Meat Hand
Hey guys, meet hand. I mean – hey you guys! Meat hand!
I totally can’t take credit for this. I saw it over at Not Martha last year and thought she was a genius (the kind I love most), and was reminded of it yesterday while I was in Red Deer teaching cooking classes. I sent Mike an email with a link, asking if he had a chance could he possibly make a humanesque hand out of meatloaf while I was gone? For BT in the morning? Still on the foggy highway at almost 11, I didn’t want to be making a hand out of meat at 2 in the morning. (Not that making bloody custard sauce was much better. But that’s nowhere near as good a story.)
A dozen roses could not have said I love you more than walking in the door to a homemade meat hand. With real mashed potatoes, which really just serve to define meat hand. He shaped it himself, using my usual meatloaf recipe, and then carved a little potato into a severed wrist bone to stick in the end. After baking it had the texture of cartilage. He made a little nook for marrow, even. It was so realistic looking one of the grade 1 kids at school insisted it was real. “I saw the bone sticking out, mom. I saw the bone.” Shudder.
We got a lot of mileage out of meat hand – it made the rounds at BT, then went to school, where I presented it to the kindergarten class as their snack. They didn’t go for it, so we totally ate it for dinner. Come on – wouldn’t you?
It’s totally easy to make, and well worth the extra 10 minutes of labour to present a grody severed hand-shaped meatloaf to your family for a random Sunday dinner, don’t you think? Especially on a day when the kids have their friends over, or your daughter happens to bring her new boyfriend home for dinner. W isn’t embarrassed by me yet, but when he is I may as well go down in flames.
Here’s what some people are saying about meat hand:
“I give it two thumbs up!”
“It’s finger-lickin’ good!”
My sieve-like brain has not retained the rest. They were just as good.
Awesome. Mike is awesome, the meat hand is awesome. I’m pretty sure it would scare the crap out of the girls, but it might be worth it for the laugh.
Okay, I am not writing to win. Already have. The Crock Pot is lovely. I thank you. My husband thanks you as “it was a lovely dinner and tell Julie thank you for the new crock pot”.
Meat hand looks like a great dinner – for guests you do not wish to return. Who thinks of these things anyway??
Hi Julie, I think the meat loaf hand is amazing, and my husband said “AWESOME” when I showed him the photo. Also, may I say that I just can’t imagine being on the road at 11:00 at night after doing a cooking class. You must have a lot of energy! I didn’t know that Chatelaine had a new cookbook. I bet it would be pretty good…the magazine often has some great recipes.
Awesome meat hand…and play of words ;p
I will definitely make this Sunday for dinner…I can just hear my hubby now…gross..just to make the twin teenagers laugh and make funny faces 🙂
Thanks for sharing and I agree, that is way better than a dozen roses…well, you know!
MFO
That’s a wonderful hand. I’m especially impressed by the armbone.
The story I have that might win me the book is that my kids used to go to Burn’s Bog on Robbie Burn’s Day every year and have the Honourable Haggis Hunt. They’d trek around the bog telling their friends about haggis being a little Scottish creature, then they’d come home and feast.
This one year they had a friend who did not play along. He kept insisting that Haggi weren’t real.
So while they were gone I went to Mc Gregor’s butcher shop and bought a little haggis. I massaged it until you could see hips, cut pink mushrooms in half for ears, used a raisin for the nose and eyes, used oyster mushrooms for it’s feet and a long licorice for it’s tail.
I have a covered pot for serving it, so when the kids arrived home filthy and smelly, I took it to the front door.
The kids were telling their friend that they’d ‘just missed’ haggi, and he was jeering, when I said, “Oh, I got one for you,” and whipped the lid off the pot.
He didn’t even stay long enough to see that it had additions, he just ran.
We discovered haggis is actually quite nice sliced and friend to have a crunchy surface and served as a breakfast sausage.
:D)
Laurie Jean Campbell
That is a fantastic meat hand! Really gruesome…
I’m impressed!! Your husband gets a thumbs up….what a great job he did. Hope the kids have a wonderful Halloween!
Fabulous Halloween fare!
I do love cookbooks! I picked up a copy of WineFeast: Eat, Drink & Discover BC Wine (alternate title: 150 Reasons to Open a Bottle of Wine) while in Kelowna last week. I need another one to add to the collection. And if it has pictures, all the better.
=)
p.s. Sunday dinner is Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes in wine with a lovely ham from Sunterra.
Happy Birthday, Julie!
What an awesome meat hand!! I think yours looks even better than not martha’s. The wrist bone makes it scarily realistic.
Happy Halloween! 🙂
Meat hand is grotesque as Hallowe’en treats should be Julie. Your husband did a fantastic job!!!
Mike, that bone marrow but it over the TOP! What a man!
I dont think I could eat the hand for supper. Just to eerily looking! Happy Birthday Julie. Have a great time in new York Saw that book in chapters and really wanted it but didnt think I should spend that much money on another cookbook, But it had great recipes.
love the meat hand! I think my boys would be appropriately grossed out by it.
