I was in a cooking mood last weekend, and I tried out some hot German style potato salad. As usual, I googled recipes, solicited advice on Threads, and even bounced stuff off of LLM’s. I came up with the recipe below, and it paired nice with some Reubens. The bread on the Reubens was less than stellar. I need to get some better rye, & make sure it’s still seedless. (Thanks, diverticulitis!) Maybe marbled or Pumpernickel is the way to go? I’m not much of a baker, unless it’s as easy as the Cheesy Beer Bread.
OK. So here’s what I did:
Ingredients
2 lbs. red potatoes
10 strips thick-cut bacon, chopped
1/2 of a Spanish onion, finely diced
1/2 cup chicken broth
1/4 cup white vinegar
1 tablespoon sugar
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground mustard
Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder, & Garlic Powder to taste
Dried parsley to taste
Fresh chopped parsley
Instructions
Put the whole potatoes in a large pot and cover with about 1 to 2 inches of cold, salted water (or chicken broth for extra flavor). Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are tender when pierced with a fork, about 15-20 minutes. Drain the potatoes well and set them aside. (Next time I will add the other half of the onion here. I did add a bit of ham bullion to the water.)
While the potatoes are cooking, place the chopped bacon in a large skillet or pan over medium-low heat. Cook until the bacon is crispy, stirring occasionally to ensure even cooking. Using a slotted spoon, remove the bacon pieces and place them on a paper towel-lined plate to drain, but leave the rendered bacon grease in the skillet. (I may have snuck in a tiny bit of butter here.) This seemingly takes forever but is worth it. I seasoned the bacon with onion powder, garlic powder, & black pepper.
Add the diced onion to the skillet with the bacon grease. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until the onion is soft & translucent.
To the skillet with the onions and bacon grease, add the chicken broth, white vinegar, sugar, Dijon mustard, and ground mustard. Whisk the mixture to combine. Bring the dressing to a simmer and let it cook for about 2 minutes to allow the flavors to meld. Season with salt and pepper to your liking. I put the dried parsley in here, too.
Dice, the still-warm potatoes into large 1-inch-ish chunks, then place in a large bowl. Pour the hot dressing over the potatoes and gently toss to coat. Stir in about half of the cooked bacon pieces.
Let the salad sit for at least 15 minutes to allow the potatoes to fully absorb the flavors. Just before serving, sprinkle the remaining crispy bacon and fresh chopped parsley or chives over the top.
I wondered if honey mustard would be good? Obviously brown mustard or German mustard or even yellow mustard should be fine. I wonder what Herlocher’s would be like? Apple cider vinegar or brown sugar should be fine too. I see proponents for and against just about every variation online.
I say use what you have on hand or what you know you like. I bet I used Mrs. Dash’s table blend at some point, too. Some recipes recommended wine instead of broth. I may try it with beer?
Is this one you make often? Have you ever tried it? What are your tips & tricks? Luckily both kids liked it, so I’m sure I’ll be making it again. Also… I really didn’t measure much…. I just go.
Hit me up with your take on the Reuben, too! I have made them a few different ways, but always with the same basic ingredients.
Also, this is a hilariously appropriate song to rock to while you’re cooking:
I try to not plug my books or T-shirts too often. You know the art (one guy even tried to steal the art). You know the links to Amazon, RedBubble, & TeePublic & the links up top here. There’s even the Linktree. It’s a fun creative outlet for me, and I would appreciate a few more sales, just like I appreciate all that you have purchased!
TeePublic is having a sale, you can get these shirts & more for $16 thos weekend! Should I upload some more Halloween themed mazes? May be time to draw some new ones! You can get stickers, hats, pins, & other cool stuff there too. #TeePubic @TeePublic #TShitts#Mazes#Guitar#Food 🤘🏻 https://tee.pub/lic/AiXeLsyD13
Ever have an idea that you can’t shake? I had all the ingredients. I wanted to make them into a sandwich. I didn’t want to fry the components in separate pans & use the oven… so I did it all on a big baking sheet.
It worked. Mostly.
The hashbrown patties came in the shape that I wanted to mimic, so I wasn’t interested in a muffin tin for the eggs or the corned beef hash. I may just used canned corned beef next time & not the hash… and I may end up cooking the eggs separately. Maybe.
This is how I did it this time. I made 4 of them.
Ingredients:
8 frozen hash brown patties
1 can of corned beef hash
4 eggs
Milk (optional)
Salt, Pepper, Onion Powder to taste
4 slices of American cheese singles
Spray oil
Heavy duty aluminum foil.
How I did it…
Preheat the oven to 425° on the air fryer setting.
Make 4 foil rings the size of your hash brown patties and set them aside.
Sprayed the (large) backing sheet with the cooking oil.
Pop those hash brown patties on like a checkerboard.
Put it in the oven for 5 minutes.
Take it out, flip the patties, and spoon the corned beef hash into some of the empty spots. (Think if each row or column like 1 sandwich.)
Pop it back in & crank it down to 400° on air fry for another 10 minutes.
While that is going mix your egg, milk. & spices.
