Meatloaf & a Melt down

My first meal using meat!

It's true. I am 27 years old, and I have been married for almost 6 years. Yet, I have NEVER cooked a meal using meat. Well, beginning to end RAW meat. I did make a ham dinner for my husband's family this past Easter, but does ham count? It was already cooked; you just pop it in the oven for a few hours. I have also used bacon for myself, but that's as far as it has gone.

I am terribly frightened of raw meat. First of all - EW! It looks and smells gross. What if I touch it and get those bloody germs all over something else and get sick - or worse my family gets sick. How long do you cook it? How can I tell if it's done? How long can I keep it in the fridge? Will it contaminate the other food in my fridge? Can I freeze it? How do I defrost it?

Embaressing to say, but there have been a handful of times I have actually bought meat, put it in the fridge or freezer and thrown it out. Thinking it was bad or just too scared to cook it. Then there was the time I bought raw chicken cooked it and tossed it because maybe it wasn't done?!

So, my first meat meal was... Mini meatloafs. I know some people cringe, but I was at my parents over the holidays and my mom had made a meatloaf. Kaylen and I ate some and loved it!! Maybe the preggo taste buds?!

Well, I even decided to change the recipe a bit and make half the recipe and put my meatloaf in muffin tins. I thought this would make it well-done, as I like it, and the perfect size for Kaylen and me. After texting my sister a million times I decided a half hour would be a good amount of cooking time. So at 5:30 I decided to get to work.

I cautiously took out the meat, put it on a special cutting board and unwrapped it. Washed my hands. Then I took the wrapping off. Washed my hands. I took my knife cut what I was guessing was 1/2 lb. off and was picking it up to put it in my bowl. As I was doing this my baby girl, who was playing at my feet with the drawer under the stove. (Which she always plays with.) She can open and shut it and her fingers fit perfectly inbetween the drawer and stove, so she never pinches her fingers. Well never before. At this moment she trips, falls forward, and slams her wrist and hand into the drawer. She is stuck and cannot get her hand out. SCREAMING at the top of her lungs. Here I sit with bloody meat all over my hands. I run to the sink desperately washing my hands, and then rescue my poor baby. Who still today has a large red and white mark across her left hand.

After many hugs and kisses and making sure my daughter can still use her hand I return to the meat I will not bore you with all the details, but I will say that we did not eat until about 7:00. A little longer then planned, and I forgot to cook the vegetable for the side. We did have mashed potatoes, though. A favorite of mine!!

Kaylen and I made it through the night with no signs of food poisoning, so all in all I would say a great first meal! Quite tasty even... more onions and more topping for next time! We had left overs today. And tomorrow... my FIRST ever attempt at soup! :)