Have a great time in YC. I really want to go there one day.
Awesome. Love the meat hand – what a great job! And i agree, you can never have too many cookbooks!
Ewwww!!! That is totally and grossly awesome! It was the bone poking out that got me too. LOL So clever and fun. I’d love to make it but I really think my guys would be too creeped out to eat it. haha
I love the meat hand! And I love that your guy did that for you. How romantic!
I have more cookbooks that I can manage already and would love one more.
Chocolate beet cakes? Hands made of meat?
You are crazy! I LOVE IT!!!!
Wow – that is completely gross looking but totally awesome! Not sure if I could actually eat it though – it weirds me out just to look at it. On a sweet husband note…one of the nicest things that my husband ever did for me was run out to Tim Horton’s at 5:30 in the morning on one of my last days of university. I was presenting to my class that day and needed snacks for everyone. However, I was still working on my presentation that morning and didn’t have time to get the donuts. He voluntarily dragged himself out of bed,got the Timbits and then went back to sleep as I headed off to school. It wasn’t roses or chocolates but it was so sweet! Meant the world to me.
My son wants a meat hand for supper. Your husband is a good sport! Happy Hallowe’en!
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy biiirrrrrrrttttttthhhhddddaayyyyy
Dear Juuuuuuuuuliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiie,
Happy birthday to yoooooouuuuuuuuuuuu!
You guys are so sweet! Mike just brought me a coffee and found me on the laptop in bed – he’s like, what are you doing on the computer?? and so early?? but this is the best part – lying in bed with coffee and reading all your notes! thanks for being here, everyone!
I have a couple of their older cookbooks, the 1987 edition, and the 1965 cookbook. The latter has several pages damaged, from the bottom up. Kind of nibbled looking. A little mouse escaped from her cage one day, not captured for five days, thin, but alive. She had sustained herself on page 152 “Tuna Potato Puff” and page 145 “Piquant Smoked Cod” amongst other delicacies.
The 1965 edition has a good-sized “Entertaining” section.
The Buffet Reception:
“Guests help themselves to refreshments from a long buffet table and stroll about, eating and chatting.”
In case you needed instruction.
Ooops. I trust you’ll delete one of those. Thanks.
I think that is one of the best signs of love i have seen from a spouse. I showed it to my children and they loved it but told me not to make it. I once made meatballs in the shape of rats and cooked them in a pot of ratatouille. I told them we were having ratatouille wish fresh local rat for dinner.
-Robin
Great idea. Perfect for a super casual dinner party tonight!
Love that meat hand – and if you don’t have a marrow bone on hand (tee hee) you can put a medium sized onion cut in half (showing the circular rings)… saw that on Not Martha and it looks great (although not as great as the real bone…good on ya Mikey)!
A huge Happy Birthday to you today… enjoy your day… relax! You give all of us gifts every time you post on your blog… thanks for that 🙂
Happy Birthday. I hope your day will be filled with celebration and love, an excess of all that your heart desires.
Oh my. The fingernails are wonderful. Very well done.
Happy Birthday to you!
Wow, that is impressive in a totally gross sort of way!
I am in the can’t- have- too- many- cookbooks camp too, I’m afraid; it’s a little obsession of mine. Today I’ll be cooking up an old tried-and-true that I traditionally make for Halloween: hamburger soup. And sweet potato pie, made to look like a pumpkin. Yumm. And I’ll have to steal my token annual Aero bar from my daughter’s bag. : )
Gross! I have made witch’s finger cookies before, but the meat hand is way more disgusting!
Have a wonderful birthday, Julie and a great trip to NYC!
I can’t believe no one has said it, so I’m going to: fabulous handiwork, Mike.
The whole dish, but especially the fake bone, is making me utterly queasy. I’d say that means success.
Would totally love a meat hand instead of flowers, I saw the post on Not Martha yesterday too and wanted to try it, but it’s just not going to happen this year (I think I need a Mike)so I’ll archive it for next year.
Happy Halloween!
p.s. in a poll at work, everybody agreed they would not eat the hand on Not Martha, I don’t get that, I guess they don’t like food enough…
Happy Birthday! You survived! It’s true. You can’t have too many cook books. My newest is one of the Breast Friends books and it is really good. I enjoy a good meat loaf and I enjoy a good Hallowe’en recipe but…. it looks too good to eat!
LOVE meat hand! I wish I would have seen this earlier so I could incorporate it into the weekend. Maybe I’ll file it away for my unsuspecting family on a random weekend. Can’t wait!
Love the Meat Hand!!! Very realistic!
I discovered your website ~2mon. ago and can’t wait to check it each day.
Hi Julie, hope you have a great time in NYC! when we were there 2 years ago we went on a guided food tour of the lower east side. It was great! and Happy Birthday…
Happy Birthday Julie !!
That meat hand looks suitably spooky for Halloween.
We’re having leftover pulled beef (slow cooker) which is simmering in my kitchen today. Your recipe, of course.