Pull the chaos triple checkerboard out and flip the corned beef.
Put the foil rings in place in the empty spots, pour the eggs in there, and put it back in the oven for 5 minutes.
Pull it out, remove the foil rings that barely worked, toss on the cheese slices, and pop it in for 2 minutes.
Take it out, let it cool for 3½, and stack it on a plate! (I added ketchup here too – should have also used some Red Hot or something similar.)
That’s…
-Hashbrown Patty-
—— Cheese —–
——– Egg ——-
Corned Beef Hash
-Hashbrown Patty-
Eat it!
It’s a work in progress, but it was delicious. What do you think? How would you do it? Our oven has a convection setting and an air fry setting. I could see this working with either, or just by baking it… adjusting the time & temp. I didn’t want to stack it like a casserole, but I certainly could have… and frozen hash browns or tater tots may have worked…. The egg would probably have to be used as a binder for that and/or the corned beef… but then were in casserole land again, not a stacked sandwich.
This is another punk-rock leaning short one. “Bloodbath at Burger King” is an absolute gem, as are many others here. This is what I have so far:
Screeching Weasel – “I Saw The Devil At McDonalds (Demo)”
Teenage Bottlerocket – “Blood Bath At Burger King”
The Berlin Project – “Taco Bell World”
Gas Station Boner Pills – “Fist Fight at the Waffle House”
Richies – “Le Big Mac”
Indigo Girls – “Dairy Queen”
The Knuckleheadz – “Fuck McDz”
Teenage Bottlerocket – “Too Much La Collina”
Wesley Willis – “Rock ‘N Roll McDonald’s”
The Smithereens – “White Castle Blues”
Boris the Sprinkler – “Don’t Really Want To Walk To Taco Bell Without You”
Silly Stu – “McDonald’s in the Pentagon”
Motorpsychos – “Fries With That”
The Aquabats! – “Burger Rain!”
Parry Gripp – “Raining Tacos”
What am I missing? Are there punk-leaning songs about Wendy’s, Pizza Hut, KFC, Raising Cane’s, or Chick-fil-A? Panera? Jersey Mike’s, Jimmy John’s, Subway, Quizno’s, Vocelli Pizza, Papa John’s, or Domino’s? What about Hardee’s, Carl’s Jr., Checker’s, Rally’s, Five Guy’s, In & Out, Krystal, Jack-in-the-Box, Rax, Arby’s, or Auntie Anne’s? I’ll even take Eat’n Park or Denny’s.
Holy cow, reddit’s r/punk and Facebook’s Oddly Specific Playlists stepped up with some killer suggestions! The list is currently at 85 tracks. Some fit more loosely than others… but close enough counts in horse shoes, hand grenades, and punk rock.
Also, I need to figure out the right plugin to let me embed Amazon playlists here.
There are way too many ways to cook a hot dog. Not long ago, if you suggested I boil some… I would politely have found the quickest way out of that conversation. This time I simmered the dogs in beer, then popped them in the oven on the air-fryer setting.
Then again, sometimes I get weird ideas that won’t go away until they come to fruition. Hot dogs aren’t my favorite food, but they’re fun to make different every time. If not grilling, I like to cook them in the oven, especially when cooking dinner for the family & wanting a whole pack cooked at once. This time I did something different.
After you read this recipe, tell me what you’d do different, or what you like on your dogs! Oh yeah. sides too. I wanted to use corn starch on the potato wedges, but I was out, so flour it was. It crisped them up just enough to keep it interesting. I was heavy on the black pepper, so they had a bite.
Cut potatoes into wedges, about ½” thick at the skin edge.
Soak in cold water 30 minutes (this pulls starch so they crisp better).
Drain, blot very dry. Moisture = soggy wedges.
Toss in a bowl with:
1–2 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp oil (olive, canola, or peanut)
Seasonings: paprika, garlic/onion powder, salt, pepper, maybe cayenne or smoked paprika for punch.
Cook
Oven air fry or convection at 425°F (both will crisp better than standard bake).
Spread on parchment-lined sheet, not touching.
Cook 25–30 min, flipping halfway.
🌭 Hot Dogs
Parboil
In a small pot, add:
1 bottle/can Yuengling
1 beef bouillon cube
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp minced garlic
¼ tsp ground mustard (optional, but yes it’ll add a tangy depth)
Bring to a gentle simmer. Drop in hot dogs, simmer 5–6 min (don’t boil hard).
Finish in Oven
After parboil, move hot dogs to a rack or foil-lined pan.
Toss them in the oven (same rack as potatoes if you can) for 8–10 min at 425°F (air fry/convection), flipping once, so skins blister and caramelize a little.
🥖 Buns + Cheese
At the last 2–3 min of hot dog oven time, open buns, lay on pan.
Add cheese slices. Toast until buns are warm and cheese is gooey.
🔄 Timing Plan
Start soaking potatoes → 30 min.
Preheat oven to 425°F (air fry/convection).
While soaking, prep hot dog beer bath.
Drain & coat potatoes. Get them in oven first (they take longest).
Timer: 25–30 min.
