Not April Fool, but April fun: a fun surprise for dinner. This cheese stuffed meatloaf recipe came to us from Roth Cheese, created by Meggan Hill, executive chef and head of the Culinary Hill Test Kitchen.

Meggan gave her mom’s meatloaf a “cheese upgrade” using Roth Organic Havarti cheese. “The leftovers make great sandwiches, too,” she says.

You can use your own mom’s recipe, of course.

And you can use any good melting cheese: Cheddar, Fontina, Gruyere, mozzarella*, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Provolone, and numerous others.

You can find other stuffed meatloaf recipes online. For starters, here’s an Italian Stuffed Meatloaf recipe, and a Spinach Stuffed Meatloaf with provolone cheese and prosciutto.

National Meatloaf Day is October 18th. National Cheese Day is June 4th.
 
 
RECIPE: CHEESE-STUFFED MEATLOAF
 
Ingredients

 
Preparation

1. HEAT the oven to 350°F. Line a rimmed baking sheet or dish with foil for easy cleanup.

2. COMBINE in a standing mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or in a large bowl with a spatula, the beef, onion, eggs, oats, ½ cup ketchup, Worcestershire sauce, 1 teaspoon salt, and ¼ teaspoon pepper. Mix on the lowest speed until combined.

3. RINSE a 9″ x 5″ loaf pan with water. Pack the meat mixture tightly into the pan. Leaving a ½-inch wall on each side…

4. CARVE out a well about 4 inches long and 1 inch wide and set aside the meat you pulled out. Fill the well with the shredded cheese. Using the reserved meat mixture, cover and seal the shredded cheese carefully and thoroughly.

5. FLIP the pan over and carefully jiggle out the loaf onto the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 60 minutes and remove from oven.

6. INCREASE the oven temperature to 400°F. Brush the remaining ¼ cup of ketchup all over the meatloaf. Return to the oven and bake 10 minutes longer. Remove from oven and cool 15 minutes before serving.

________________

*Why isn’t mozzarella capitalized? All of the other cheeses are formal place names. Monterey Jack has two formal names! Mozzarella, on the other hand, is named after its specific production process. In Italian, the verb mozzare refers to the way the curd is hand-stretched in strips and then cut into balls. Food history: The term “mozzarella” first appeared in print in 1570, in a cookbook by Bartolomeo Scappi, chef to the papal court. However, the cheese may have existed for centuries prior. Cheese-making with water buffalo’s milk was first recorded in the 12th century, although the name “mozzarella” was not used.

[1] Cheese-stuffed meatloaf (photo © Culinary Hill | Roth Cheese.

[2] Roth havarti is a good table cheese and a good melter for grilled cheese and other recipes (photo © Roth Cheese).

[3] This recipe uses rolled oats (a.k.a. Old Fashioned Oats). Some cooks prefer bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (photo © Quaker Oats).

†This means 80% lean, 20% fat. That might sound like a lot of fat, but a large amount of the fat will render out as the meat cooks.
 
 

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March 30th is National Hot Chicken Day. That’s hot as in hot and spicy, cayenne-coated fried chicken. It’s Nashville’s signature food, just as Baltimore has its crab cakes, Boston its clam chowder, Buffalo its wings, Chicago its deep-dish pizza, Denver its omelet, Memphis its barbecue, New York its bagels, New Orleans its po’ boys, and Philadelphia its cheesesteak*.

And just as those foods have expanded beyond their home turf, hot chicken restaurants sprouted up first in Music City (Nashville), then nationally and beyond. Even KFC created its version.

It’s not easy to get your share. In Nashville, residents and tourists alike stand on long lines at the original, Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, Bolton’s (see the history of hot chicken below), Bolton’s Spicy Chicken & Fish, at Pepperfire Hot Chicken, and Hattie B’s Hot Chicken.

The Music City Hot Chicken Festival, is celebrated annually on July 4th.

And if you can’t get to anyplace that sells hot chicken, here’s a recipe to make your own (photo #1).
 
 
SO WHAT’S HOT CHICKEN?

It’s spicy-hot fried chicken—searingly hot, some say. The bird with the spicy red crust has become the signature dish of Nashville.

