Turkey Stuffin Meatloaf

Since we've been married, G and I have tried to try at least one new recipe a week. Sometimes we manage two or three new ones, sometimes none at all. But it's fun to find new favorites. I made this one in October, but had enough left over to freeze, so we had it again last night. It's different, but good!

Turkey-Stuffin’ Meatloaf (from the Rachael Ray Show)
Ingredients
• 7 tablespoons butter, divided
• 1 large onion, cut into small dice
• 5 to 6 pieces celery heart, cut into small dice
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons poultry seasoning
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 bag Pepperidge Farm traditional flavor stuffing cubes
• 2 quarts chicken stock, divided
• 3 to 3 1/2 pounds ground turkey
• 2 eggs
Yeilds: 2 loaves & enough gravy for both

Preparation
Preheat oven to 375ºF.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add 3 tablespoons of butter. When the butter is melted, add the onions, celery and bay leaf to the skillet, season with poultry seasoning, salt and freshly ground black pepper and cook until the veggies are tender.
Add the stuffing cubes to the skillet and mix in about 2 to 3 cups of chicken stock to moisten. Take the bay leaf out of the skillet, remove the skillet from the heat and let the mixture cool, about 5 minutes.
In a large bowl, mix the ground turkey, eggs and cooled stuffing mixture. Form the meat mix into 2 long loaves on a baking sheet. Drizzle them with EVOO and cook in the oven for about an hour, until brown and cooked through (165ºF internal temperature).
Add the remaining four tablespoons butter to a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once the butter is melted, add the flour and cook for about a minute. Whisk the remaining 6 cups of chicken stock into the skillet with the butter and flour mixture, and cook until thickened and bubbling, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

A time to give thanks

We spent Thanksgiving with my family in Pueblo. My parents, my brother and his family, and my uncle (my mom's brother who just had multiple bypass surgery 7 weeks ago. He is doing so wonderfully! He has been at home for two weeks now, has lost weight & is getting stronger everyday. That's the biggest thing we are all thankful for this year!)
Here is my brother, his wife and the three "bugs".

Add me & G- and that's all the kids. (We left the "grand-puppies", as my parents call them, outside, but we did have them there with us, and the girls we so excited to get to play with them we had a hard time getting them to eat their lunch!)

Doodlebug wasn't in the mood for posing.

But Bugaboo & Taterbug were!

Jonah decided he wanted to play, and brought the frisbee to Bugaboo to play tug-o-war! (My parents' dog, Snickers, wanted to get in on the fun too!)

Show Bugaboo your tricks Jonah! Shake hands...

"Bang" You're dead!

Taterbug wants to give the puppies "coooookies" too!


Hugs all around. It was a good day!

We had a good time and stayed at my parents house Thursday & Friday night. G and my mom and I got up at 2:15am on Black Friday to hit the sales. I will NEVER EVER get up that early to go shopping again! There is no sale that great to be camped out in the low teen temps at midnight or earlier like others had done. And if you don't get in line that early you have no shot at the sale stuff anyway (we thought we would have a great shot being there before three since the store didn't open until 5a- NOT!!! There were hundreds already lined up!) But all in all it was a great time, although we are glad to be back home now.
Christmas is looming just around the corner. We were hoping to get to spend Christmas in Kansas with G's family, but aren't sure if we will be able to now. Hopefully in the next couple of weeks we can get logistics figured out...

Oreo's First Snow!

Wednesday morning, we woke up to our first snow of the season. It wasn't a whole lot, but it was fun to watch Oreo discovering it for the first time! :-)


She went around smelling it and had white powder all over her nose. She wasn't too sure of it, and went to "dad" to get some reassurance. :-)


It got very cold Wednesday night, so we fixed up a spot for our puppies to sleep in the house, so they wouldn't be frozen puppies Thursday morning. We were very proud of them they behaved so well, we almost forgot they were even in the house at all!