ArcaMax

What do Baseball and the Wall Street Journal have in common?

It started off as a normal, Friday morning trip to the grocery store. I like to go when it’s not crowded, so I try to find gaps in my schedule when I can buzz away for 45 minutes and fit in a time to forage for food.

I try to book a Zipcar for the trip. --You may recall that we decided to ‘go green’ so we gave up our regular car and we book cars in the city for just the time we need one. It’s a really awesome system. I do love it, and I feel like I am not only doing my part for the environment, but I am also saving a ton on car payments and insurance; not to mention the required city permits to have a car in a major metropolitan area.

So, I’m headed toward the meat department. Just as I’m about to order, a guy with a clip board and a pad approaches and asks if he can ask me a couple of questions. I figure he’s some survey taker until he pulls out his business card and tells me he’s a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. I tell him I’m happy to answer a few questions, but I pull out a card of my own. It’s my Zipcard. I tell him I’m driving a Zipcar so that means I’m “on the clock”. He knows exactly what I mean; that I have a deadline to get my car back for the next person, so he goes right into asking me his questions.

A few questions in, I ask him what his story angle is and he tells me that grocery stores are working to increase their image by training the butchers in the meat department better in order to consult with the customer instead of just cut meat and display it. They figure if they have knowledgeable staff they can dissuade some folks from going to Costco or Super Wal-mart or other places to buy meat and therefore other groceries.

I continued to answer questions and out pops a butcher. He introduces himself as the head butcher and he starts to interview me too. I notice that there are not a lot of notes being taken, so I figure I’m not really their target. I definitely knew I was not their target when they asked me if I consult the butcher on my meat selections. I almost laughed. I just said, no. On they went to some other questions. I did tell them that the only butchers I had experienced, lately, that offered advice, and good information, were the butchers at the new Whole Foods in our area. I have not always been a fan of Whole Foods but I love our new one. It’s supposedly the first of its kind. Not only do they have friendly, knowledgeable staff, but they have five restaurants located IN the grocery store! You can sit down and EAT in the store! Or even go to a brew pub or a wine and cheese tasting! I haven’t had occasion to do any of those things yet, but they do look tempting if I went to the grocery store with time on my hands. One factor that plays against them in my mind is I’ve seen tour buses drop people off and they wander the store, wide-eyed and in awe. Nothing worse when you are trying to maneuver your cart, in a hurry, and you have all these folks just cruising around doing the free tastings and checking out the architecture.

Lest I digress.

I am back to being interviewed, and out pops a very official-looking photographer. She starts taking shots of me, the butcher and sometimes the reporter; mostly me and the butcher. I just listen intently and try to ignore her. She’s one of those folks though that takes multiple shots at blazing speeds, like I’m some kind of athlete and I might twist into some pose that looks just like a Heisman Trophy or something. Again, I try to ignore her.

The interview is over. We bid adieu, and I get on with my shopping.

I get home to an email from the reporter thanking me for my time. (I’m thinking..he’s FAST and he’d GOOD!) He also confirms that he might not use my interview bits in his column, but that he considers me a food expert and if it’s okay with me he wants to keep me in his file for further contact.

Okay with me! Why YES it’s okay with me! A chance to talk to the Wall Street Journal again? What self-respecting food writer or CEO (as I am both) would turn down something like that?

And then I got on with my life and forgot about it.

The next weekend my husband and I are shopping at the same grocery store, and one of the managers of the store comes running up all excited. “Did you know you’re n the Wall Street Journal?”, he says. He goes on to tell me that they kept a copy of it for me and he’d go get it. He rushes off.

Next thing, another manager runs up to us with the same news. He runs off to get the paper for us too.

When the first guy came back he also has a gift for us. Two tickets to the White Sox game this coming weekend. Wow. I’ve never been to Cellular Field and I hear it’s quite the sight. The games I’ve gone to were Cubs games at Wrigley Field. I’d love to go! I’m a fair weather fan of whatever team is winning or new things I have not seen or done. The manager tells me the food at “the Cell” (as they call the stadium), is grand and to try the hotdogs for sure. (That man knows my priorities! Of course I’m interested in how good the food is at the ballpark! The game is secondary!). How funny. He just knew.

I check the tickets on the way home and see they are only 30 rows up and VERY good seats. I guess I am a good customer. And now I’m in the Rolodex of the food reporter for the Wall Street Journal. Bonus!

Mini Meatloaves, Zola To Go!
I’ve come up with a new Zola category. Zola To-GO! These are meals that can be eaten at home right when you make them, or they can be taken to work for lunch, or a picnic in the park. The chicken with the bruschetta sauce was the first example. These mini-meatloaves will be my second entry. I hope you enjoy them! Feel free to send me comments. You can connect to my Zola email below.
Makes 4. Can be doubled.

1 lb of lean ground beef. I use ground sirloin
4 large breadsticks (grissini is the Italian name)
1 tsp of Worchestershire sauce (organic)
4 Tbl of chopped Vidalia onion
2 cloves of minced garlic (in this case jar garlic is fine)
Cayenne to taste. A good sprinkle will do it. This is optional
4 tsp of tomato paste (get the Hunts sugar-free kind) or any other sugar free tomato paste. Look closely at the labels.

Crush your breadsticks to a fine crumb texture. You can do this in a food processor or even in a plastic bag and crush it with your rolling pin.

Add the crumbs to a large bowl. Now, add the meat, onion and spices. Keep the tomato paste aside. Mix the ingredients so they are all distributed evenly.

Take out your regular-sized muffin tin. Spray 4 segments (apart from each other). Make 4 “balls” of meatloaf out of your mixture. Put them in your muffin tin. Squish them down a bit so they have a flat-ish top on them. Spread one tsp of tomato paste on the top of each. Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Let cool slightly before trying to remove them from the pan. I use a fork to “grab” them from the side. Gently remove them and plate them along with your side dish. Makes a great dinner or even a lunch. You can put these, when cool, in baggies and store in the refrigerator. They travel well to work and you can eat them cold (my sister loves cold meatloaf) or you can heat them in the microwave.

Nutritional Information:

Servings Per Recipe: 4
Amount Per Serving
Calories: 242.7
Total Fat: 11.8 g
Cholesterol: 62.7 mg
Sodium: 158.4 mg
Total Carbs: 6.9 g
Dietary Fiber: 0.7 g
Protein: 25.2 g

Enjoy!
Cheers,
Zola

Send email to Zola at dinnerwithzola@hotmail.com.