While wedges cook, simmer hot dogs in beer bath (~5–6 min).
About halfway into potato time (15 min mark), move hot dogs to oven on pan/rack.
They’ll need ~8–10 min to finish, which lines up with potatoes finishing.
Last 2–3 min: add buns + cheese.
Everything should hit the plate hot at the same time.
🌭🫘🥔
🫘 Drunken Baked Beans
A simple can of beans made rich with the leftover beer broth from the hot dogs. Deep, savory, slightly malty… it’s like BBQ beans with a secret ingredient.
Ingredients:
1 large can of baked beans
½ cup reserved beer broth from hot dogs (strained)
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp mustard (yellow or Dijon)
Optional: dash of hot sauce or crumbled bacon
Method:
Taste and adjust seasoning — more sugar if you like sweet, hot sauce if you like heat.
Combine beans with broth, sugar, and mustard in a saucepan.
Simmer low and slow (20–30 minutes), stirring occasionally, until thickened and glossy.
👉 Extra Tips:
Flip wedges and hot dogs at halfway for even browning.
If wedges look done before hot dogs, crack the oven door and let them hang on residual heat.
You can reduce a little of the beer/bouillon liquid into a quick dipping sauce (mix in mustard/ketchup) if you want to go wild.
I added the beer/bullion liquid to the baked beans with BBQ sauce… not what ChatGPT suggested.
🫘🫘🫘
Needless to say, I didn’t follow that exactly… but I did toast the buns, & made the dogs to order. Mine had relish, my son’s had fresh jalapeño from the garden, my wife didn’t want cheese, and my daughter didn’t want mustard.
Dunk, Drunk, n’ Dried Dogs
I gotta buy some damn corn starch.
Crispy Potato Wedges
I used Yuengling, but I also would use Straub Amber, Penn Pilsner, Lion’s Head, or Smithwick’s. What would you use?
We recently went camping, and one of my favorite things to do when camping is cooking over a campfire. We did hobo packs the first night and mountain pies the second night. Both nights were a hit with the whole family.
Pretty much anything you throw in foil packet and toss over a campfire will work here. You can go right on the coals, but this was a recent fire, so I put them on a grate on top. There’s 2 layers of heavy duty foil here, but you don’t want it over a direct flame. These would work great on the grill too. I went for 30 minutes, flipped it, & let it go another 30 minutes.
I was looking for stew meat or cubed beef in the grocery store, but the Aldi on the way to the campground had beef that was marked as “Good for Carne Asada” and it looked perfect.
Ingredients:
Beef
Onion
White Mushrooms
Russet Potatoes
Red Bell Pepper
Orange Bell Pepper
Carrots
Zucchini
Butter
Spices!
Black pepper
Season salt
Onion powder
Garlic powder
Mrs. Dash’s Table Blend
What would you put on yours?
Mountain Pies
I have made mountain pies many different ways, but this time we went with the classic pizza ones, and some Italian sub ones for dinner. Everyone went rogue for dessert.
Mine were done up proper…
Pizza Mountain Pie
White bread
Pizza Sauce
Shredded Mozzarella
Pepperoni
Roasted Red Peppers
Black Olives
Mushrooms
Italian Sub Mountain Pie
White bread
Ham Lunch Meat
Salami Lunch Meat
Pepperoni
Turkey Lunch Meat
Sliced Provolone
Roasted Red Peppers
Black Olives
Italian Dressing
Banana Split Mountain Pie(This is the one I had!)
White bread
Jif Choclolate/Peanut Butter Spread
Sliced Banana
Mini Marshmallows
Strawberry Chocolate Mountain Pie
White bread
Sliced Strawberries
Hershey’s Choclolate
Powdered Sugar (on top)
In the past I’ve made Mountain Pie Reubens (on rye), baked bean pies, leftover vegetable soup (thickened up) pies, apple pies, peach pies, peanut butter cup pies, breakfast (eggs & ham) pies, and probably more. The possibilities are endless. Sloppy Joe? Chipped ham BBQ? Grilled cheese? Ham n’ cheese? Turkey melt? Cheesesteak? Hot PB&J? Hot dog & baked beans? Biscuit dough around something? How do you do yours?
Of course, this doesn’t cover all the possibilities of campfire cooking. There’s hot dogs, s’mores, campfire banana splits, campfire corn, baked potatoes, & more. What do you do over your campfires?
I was hungry for meatloaf. I typically just wing it. Sometimes it’s the classic ketchup/mustard/BBQ (or A1) glaze. Sometimes there’s cheese. Sometimes it’s breadcrumbs. Sometimes it’s chunks of bread soaked in milk. Sometimes there’s shredded veggies like carrots or zucchini. Sometimes there’s hardboiled eggs inside & it’s wrapped in bacon. One time I made it in a crock pot just because someone said you shouldn’t, and meatloaf on the smoker is absolutely a win.
This was a win with the wife & kids, so I;’ll definitely be making it again!
I guess I like leftover meatloaf sandwiches enough to post about it on Threads not just once, but twice.
