Love/Hate Work Travel

I have to travel for work this week. Not someplace exotic or interesting - Harrisburg, PA. Now, no offense to any of you who think it's the greatest place on earth but when other people in my company are going places like Hawaii, Guam and Key West - Harrisburg kind of loses any luster it may have had, don't you think. What's even worse it that my dear husband can't come with me so I can't even consider it a mini-vacation. Just long, hot, dirty days followed by lonely nights. I haven't even left yet and I am already dreading it. I hope I find a decent place to eat that I can blog about. The "love" part to this is that at least I get out of this darn office for a bit and the weekend should get here quickly. We are headed to the beach for the weekend. CAN'T WAIT! Still I will miss my doggie and my husband terribly while I am away. To prepare for this foray into what, for me, will be Dante's ninth circle of hell I have been cooking up a storm so that husband will have plenty of home cooked vittles to eat while I am away. I made a HUGE pot of homemade red sauce on Saturday which set the stage for the sausage lasagna I made on Sunday. Ever notice that you can't make a little lasagna. This thing has to weigh twenty pounds. Even though there was still 19 pounds of it left in the refigerator, last night I made a Brady Bunch sized meatloaf. In my defense I had to make it. My freezers are jam packed and I had to cook the ground beef before it got yucky. Besides, you can't have too much meatloaf in my opinion. It's kind of like the Thanksgiving Turkey - the best part is the sandwich you make with the leftovers the next day. I strayed from my usual meatloaf mix and this time I mixed the following in with the beef:

1 envelope onion soup mix
ketchup
yellow mustard
relish
cheddar cheese
eggs
breadcrumbs
garlic
half and half

I was going for a cheeseburger thing. After it was all mixed together I shaped it into a loaf, slathered it with ketchup and placed it in a roasting pan. I baked it for about an hour at 350. I was really happy with the taste. I had never put relish in a meatloaf before and, although I only used a little, I think it worked. I'll bet it will make an awesome sandwich today.



Tonight for dinner, we are going to whittle away at that lasagna some more. My tomatoes are ripining like crazy so I'll make a nice caprese salad with fresh basil and mozzarella to go with it. It should make for a nice meal.