A Meatloaf & A Tart

We had our first dinner guests over to the new house last week. I don't entertain as much as I'd like, but when I get to--it makes me so happy! I made a new meatloaf recipe, which was scrumptious! The homemade bbq sauce-which accompanied the loaf- had an interesting mix of spices such as cumin, allspice, cinnamon, chili powder, garlic powder & cayenne pepper. The recipe is from a book by Sara Perry called "Weekends With the Kids". It's full of activities, crafts & recipes--all sorts of ideas for family fun!


But the exciting part of the meal was dessert! Isn't it always the best part? Here's the recipe. The strawberry & cream cheese tart looked so beautiful in the picture. How could I ever duplicate THAT? Well, in no time I was dancing a happy hostess jig when MINE came out looking rather dandy too!



Iwas so proud that I took TOO many foodie photos I'm afraid. Look at that pretty baked round of goodness!


There was enough excess dough to make a tiny-sized tart too. Look at the little finger marks left from a wee one that helped me. Oh, so cute!


I prepared the ingredients--except for the strawberries, the night before. I love "do-ahead" recipes. Saves so much time! The creamy spread was a mixture of cream cheese, sour cream, powdered sugar & crystallized ginger. One note about crystallized ginger: Holy spices & herbs Batman! That stuff is super expensive! A little regular spice bottle full of crystallized ginger was about 13 bucks. I cringed. SO, I rolled my squeaky-wheeled grocery cart on over to the bulk spice area & there was my crystallized ginger---for 12 bucks LESS! Yes people. I paid a dollar for the same amount as was in the pre-packaged spice jars!






The mixture spread so smoothly on top of the giant cookie-like round. And the strawberries topped it off perfectly!



My wrinkly table cloth totally kills the mood here.



Here's the tiny one that got eaten by tiny teeth the next day.