meat happening

While Madison is on tour with Coasting, I have two dude roommates, which is a first. It's kinda like the opposite of three's company. I'm always churning out something crazy in the kitchen and Eli is salivating while simultaneously declaring he's done working and mixing us drinks with lemonade and strawberries. Suddenly, Alex Craig comes home and says something ridiculous (cue canned laughter).

We conceived "Meat Happening" some weeks ago and last Sunday actually made it happen. The idea was to have a crazy surplus of meat products and grill/eat them all in one giant meat happening. Naturally, I went to the Meat Hook and spent a completely ludicrous amount of money on "responsible" meat. It was kind of embarrassing--

Me: I'll have a pound of ground chuck and a pound of ground sirloin, please.

Butcher: Anything else?

Me: Yes, three hanger steaks, please.

Butcher #2: Are you being taken care of?

Me: Yes:

Butcher #2: Do you need anything else?

Me: Yes, 10 hot dogs, please.

Butcher: [returning from grinding beef] Is there anything else?

Me: Yes, six thick slices of bacon, please.

I made slightly fancier-than-normal "chili cheese dogs"(pictured above), meatloaf sandwiches with gravy, and grilled hanger steak with poblano peppers and onions. My friend Chris brought a chicken he had brined overnight with shallots and anchovies, among other things.

I will share the chili recipe with you in an upcoming post, because with or without meat it is fantastic. The meatloaf involved 2 lbs of ground beef, chuck and sirloin in my case, mixed with 3 cloves of minced garlic, 1 medium onion finely diced, 1 egg, 1/2 cup breadcrumbs, 1 tsp sea salt, a lot of coarsely ground black pepper, and a few liberal dashes of soy sauce. I mixed these together and formed the loaf in an 8x8 roasting pan, baked it for 15 minutes at 350, and then topped with a mixture of ketchup, sriracha, honey, and soy sauce, the sliced bacon, and after twenty more minutes in the oven, I added additional glaze. It was the hit of the party, especially after I made a gravy from the drippings and dressed the sandwiches with that. This was the meatloaf hot out of the oven:

For dessert, my lovely friend Amy made cupcakes, and may I say it was quite the barbeque.