Tonight I had the idea to throw a bunch of stuff together, then tie it in to gravy & mashed potatoes. I could have sauteed onions & mushrooms, but this was quick easy weeknight dinner chaos. After the fact, I asked AI language models to help me write the recipe from the ingredients & prompts that I fed it, and this is what I got:
That’s fantastic! Thanks for the extra details—this sounds like a truly unique and delicious meatloaf. I’m especially impressed by the use of bread on the bottom to absorb grease and the beef bouillon in the mashed potatoes. Those are great pro tips!
Based on your ingredients and methods, here is a formatted recipe. Since you eyeballed a lot of the measurements, I’ve provided my best guess for the quantities. Feel free to adjust as you like for your blog post, since you’re the true master of this creation!
My “Crazy Good” Mushroom & Swiss Meatloaf Dinner
This recipe takes classic meatloaf and elevates it with a secret ingredient—a creamy mushroom sauce that’s mixed into the meat and used as a savory glaze. Served with cheesy mashed potatoes and a mushroom-loaded gravy, this is the ultimate comfort food meal.
Ingredients
For the Meatloaf:
2 lbs. ground beef
1 lb. lean ground beef
½ cup panko bread crumbs
½ cup regular bread crumbs
1 cup crushed French fried onions
1⁄3 can (10.5 oz.) condensed cream of mushroom soup
½ can (4 oz.)) mushrooms, stems & pieces, finely diced
¼ cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère cheese blend
3 to 4 glugs of A1 steak sauce
1 tbsp. Mrs. Dash Table Blend seasoning
1 tsp. ground mustard
1 tsp. black pepper
1 tsp. onion powder
1 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. seasoned salt
3 slices of white bread (for placing under the loaf)
For the Mushroom Glaze:
The remainder of the can of condensed cream of mushroom soup
3 to 4 glugs of A1 steak sauce
½ cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère cheese blend
The remainder of the can of mushrooms, stems & pieces
½ cup whole French fried onions
Instructions
Preheat your oven to 375°F (190°C).
On a sheet pan, arrange the three slices of white bread in a row. These will absorb the grease from the meatloaf.
In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, lean ground beef, panko and regular bread crumbs, crushed French fried onions, cream of mushroom soup, diced mushrooms, shredded cheese, and A1 steak sauce.
Add the Mrs. Dash, ground mustard, black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and seasoned salt. Using your hands, mix all ingredients thoroughly until just combined. Be careful not to overmix.
Form the meat mixture into a loaf shape and place it on top of the three slices of white bread on the sheet pan.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F (71°C) with a meat thermometer.
While the meatloaf is baking, prepare the glaze by mixing the remaining cream of mushroom soup, A1 steak sauce, cheese, and mushrooms in a small bowl.
After 1 hour and 15 minutes, remove the meatloaf from the oven. Spread the prepared glaze evenly over the top, then sprinkle the whole French fried onions on top.
Return the meatloaf to the oven for another 15 minutes, or until the glaze is bubbly and the onions are golden brown. Let rest for a few minutes before slicing and serving.
Suggested Sides
Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
Prepare a box of instant mashed potatoes according to the package directions. For a savory twist, use a beef bouillon cube in place of salt. Add buttermilk along with the milk, and season with black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Stir in shredded cheese until it melts.
Mushroom Gravy
Prepare a packet of brown gravy mix. Once finished, stir in a can of cream of mushroom soup, a can of mushrooms, and a handful of crushed French fried onions.
Sweet Paprika Carrots
Cook canned carrots with a bit of butter, a pinch of brown sugar, and a dash of paprika until heated through.
Your dinner sounds incredible! Would you like me to draft a more detailed blog post introduction or a full recipe card for you, or do you have enough to get started?
That sounds like a seriously comfort-food feast — meatloaf, cheesy potatoes, mushroom-onion gravy, and sweet carrots. Perfect blog material. I can help you format this into a clean recipe write-up, with estimated amounts for the “eyeballed” parts so it’s easy to follow but still keeps your personal style.
Here’s a draft you could paste into WordPress and tweak to taste:
Crazy Good Meatloaf Dinner 🍽️
This is one of those meals where everything came together just right — a loaded, flavorful meatloaf with a cheesy mushroom glaze, creamy mashed potatoes, savory gravy, and sweet carrots on the side.
Meatloaf
Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1 lb lean ground beef
¾ cup panko bread crumbs
½ cup regular bread crumbs
½ cup crushed French fried onions (plus more for topping)
1 can (10.5 oz) cream of mushroom soup (divided)
1 small can mushrooms, stems & pieces or sliced (divided, finely dice half)
1 cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère cheese (divided)
2–3 Tbsp A1 steak sauce (plus more for glaze)
1 tsp Mrs. Dash Table Blend
½ tsp ground mustard
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp season salt
3 slices white bread (to go under the loaf, absorbs grease)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a sheet pan with foil and place the 3 slices of white bread in the center.
In a large bowl, combine:
Ground beefs
⅓ of the mushroom soup
½ the can of mushrooms (finely diced)
A couple glugs of A1
About ½ cup shredded cheese
Bread crumbs, crushed fried onions, and all seasonings Mix gently until just combined.
