Chores and Cajun Meat Loaf

While I don't officially start work until the week after next, I have rather a lot to do this week. First of all, Monday I will do my Mysterious Jobs 2 and 3, namely work for a certain educational agency marking exam papers, then hop into a taxi and go to a recording studio and record something. With great luck, it will be a movie or cartoon to dub, but most likely, I will be reading dialogues for an English language textbook. As someone who wrote text books and worked in publishing for seven or eight years, I am familiar with the high quality of material that can be found in SOME texts: however, the ones I am given to record are cut-and-paste-off-the-internet affairs with a high percentage of recycled content, none of it quite correct in the first place. I have read about Mr. Brown and his clock collection at four different studios, eight different times for eight different clients over the past five years. I remember this dialogue very well because I can't get past this line without breaking into laughter: Mr. Brown likes it very much, but Mrs. Brown doesn't like it at all. (If you're a voice artist and you've read this line too, let me know. I want to trace its evolution.) I've also read the "You'll think we were mad!" dialogue about a weekend camping trip many, many times. So, that's Monday, a day spent on subways and taxis and hopefully with time squeezed in to go to Jenny Lou's to get minced beef (hamburger) so I can make my guest on Tuesday a Cajun meatloaf.

Tuesday, Lulu's best friend Spot comes over to "help me" with some things, namely finding out where I can plug in my phone (most of the outlets are just for show) and trotting me down to the local hospital to load up on my fill of the concoctions that keep me running. He's an omnivore, so with luck will stay for lunch so I can have the pleasure of watching him eat. He is what my mother calls "A Good Eater" which means that he will appreciate the wonder of my meatloaf, which has a nice crunchy top even if it IS made in the microwave. (Sugar--that's the trick. The sugar in the sauce on top.)

Wednesday, Thursday--finish cleaning up the wreck that is the back bedroom. Friday, take Duchess to Plato and Harry's to spend the weekend being spoiled in divine doggy fashion, while I hop a flight to Inner Mongolia on behalf of Job Number Two, The One Where I Test People. I'll be back Sunday, just in time to report on Monday to Job Number One, Full Time Teaching, and then off to Job Number Two, The One Where I Test People or Mark Their Papers.

Which leaves today, Sunday. Today's fun events include buying a bicycle, and finding my way by foot to the place where I'll start teaching next week. Trust me when I say it's more easily said than done. Roads are not clearly marked and I have never negotiated the way during daylight on foot. It's easy enough to think, "Right, got it," when you're being driven in a taxi at night, but on foot? During the day? Coming from the OPPOSITE DIRECTION? When you are not really literate? And there's no one there to hold your hand and guide you over the rough bits? Not exactly a piece of cake, but well worth the meat loaf if I do find it successfully on the first try.

Sometimes you just need a hand

Cajun meatloaf: There's nothing Cajun about this, except that like most people of French Canadian descent there's a spark in  me that lights up when I hear Zydeco. (There's also a picture of my great grandmother, one of two women in the shot. Dad claims we're descended from the white woman on the left, but we look a hell of a lot more like the black one on the right.) The recipe varies each time, depending on how much mince I was able to wrangle off the butcher, what sort of crackers I have on hand, etc. Basically, dump a half kilo (500 grams, about a pound) of ground beef into a microwave-safe glass bowl. Add one egg, half a sleeve of crackers, or four slices of bread, cubed and without crusts, or three or four  packages of Edo crackers, crushed, or some nice uncooked oatmeal (say, a half cup) and a healthy amount of milk. Also add catsup, chili sauce or Brown Sauce, a nice dollop. This gives it a bit of oomph as well as a bit of color: since you're basically steaming this in a microwave, you need a bit of help here. Season with Cajun Seasoning if you have it, or a combination of oregano, Tabasco sauce, chili powder, salt, and pepper. (You can get all of that here.) Mix in quite a lot, a good tablespoon or more. Don't overmix the ingredients, just blend until you have something  a little soupy and a lot of sloppy. If it's too dry and resembles Play Dough, add more sauce or milk. Too soupy? Add some more crackers, or bread, or even a bit of instant mashed potatoes if that's all you have on hand. (Note: don't buy instant mashed potatoes, they are library paste waiting to happen.) Smooth it nicely, then use your fingers to poke holes all over it. Top with a sauce of your choosing--say, ketchup with a bit of Tabasco, black pepper, and garlic salt (more on garlic salt later) or my family's favorite, a slurry of chili sauce, apple cider vinegar, Cajun seasonings, and brown sugar. (Taste this mixture until it seems right to you--I like it more vinegary, Lulu prefers it on the sweet side.) Shove into microwave: it takes about 20 minutes on full power to cook. It's done around 15-16 minutes but the extra time carmelizes the sugar in the topping and produces a slightly crunchy top that takes away from the  unappetizing fluffy grey steamed matter you'd get otherwise. If you're all fancy-schmancy and you have what we expats call a REAL oven (a toaster oven, for example) shove it in there for about 40 minutes. You may want to put tin-foil over the top for the first 1/2 hour, otherwise the top will get too brown. As for the garlic salt:  Lulu is allergic to garlic, and my sister disses anyone who uses it, but I like it on some things and even Sissy will eat something with a pinch of garlic salt in it provided I don't tell her it's there. I prefer to peel a clove or two of garlic and put it in the center of The Loaf, but to do so invites anaphylactic shock into the house, so I can't indulge unless of course Lulu is on another continent--which she is--and won't be around to help polish this off.