Ground Meat Appreciation Night

Wowza! Foodzilla is in gastronomic heaven this weekend! Tonight, we are going to our inaugural meeting of Dinner Club. Sunday, we head off to Maplefest. The weekend kicked off on Friday with, Ground Meat Appreciation Night (aka Hamburger Helper/Meatloaf Night).

This is such a hilarious concept! Every year, towards the end of winter, my friend Linda will orchestrate a pot-luck dinner party in homage to Hamburger Helper. Each guest brings one of the many variations of Hamburger Helper and Linda creates a, sort of, tapas bar or sampler menu of casseroles, along with bread, salad, wine and cheese.
Now admittedly, no one's world has ever been rocked by Hamburger Helper, but what a fun (and affordable) reason to get together. What a brilliantly silly event. Could you honestly turn down an invitation to Hamburger Helper Night? I couldn't. I'm a sucker for silly theme parties.

This year Linda loosened the rules and invited guests to bring a homemade meatloaf and/or a Hamburger Helper. So instead of six different manifestations of HH we sampled three and also got to try three different interpretations of meatloaf.

I thought Niki's meatloaf was cool. She combined ground chicken, veggies and dill. I would never have thought of using dill in a meatloaf but it was a tasty take on an old classic. It was not your mama's meatloaf. It certainly wasn't her mama's meatloaf, though Linda's turned out well too, in spite of the fact that she doesn't like meatloaf. Weirdo...I love it!

Our gracious hostess HATES having her picture taken, so I was called upon to do a little guerrilla photography in order to enable her to accept full credit for the evening.

There she is. Take a bow Linda, you did a great job...she's going to kill me, but she'll have to come get me first, and since I can run 5 km now, I'd like to see her try.

All six ladies and three kids had a lovely evening. Those women crack me up! We saw Dorothy's 'bling' belt and killer boots. We discussed the high price of Lulu Lemon. I learned some shocking things about Abercrombie and Fitch. Oh, and I learned that Linda changes her curtains and dishes seasonally. Oh ya, Niki cried (a point I would have forgotten about, had her mother not posted it in her facebook status). So, a good night was had by all.

Tonight is Mexican Fiesta...Arriba! Maybe I should do tomorrow's post in Spanish.

You're a Foodie? Seriously?

I've felt pretty crap-ola the past couple of days and could easily have caved on my plan, to use up the leftovers, in favour of some steamy hot takeout. But, I told you guys I was making those wan tan things and the thought of disappointing you made me feel guilty, so here.

My baked wan tans. They were really good and the family was impressed with my culinary prowess, so I'm glad I didn't cave and go the takeout route.

But, now to the real post.

I don't know about you, but I find it questionable when people refer to themselves as foodies. 'I'm a foodie. I like food. That's something unique about me.'

What does that mean. Does it imply that the rest of us don't like food, or that we don't like the right kind of food, or that our opinions on food are somehow less awesome? 'Yuck, I hate food. I never touch the stuff.'

I don't think I know anybody who doesn't LOVE food and have a very strong opinion on what constitutes 'good' food. Everyone's feelings on the subject are different and it can lead to a lot of disagrement, sometimes heated. My point is, saying you're a foodie is like saying you're a breather...I like air too.

We've got ourselves a food focused March. Our first foodcentric event is tonight's Lobsterfest! It takes place at a friends house. I believe it's the third annual, but this will be the first year our schedule has allowed us to attend. I think it goes without saying that the star of the show, this evening, will be lobster. I'll let you know all the succulent details in the morning.

Later this month I will be attending my second (second to me, it's been going on for a while) Hamburger Helper night. This is a great theme night. Everybody HATES Hamburger Helper and the challenge is to find one that's tolerable. This year, the theme has been expanded, to welcome submissions of meatloaf. It is now known as Hamburger Helper/Meatloaf Night. I'm pretty proud of my meatloaf recipe so I'm looking forward to it.

The next night is our inaugural meeting of Dinner Club! There are three families involved and each will take a turn hosting. Thankfully, we are not the first hosts. We'll let Marcie and Dave set the bar with there Mexican Fiesta. I'm super excited about Dinner Club and I'm already formulating a plan for when it's our turn.

So lots of edible fun to look forward to. Stay fresh foodies ;-)