Form mixture into a loaf on top of the bread slices.
Bake uncovered for 1 hour 15 minutes.
Meanwhile, make the glaze: Mix remaining mushroom soup, the rest of the mushrooms, a splash more A1, and ½ cup shredded cheese.
Spread glaze over meatloaf, top with more French fried onions, and return to oven for 15 minutes.
Check with a thermometer — internal temp should be 160°F.
Cheesy Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
1 box instant mashed potatoes
1 beef bouillon cube (use in the water instead of salt)
½ cup shredded cheese
2–3 Tbsp buttermilk (in addition to milk called for)
Black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder (to taste)
Instructions
Prepare potatoes according to box, replacing salt with beef bouillon.
Stir in cheese, buttermilk, and seasonings.
Mushroom-Onion Gravy
Ingredients
1 packet brown gravy mix (prepared according to directions)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can mushrooms
¼ cup crushed French fried onions
Instructions
Prepare gravy mix.
Stir in mushroom soup, mushrooms, and fried onions. Simmer until thick and rich.
Brown Sugar Carrots
Ingredients
1 can sliced carrots (drained)
1 Tbsp butter
1 tsp brown sugar
½ tsp paprika
Instructions
Warm carrots in a pan with butter.
Add brown sugar and paprika, stir until glazed.
🔥 Plate it up: thick slices of meatloaf with mushroom glaze, a scoop of cheesy mashed potatoes covered in gravy, and sweet carrots on the side.
Do you want me to make the recipe section blog-ready with your voice (like you did with your pretzel blob post — casual, funny, irreverent), or do you prefer the cleaner, “recipe card” format for this one?
Perfect — what a feast! Let’s capture your meatloaf dinner in a polished, blog-ready recipe format. I’ll give you a structured version of your meatloaf (with estimated measurements based on typical ratios), plus your mashed potatoes, gravy, and carrots as sides. You can edit the amounts if you think they’re too light or heavy compared to what you actually eyeballed.
🍽️ Mushroom-Swiss Meatloaf Dinner
This hearty meatloaf dinner is rich with beef, mushrooms, Swiss and Gruyère, and topped with a savory mushroom glaze and crispy onions. A full comfort food plate with cheesy mashed potatoes, mushroom gravy, and buttery carrots.
Meatloaf
Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef (80/20 works well)
1 lb lean ground beef
¾ cup panko breadcrumbs
¼ cup regular breadcrumbs
½ cup crushed French fried onions
⅓ can (about 10 oz can) cream of mushroom soup (approx. ⅓ cup)
½ can mushroom stems & pieces (approx. ½ cup, chopped finely)
½ cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère cheese blend
2–3 tablespoons A1 steak sauce (a few glugs)
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash Table Blend (or more to taste)
1 teaspoon ground mustard
½ teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
3 slices white bread (to set loaf on while baking; absorbs grease)
Mushroom Glaze
Remaining cream of mushroom soup (~⅔ cup)
Remaining ½ can mushrooms (~½ cup, sliced)
¼–½ cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère cheese
1–2 tablespoons A1 sauce
Handful of French fried onions (for topping)
Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the 3 slices of bread in the center (to act as a base for the meatloaf).
Mix the meatloaf: In a large bowl, combine ground beefs, breadcrumbs, crushed onions, mushroom soup (⅓ can), mushrooms (½ can, diced), shredded cheese (½ cup), A1, and seasonings. Mix until just combined — don’t overwork.
Form the loaf on top of the bread slices.
Bake for 1 hour 15 minutes, until nearly cooked through. Internal temp should be around 150°F.
Make the glaze: Stir together mushroom soup (remaining ⅔ can), mushrooms (remaining ½ can), cheese, and A1. Spread evenly over meatloaf, then top with French fried onions.
Return to oven for 15 minutes more, until internal temp reaches 160°F and glaze is bubbling.
Rest 10 minutes before slicing.
Cheesy Buttermilk Mashed Potatoes
Ingredients
1 box instant mashed potatoes (prepared according to package)
1 beef bouillon cube (used in place of salt in boiling water)
½ cup shredded cheese (cheddar, Swiss, or blend)
½ cup milk + splash of buttermilk
½ teaspoon black pepper
½ teaspoon onion powder
½ teaspoon garlic powder
Instructions
Prepare boxed mashed potatoes, dissolving beef bouillon in water before adding potato flakes.
Stir in cheese, milk, and buttermilk.
Season with pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder to taste.
Mushroom-Onion Brown Gravy
Ingredients
1 packet brown gravy mix (prepared according to package)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can mushroom stems & pieces, drained
½ cup French fried onions, crumbled
Instructions
Cook gravy mix as directed.
Stir in mushroom soup, mushrooms, and fried onions. Simmer until hot and thickened.
Candied Butter Carrots
Ingredients
1 can carrots, drained
1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
½ teaspoon paprika
Instructions
Heat carrots in a skillet with butter.
Stir in brown sugar and paprika.