First sold at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack in Nashville in the 1940s, the original hot chicken was coated with a paste of cayenne pepper and lard, other seasonings, and flour. It’s served with a slice of white bread and pickles (photo #2).

Other chefs use everything from ghost peppers to hot sauce—or both.

Originally only fried bone-in, some places now offer boneless tenders for those who don’t like to wrangle with the bones.

The fried chicken is served with typical sides: fries, coleslaw, dill pickles; and less typically, it is served with a slice of white bread. The bread, along with the pickles, is the classic accompaniment to the chicken as presented by Prince’s and those eateries that followed.

Some places have even more sides to tempt you. At Hattie B’s in Nashville, you can add baked beans, black-eyed peas, pimento mac and cheese, red skin potato salad, and Southern greens.

Waffles with your chicken, anyone? Yes, they’re on more than a few menus. Coleslaw? Of course!

And if you still have room for dessert: banana pudding (Lea Jane’s has it in Dulce de Leche, Nilla Peanut Crumble, and Sea Salt), peach cobbler, ice cream, and floats. And don’t forget the pie: apple, pecan, Mississippi mud pie?

Perhaps the most quirky spin is the signature dish at Pepperfire Hot Chicken. This Nashville mainstay serves three jumbo hot chicken tenders, set atop a deep-fried grilled cheese sandwich. That’s it, in photo #6.
 
 
HOW HOT IS IT?

It’s as hot as you want it to be.

Over time, to please more palates, hot chicken emporia have come to offer levels of spice. In a survey of five different places, we found Plain (no spice), Mild, Medium, Hot, and at more than one spot, an even higher level of heat: Damn Hot, Cluckin’ Hot, and Shut The Cluck Up!, the latter from Hattie B’s.

The exclamation point is theirs, and it gets our nod for best name, followed by Pepperfire’s sixth and highest level of heat, called No Refunds (but will they call the EMTs for you?).
 
 
THE HISTORY OF HOT CHICKEN

Timothy Davis, Nashville chef, writer, and author of The Hot Chicken Cookbook, traces the dish’s origins back to the late 1930s at Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack, a restaurant still going strong under the management of Thornton Prince’s great-niece, Ms. André Prince Jeffries.

As the story goes, a woman sought revenge on her cheating partner by cooking him some painfully spicy chicken. But the act backfired: The man, Thornton Prince III, loved the dish. He asked her to cook more, for himself and his friends.

Eating well is the best revenge, so Prince created his own recipe and opened a restaurant in the 1940s. Hot chicken took off like a bird out of hell, and Prince’s imitators grew.

And the rest is history.

You can hear Ms. Prince in this video:

Hot Chicken from Southern Foodways on Vimeo.

For more history and insights, pick up a copy of the Hot Chicken Cookbook.

[1] Make Nashville hot chicken at home, with this recipe from Bon Appetit (photo © Bon Appetit).

[2] Leg quarters from the original Nashville hot chicken hot spot: Prince’s. Their hot chicken is always served with white bread and pickles (photo © Prince’s Hot Chicken Shack | Facebook).

[3] Hot chicken moved west, here at Lea Jane’s in Colorado. There are also locations in California, Louisiana and Texas. Note that the white bread turned into a roll (photo © Lea Jane’s Hot Chicken | Facebook).

[4] Hot chicken served the traditional way—with white bread and pickles—at Hattie B’s in Nashville (photos #4 and #5 © Hattie B’s Hot Chicken | Facebook).

[5] How about a side of Hattie B’s red jacket potato salad?

[6] A different take at Pepperfire Hot Chicken in Nashville: hot chicken tenders atop a fried grilled cheese sandwich (photo © Pepperfire Hot Chicken | Facebook).

*Some dishes we’ve never even heard of: Chislic (Sioux Falls, SD), Hot Browns (Louisville, KY), The Coney (Detroit, MI), The Garbage Plate (Rochester, NY), The Half Smoke (Washington, DC), The Horshoe Sandwich (Springfield, IL), The Juicy Lucy (Minneapolis, MN), The Slopper (Pueblo, CO), and numerous others. Check out Food Your City Is Known For.

[1] How about an Easter ice cream gift (all photos © eCreamery).

[2] Four flavors specially labeled for Easter.

[3] The four flavors scooped.

