Dear Ellie,
Happy Birthday! You are now officially a proud 3 year old. Congratulations!
It’s amazing to think that you’ve been in our lives for 3 years already. In some ways it seems like you’ve always been with us. And other times it feels like just yesterday you were born. I certainly remember your birth like it was yesterday. It’s one of the best experiences and happiest days of my life. You changed my life and the path I would take for the rest of my life.
My sister-in-law has an aversion to meatloaf. Mainly because of the name. “Meat” and “loaf” are two words that shouldn’t go together in her opinion. It’s a valid argument. But I was convinced she had to like meatloaf. It was just a matter of coming up with a better name. Something that sounded more friendly, more appetizing.
I wondered about meatloaf cupcakes. That sounds better, right? Did something like that already exist? Yes, it does! I was surprised that my Google search produced many results for meatloaf cupcakes, and meatloaf muffins. Some with sweet potato frosting, some with regular mashed potato frosting. Mini muffins, to big muffins. The options were endless!
I decided to use a 6-cupcake pan and did a variation of Alton Brown’s meatloaf recipe. To get my mashed potato swirl, I stuffed the mashed potatoes in a Zip-loc bag, and cut off a of a corner. Then I just swirled it up like it was frosting.
Ellie was so excited for her meatloaf cupcakes. But when she realized they weren’t real cupcakes, she was not so thrilled. And a meat muffin didn’t sound anymore appetizing to my sister-in-law either.
RECIPES:
I know the picture of the meatball sub doesn’t look very appetizing, but they were really good. I would make less, but bigger, meatballs next time. The soup was very beety. I liked it, but I know some people have an aversion to beets. If you don’t like beets, you won’t like this. Ellie loved it though and had three bowls! I have to say it was a little stranger eating something that looked like a raspberry, but tasting warm beets instead. 
RECIPES:
When I was growing up, it seemed like I just couldn’t wait. I was always looking forward to something. Always excited. I couldn’t wait for my birthday, for Halloween, for Christmas, for summer, to start high school, to graduate high school, to graduate college, to get a job, to get married, to have our own house. There was always something on the horizon. But after we got married it was like time stopped. For about six years nothing really changed. We went to work, we did tons of home improvement projects, we enjoyed each others company and we spent time with our family and friends. We were just coasting and going with the flow.