Cook until glazed and heated through.
✅ Serving suggestion: Plate a hearty slice of meatloaf with a scoop of mashed potatoes topped with mushroom gravy, and a helping of sweet carrots on the side. Don’t forget extra crispy onions on top for crunch!
Would you like me to keep the recipe in a conversational, cozy “blogger” style (like a story around the dinner), or a sleek cookbook style (straight to the recipe)?
Absolutely, Eric—this meatloaf sounds like a punk rock symphony in casserole form. Let’s immortalize it with a blog-ready recipe that captures the chaos, comfort, and culinary swagger. I’ll format it with clear sections, estimated measurements, and your signature storytelling flair.
🧠 Eric’s “Dad Shit Deluxe” Meatloaf Dinner
A meatloaf so good it deserves its own zine spread.
🍖 Meatloaf Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1 lb lean ground beef
½ cup panko breadcrumbs
½ cup regular breadcrumbs
½ cup crushed french fried onions
⅓ can (about 4–5 tbsp) cream of mushroom soup
½ can mushroom stems & pieces, finely diced
1–2 glugs A1 steak sauce (about 2 tbsp)
½ cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère cheese
3 slices white bread (for under the loaf)
🧂 Seasonings (eyeballed, but here’s a guess)
1 tsp Mrs. Dash Table Blend
½ tsp ground mustard
½ tsp black pepper
½ tsp onion powder
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp seasoned salt
🧪 Glaze Ingredients
Remaining cream of mushroom soup (~⅔ can)
Remaining mushrooms (~½ can), roughly chopped
1–2 more glugs A1 steak sauce
¼ cup shredded Swiss & Gruyère
Handful of whole french fried onions (for topping)
🔥 Instructions
Preheat oven to 375°F.
Form the loaf: Mix all meatloaf ingredients (except the white bread) in a large bowl. Shape into a loaf and place it directly on top of the 3 slices of white bread on a sheet pan. The bread will soak up grease and prevent burning.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes.
Make the glaze: Combine remaining mushroom soup, mushrooms, A1, and cheese.
Top and finish: Spread glaze over the meatloaf, sprinkle with whole french fried onions, and return to oven for another 15 minutes.
Check internal temp: Use a meat thermometer to ensure it hits 160°F.
🥔 Sides That Slap
🧀 Beefed-Up Instant Mashed Potatoes
1 box instant mashed potatoes
1 beef bouillon cube (in water instead of salt)
½ cup shredded cheese
¼ cup buttermilk
½ tsp each: black pepper, onion powder, garlic powder
Mix per box instructions, swapping salt for bouillon cube. Add cheese, buttermilk, and seasonings. Stir until creamy and punk-approved.
🍄 Mushroom Gravy Hack
1 packet brown gravy mix
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 can mushrooms
¼ cup crumbled french fried onions
Prepare gravy mix as directed. Stir in soup, mushrooms, and onions. Simmer until thick and glorious.
🥕 Sweet & Smoky Carrots
1 can sliced carrots
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp brown sugar
¼ tsp paprika
Heat carrots with butter, sugar, and paprika until glossy and tender. Serve with attitude.
Want to add a zine-style intro or a playlist pairing for the blog post? I’m ready to riff.
🐄🧀🍄🥔🥕
Somewhere in there, there’s a tight recipe. Again, I didn’t measure anything, I just dumped. I tried to use common ingredients. Maybe I’ll make it different next time. This was really good though, so I may stick to it.
Do you use any AI language models for anything? Do you ever ask them for assistance combining recipes or for cooking? I wonder if one of them would be better at combining all these than the others? I can’t decide which model did the best job.
On to the meatloaf… What tips & tricks do you have? I always to the bread one. Hit me up in the comments or on social media.
Apparently beer & cheese have been on my mind lately. I saw a post by @swampmuse on threads of some cheesy beer bread and it looked awesome. She was cool enough to share her recipe. That got me thinking about beer cheese dip because of the shared ingredients. I was in a cooking mood last night. I’ll definitely be making the bread again, and the cheese dip would be great for pretzels… so maybe new years or a cold October night?
They were good together. I wonder if beer cheese bread in beer cheese dip is meta, or merely going hard?
I hardly drink any more, and the big bird was out of Yuengling bottle six packs & only had Straub Amber can 15 packs… so, I ended up with 2 big-ass 24 oz. cans of Yuengling Traditional Lager.
Brush additional melted butter on top @ 35 minutes.
Notes: I’m a dumbass, I left all the butter for the end when I should have mixed it in. Next time! I may have went heavy on my pinch of salt, too. I did brush all the butter on at 35 minutes, & it went for another 15 minutes, & was perfect. I think I will also sprinkle some additional shredded cheese on the top at the 35 min. mark… because, I mean… why not?
My 10 year old said he “thought it was going to be gross because it looked all bumpy” but was an immediate fan upon tasting.
Thank you so much to @swampmuse for the original post, the inspiration, and the recipe!
Beer Cheese Dip 🍺🧀
I had this on my mind, looked at a bunch or recipes online, and just winged it.