Is there special Easter ice cream? Well: The Happiest Easter Wishes / Are Served in Ice Cream Dishes / Easter Eggs Are Fine / But eCreamery Ice Cream is Sublime.

So rhymes eCreamery, the online specialist in personalized ice cream pints.
 
 
ICE CREAM FOR EASTER!

eCreamery’s Easter Collection includes four pints of “eggstra-ordinarily” delicious ice cream, each with a creative label:

 
If the four Easter flavors aren’t right for you—for example, you don’t want nuts, chocolate, whatever—you can create a custom gift on the website.

The ice cream is sent in an insulated shipper. So even if the recipient doesn’t get home until the end of the day, the ice cream will still be frozen solid.

This year, bypass the conventional Easter basket of goodies in favor of the eCreamery Easter Ice Cream Collection. There’s also a flavor of the month club.

Ice cream is happiness condensed, said one pundit. And an ice cream Easter gift is sure to “make some bunny’s day.”
 
> Get your Easter ice cream at eCreamery.com.
 
> The history of ice cream.
 
> The different types of ice cream and other frozen desserts.
 
 
ABOUT eCREAMERY

Since 2007, eCreamery has been churning out superpremium ice cream: classic favorites, original flavors, and even customers’ unique creations.

Made in small batches, the ice cream is hand-packed and hand-labeled.

You can customize labels with your own photos and your titles, or shop eCreamery’s library of more than 50 artwork designs to create pints for birthdays, congratulations, get well, sympathy, thank you, and other special occasions and holidays.

How can you resist these tiny chocolate lambs for Easter?

New this year from one of our favorite chocolatiers, L.A. Burdick, these works of chocolate art are individually handcrafted.

That means that no molds are used to create the chocolates. Burdick’s skilled chocolate artisans create them entirely by hand.

Burdick is famed for its chocolate mice and penguins, and special editions such as bees, bunnies, cats, elephants, pigs, turkeys, and sheep.

Each lamb has a dark chocolate ganache center flavored with ripe strawberries fresh rhubarb.

They are enrobed with white chocolate and hand-piped to create the fleece and eyes.

The “keeper” wooden gift box is tied with a ribbon and holds eight chocolate lambs.

It will delight any lover of fine chocolate to whom you give them.

The lambs are available to ship now through April 22, 2022.

All Burdick chocolates are made with all-natural ingredients and are preservative-free.

They are gluten-free and are prepared in a dedicated gluten-free kitchen.
 
 
> Get your chocolate lambs at BurdickChocolate.com.
 
 
> The history of Easter candy and the Easter basket.
 
 
> The history of chocolate.

[1] Handmade chocolate lambs from L.A. Burdick (both photos © L.A. Burdick).

[2] The beautiful wood gift box can be used for jewelry and keepsakes—or filled with more chocolate!

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[1] Homemade marinara sauce, ready in 20 minutes. The recipe is below (photo © Taste Of Home).

[2] Start the day with an egg on toast, with some marinara sauce in-between (photo © DeLallo).

[3] For lunch, marinara sauce on a chicken cheeseburger (photo © Sun Basket).

[4] Or perhaps, a meatball sandwich—it doesn’t have to be a hero (photo © St. Pierre Bakery).

[5] For dinner, place a protein—chicken breast, fish, tofu—on a bed of marinara sauce (photo © Osteria 57 | New York City).

[6] Pizza waffles. Here’s the recipe (photo © Chef Emily Ellyn).

[7] Crab cakes marinara (photo © Good Catch Foods | Facebook).

[8] You can replace the mozzarella in this Mozzarella Marinara recipe with paneer or any of the melting cheeses—Colby, Emmental/Swiss, Fontina, Havarti, Monterey Jack, Muenster, Provolone, Smoked Gouda and numerous others (photo © Bar Primi | NYC).

March is National Sauce Month, and before the month is out we have a tip for people who have never made homemade marinara sauce—the simplest pasta sauce after butter or olive oil—before. This easy recipe will show you how you can have a simple pasta sauce on the table in just 20 minutes—pretty much the time it takes to boil water and cook the pasta.

In fact, you can make this simple homemade marinara sauce recipe in the time it takes to boil the pasta!

Thanks to our friends at Taste Of Home for the tip, and to Deborah Markwood of Chester, Virginia who submitted the recipe.

