heaving after one bite. 

 Oh, family dinners. 

(Carsons place settings tonight cracked me up!)
 

One cute comment worth mentioning: Aj randomly said, "Mom, I'm glad you can cook.  Did you know some people really, just can't cook? Well I am really glad you can".  

If that's not a compliment from my 15 year old, I don't know what is.