Ingredients:
1 16 oz. block of Velveeta
1 8 oz. block of cream cheese
1 cup beer
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar
1 cup shredded Gouda
ground mustard to taste
white pepper to taste
yellow mustard to taste
Instructions:
Cube up the Velveeta & cream cheese, put it in a crock pot on high.
Toss on the mustard powder & white pepper to taste, add a dollop of yellow mustard.
Stir it every 10 min. or so until it’s melty.
Add in the beer, stir.
Add in the shredded cheese, stir.
Stir.
Be incredibly patient.
Stir.
Notes: It takes longer than you think & looks weird until it hits that “just right” point. This is probably a different time estimate for every appliance. You could obviously do this in a sauce pan or double boiler if that’s what you’ve got. The mustard is an emulsifier and helps with smoothness. I picked white pepper over garlic or hot sauce as other recipes noted. I also skipped Worcestershire sauce as some recommended as it can contain anchovies, and weirdly anchovies can trigger shellfish allergies. Dropping some jalapeño or poblano from the garden into this also would have been pretty killer.
Overall, these recipes are just a guide, and you can go all anarchy on them. What kind of beer do you like to cook with? What kind of cheese or spices would you add or swap out for? And, what would you dip in it? Would you did the cheesy beer bread in the beer cheese dip? Got any recommendations on either recipe?
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While you’re making or eating these, consider rocking out to these playlists…
Inspired by the comments on a reddit post, I wanted to dig into some pre-“punk” proto-punk. I set Gemini, ChatGPT, Perplexity, & Copilot to the task as I’m fascinated by their ability to parse & compile information if prompted accurately. (I’m also fascinated my their penchant to provide completely incorrect or even made-up information. Some time I will have to blog about my experiment in having them search restaurant menus in an area to see if they serve shellfish. Copilot recommended some seafood places, so clearly it wants to kill me.)
I added my own stuff that some of them disagreed with, but it is my list after all. 🤣 Going back to little Richard and including Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” were points of contention, as I would expect from a conversation with people.
Music snobs aficionados, audiophiles, and punk rock gatekeepers will argue all day every day about the origin of punk… but for me, to be clear, it’s the moment that the Ramones’ self-titled album dropped. So, with that in mind I gave the language models this prompt:
There is and always will be constant debate, but if we agree for the premise of this exercise that the Ramones self-titled debut album was the first punk album… What are 25 songs that should belong on a proto-punk or punk precursor playlist?
I would assume bands that get mentioned as the progenitors would most likely include The Kinks, the Sonics, Link Wray, The Stooges, the MC5, the Velvet Underground, New York Dolls, & more I’m sure to be missing. Maybe even the band Death who hailed from Detroit MI?
All songs on the list should have been released before April 23, 1976… and be listed in order if release date by single or album, whichever dropped first.
This has been corrected for my typically egregious spelling/typing/lack-of-proofreading errors. After tossing the rules to the wind, keeping to the spirit of punk rock, we arrived here:
“Little Demon” – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins (1956)
“Tutti Frutti” – Little Richard (1955)
“Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On” – Jerry Lee Lewis (1957)
“Rumble” – Link Wray (1958)
“La Bamba” – Ritchie Valens (1958)
“Love Me” – The Phantom (1958)
“Louie Louie” – The Kingsmen (1963)
“Surfin’ Bird” – The Trashmen (1963)
“Baby Let Me Take You Home” – The Animals (1964)
“House of the Rising Sun” – The Animals (1964)
“I’m Crying” – The Animals (1964)
“You Really Got Me” – The Kinks (1964)
“Gloria” – Them (1964)
“I Can’t Explain” – The Who (1964)
“Dirty Water” – The Standells (1966)
“My Generation” – The Who (1965)
“Strychnine” – The Sonics (1965)
“I’m a Man” – The Yardbirds (1965)
“We Gotta Get Out of This Place” – The Animals (1965)
“96 Tears” – ? & The Mysterians (1966)
“Wild Thing” – The Troggs (1966)
“Complication” – The Monks (1966)
“Psychotic Reaction” – Count Five (1966)
“Pushin’ Too Hard” – The Seeds (1966)
“7 and 7 Is” – Love (1966)
“I’m Not Like Everybody Else” – The Kinks (1966)
“You’re Gonna Miss Me” – The 13th Floor Elevators (1966)
“Talk Talk” – The Music Machine (1966)
“I’m Waiting for the Man” – The Velvet Underground (1967)
“Doctor Please” – Blue Cheer (1968)
“Sister Ray” – The Velvet Underground (1968)
“Fire” – The Crazy World of Arthur Brown (1968)
“Jigsaw Puzzle” – The Rolling Stones (1968)
“Kick Out the Jams” – MC5 (1969)
“I Wanna Be Your Dog” – The Stooges (1969)
“Little Doll” – The Stooges (1969)
“TV Eye” – The Stooges (1970)
“Paranoid” – Black Sabbath (1970)
“Get It On” – T. Rex (1971)