In addition to the marinara sauce recipe below, you’ll find:

> Uses for marinara sauce, beyond Italian dishes.

> The difference between marinara and tomato sauce.

> The history of marinara sauce.
 
 
WHAT IS MARINARA SAUCE?

Marinara is a simple tomato sauce made with garlic, crushed red pepper, and basil. It’s not the same as tomato sauce. See below for the difference.

It can be pepped up with the addition of capers, olives, other spices (including those from other cuisines, such as curry), and a splash of wine, among many other variations.

A 28-ounce can of Cento crushed tomatoes is $2.19 at Target. Pasta sauces in that price range typically have a lot of sugar (partially to compensate for lesser-quality tomatoes and herbs).

Marinara is short for “alla marinara,” Italian for “seafaring,” which colloquially translates to “mariner style” or “sailor-style.”

The name harkens back to when it was the preferred sauce to top the meals of Italy’s merchants during long expeditions at sea [source].
 
 
The History Of Marinara Sauce

Tomatoes, a New World crop, first arrived in Europe in 1529 with the return of the Spanish conquistadors.

In 1519, Cortez found it growing in Montezuma’s gardens, and it became part of the culinary bounty brought back to Spain along with cacao, chiles, potatoes, turkey, and other foods.

Here’s the history of tomatoes.

Marinara sauce was developed later in the 16th century, likely in the Naples or Sicily area of southern Italy.

Pasta had arrived much earlier, with Arab traders in the 12th century and earlier with Arab invaders of Sicily in the 8th-9th centuries (the history of pasta).

The first reference to a tomato sauce is in the 1692 Italian cookbook “Lo Scalco alla Moderna” (The Modern Steward) by Chef Antonio Latini. Here’s an interpretation of the original recipe.

A recipe for pasta with tomato sauce appears in the 1790 Italian cookbook, L’Apicio Moderno, by chef Francesco Leonardi.
 
 
RECIPE: QUICK MARINARA SAUCE

 
Ingredients For 8 Servings (Photo #1)

 
Preparation

1. COOK the vegetables. Heat the olive oil over medium heat in a small saucepan. When the oil is hot and shimmering, add the onion. Cook, stirring, until the onion is tender, about 3 to 5 minutes.

2. ADD the brown sugar, minced garlic, basil, and oregano. Cook for an additional minute, until the garlic is fragrant and the spices have bloomed in the oil.

3. ADD the can of crushed tomatoes along with the bay leaf, salt, and pepper. Bring the sauce to a boil before reducing the heat to medium-low. Simmer, uncovered, for about 10 minutes, until the liquid is reduced and the flavors have come together.

4. TASTE and adjust the salt if desired. Remove the bay leaf before serving.
 
 
USES FOR MARINARA SAUCE BEYOND PASTA, PIZZA,
MEATBALLS, & CHICKEN & EGGPLANT PARM

We’re skipping over the obvious Italian dishes, the less obvious (polenta, e.g.), and the Italian fried dipping group (arancini, calamari, mozzarella and zucchini sticks). You already know to serve marinara sauce with them.

Instead, we offer some newer takes:

 
We have a friend who uses leftover marinara sauce to make minestrone.

She dilutes the sauce with water and adds canned beans, mini elbows, grated parmesan, and mixed chopped vegetables (cook until the vegetables are tender).
 
 
WHAT IS TOMATO SAUCE

While marinara is a simple, relatively thin sauce, tomato sauce is a thick, rich, complex sauce.

It’s one of Escoffier’s five classic French mother sauces: sauce tomat.

While there are variations of sauce tomat, a French cook starts off with salt pork or bacon, onions, carrots, and a roux (flour and butter).

Then, fresh tomatoes, bay leaves, garlic, and veal stock (or in modern times, the more readily available chicken stock) are added, and the sauce simmers for hours.

The long simmer time thickens the sauce and deepens the flavors.

Sunday gravy or Sunday sauce is an American version of the French tomato sauce. It usually contains additional meat, such as pork ribs, ground beef, or Italian sausage [source].

Tomato sauce’s rich flavor and thick texture make it better suited for smothering foods, as with gravy.

Tomato sauce can be used for chicken cacciatore or pasta, but the complexity of flavors would get lost under the mozzarella and toppings of pizza.