“School’s Out” – Alice Cooper (1972)
“Suffragette City” – David Bowie (1972)
“Raw Power” – Iggy & The Stooges (1973)
“Search and Destroy” – The Stooges (1973)
“Personality Crisis” – New York Dolls (1973)
“Jet Boy” – New York Dolls (1973)
“Urban Guerrilla” – Hawkwind (1973)
“Violence” – Mott the Hoople (1973)
“Cum On Feel the Noize” – Slade (1973)
“Editions of You” – Roxy Music (1973)
“Ooh La La” – Faces (1973)
“Subway Train” – New York Dolls (1974)
“Hey Joe” – Patti Smith Group (1975)
“Piss Factory” – Patti Smith (1975)
“Roxette” – Dr. Feelgood (1976)
“The Next Big Thing” – The Dictators (1975)
“Chez Maximes” – The Hollywood Brats (1976)
“After Eight” – Neu! (1975)
“Ghost Rider” – Suicide (1977)
“Little Johnny Jewel” – Television (1975)
“30 Seconds Over Tokyo” – Pere Ubu (1975)
“Burn My Eye” – Radio Birdman (1976)
“Politicians in My Eyes” – Death (1976)
“Cherry Bomb” – The Runaways (1976)
“Roadrunner” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
“She Cracked” – The Modern Lovers (1976)
“Shake Some Action” – Flamin’ Groovies (1976)
“Blank Generation” – Richard Hell & the Voidoids (1977)
“Anarchy in the U.K.” – The Sex Pistols (1976)
“Sonic Reducer” – Dead Boys (1977)
“Neat Neat Neat” – The Damned (1977)
“Chinese Rocks” – Johnny Thunders & The Heartbreakers (1977)
“Psycho Killer” – Talking Heads (1977)
I used Tune My Music to import it to Spotify from a text file, then copy to Amazon Music from there. I tried to go to Amazon first, but it messed up quite a bit of the songs. I did have to add “7 and 7 Is” by Love manually as it shows as “Seven and Seven Is” on Spotify. It weirdly plopped a Bob Marley song in that spot. Amazon was full of weird covers and the wrong songs when trying to import from text.
So, what do you think of the list? What’s missing? What needs added? Are my parameters skewed? Do you not accept anything past the date of what parameters were set? What obscure band that 14 people heard at the time is missing from this list? Don’t come at me with the Sex Pistols over the Ramones. Should we whittle it back to 25? Only have 1 song per artist? Come at me with healthy discourse.
Every once in a while, I just throw this into the æther just to see if it gets any response. One time, I got to pop up on stage and sing “I Turned Into a Martian” while Jerry Only played bass, sang, & Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein played guitar, & Goat (a.k.a. Eric Acre, a.k.a. “Chupacabra”) played drums. I’d love to find a video of it if it’s out there.
We take for granted that everything is recorded these days, but back then it wasn’t. Misfits bootleg videos were a hot trade commodity at one point online. I’m pretty sure this show was recorded, because Crowbar had closed-circuit TV’s that were displaying the show as it happened. It may have been deleted or not recorded, it may have hit a personal private collection. Someone else may have been in-house recording. Not sure if Doug Evil was there?
Thanks to Misfits Central & Concert Archives, I now have a specific date: Sunday, November 5, 2000. It was at the now-defunct Crowbar in State College, PA.
An-Die & I road-tripped to State College several times with several different groups to see the Misfits in several iterations in addition to seeing them a bunch in Pittsburgh… so my memories may be conflated. I know Russ from TVCasualty.com was there!
I’m pretty sure Murphy’s Law & Impotent Sea Snakes also played. I only remember this because Goat was pulling double duty, and our friend Laurel was apparently hit in the face with an… adult toy… during the ISS set.
I remember An-Die telling me that I had stage presence, and obviously Jerry Only has a huge stage presence, and it did not jive. Ha ha. I’m sure I looked weird, but holy shit it was fun. (I always feel weird signing without a guitar in my hands anyway.)
Another fun fact, this was after I had broken my nose, and i was wearing a bandage covering most of my face. I know I have photos of that somewhere but I cannot find any.
The Misfits – 11/05/2000 lineup @ Crowbar in State College PA | Jerry Only, Doyle Wolfgang Von Frankenstein, Eric Goat/Chupacabra Acre, & some random a-hole.
Oh yeah, I broke my nose stage diving at American Music Café. Who’s set was it? I think it was Third Place, Tybalt, or maybe even Ten Pounds Lighter/Secrets Lie Within. I just remember someone fake kicking me that ended up not being a fake kick, a weird celery crunching noise, and my nose being mostly under one eye. I ought to try to chronicle old show stories some day.
I was the Fiend Club “Chapter Head” for a minute in the late 90’s early 00’s, so I got to see the band when they were in & around town. I think Jerry & Rocky sort-of kind-of knew who I was, but I always tried to not be a pain in the ass & ask for stuff or to get on the Turbo Die or anything. It was a fun time in life.
If you have the video, or have info that could help me track it down, I’d really appreciate it! Feel free to help by sharing this in fan forums & what-not online. We Are 138!
World (and Lunar) Domination 