Well,Mike, as Red Green inimitably says, “If the ladies don’t find you Handsome, at least you can be Handy”. Lucky Julie– she gets a handsome, handy hubby.
Julie, I love how you’ve handed on this recipe; it’s hands- down the most terrif…ic thing I’ve seen.
How did you transport it to BT etc.? Did you use a handbag?
I must say, the folks who declined to eat it have never lived hand- to – mouth, or they’d accept your generous handout.
Anyway, a very happy birthday to you Julie!
-Carol SB
Awesome idea! I will have to file that for future reference. We mostly eat vegetarian, so I am trying to think of a vegetarian like version that could be created from the same idea…
Happy Birthday Julie – I hope you had a great day.
Haruko
I FARKING LOVE THE MEAT HAND! I LOVE YOU MIKE!
See you both later tonight 🙂
Oh that is just fabulous!
And a very happy birthday to you Julie!
I totally need to make a meat hand. And that wrist bone is GENIUS. I really would not have known that it’s a potato; it really does give the hand that extra something. The fingernails are great, too.
The picture on the cover of that cookbook is beautiful.
Happy birthday, Julie
I hope everyone made a fuss of you
40 is nothing to worry about, it’s all uphill from here (as only someone over 60 can say)
Laurie
Happy Birthday, Julie! I turned 40 in September and being one month in, it’s not so bad. Thanks for all you do and making this world a better place.
Love the meat hand…can’t wait to try it on my 5 grandkids….my cooking club just did “my favorite Whitewater Cookbook recipe” last nite…it was great fun…9 women and 9 bottles of wine…how could it not be fun…we finished off the dregs this afternoon while making and canning antipasto…
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JULIE!!!!!!
Too gross to make that meat hand but the bone Mike created is scary! Much more so than the onion ‘bone’ We had black bean and shrimp quesadillas for dinner……
Rose
Gotta HAND it to you Julie and Mike…. great story! That was some “digital” picture too!
Happy Halloween.
Oh. this has me giggling and cringing all at the same time! Love it, and your slightly twisted sense of fun. Happy Birthday to you, Julie!
Meat Hand, terrific Halloween idea, I hope it’s a halloween dish. Great composition. Teaching cooking class in Red Deer, AB? Chef Lee plans to be in AB next summer and will be looking for cookng schools to book her time. Are you a cooking school or an instructior.
‘Happy Birthday’ Julie, you and your family enrich our lives and add zest to our days and holidays. Mike’s meat hand is top notch and thanks for sharing such a poignant, heart warming story. Have a wonderful time in NYC.
I must say that I am actually more impressed by Mike’s meat hand than Megan’s – yes it was her idea, but he totally ran with it! Shaped it himself instead of using a mold! A potato arm bone instead of an onion arm bone! Julie, you are hiding some real talent here – perhaps you should “delegate” some of your crazy schedule to him and just kick back for your birthday 😉
Oh, Julie you really do make my day! I made meatloaf the same night…too bad I didn’t think of the meat hand…maybe my daughter would’ve had a bite willingly instead of saying “yuck…only with lots of ketchup!” Oh, sweet kids.
I love Chatelaine but still haven’t had time to crack the newest issue…hoping to have a quiet early coffee this week to devour it. Their recipes are really good!
Local fan diane in Calgary
I tried the Baked Tomato Risotto from the new Chatelaine cookbook and it was delicious.
NO, I don’t own a copy but that one receipe was in our newspaper on Friday.
Thanks for all the great ideas.
That hand is amazing! And the wrist bone is the best part. Would love to have another beautiful cookbook.
Hope your birthday rocked, Julie and that you blew out every one of your hard earned birthday candles! And like I’ve always said…nothing says ‘love’ like a severed hand!
Wow, the meat hand was pretty neat looking. The bone was very realistic.
That Mike, what a great guy!! Love the wrist bone, totally makes the “hand”! Hope you had a great birthday!! Totally agree with you that one can never have too many cookbooks or books in general for that matter. Have a great time in NYC!
Happy birthday yesterday!! and the meat hand rocks! I’d love to make it just to hear my 11 y.o. daughter squeal!
Happy Birthday – sorry it is a few days late.
Mike is awesome – my kind of guy.
Have fun in NY
Everyone put your hands together and give Julie a round of applause! You sure know how to make meat loaf look good.
Just saw this after making the grocery list for our traditional “Halloween Chili” which is from the old Chatelaine cookbook, which I love. It’s been the source for many everyday and special occasion recipes over the course of many years. Hope the new one is as good. Happy birthday (day late), happy Halloween and best of all, happy NYC!
My brother’s kids are all over 25 but I’m still sending him this so he can make it and freak them out. Hilarious!
LOVE the meat hand. I love the idea of presenting that at dinner for a nice Sunday family dinner! That Mike is a good husband!!
Love the meat hand – my little guy is only 5 months old, but I look forward to grossing him out with that in a few years.
Obviously,you have rubbed off on Mike, otherwise how could he have pulled of that totally awesome and realistic looking meat hand.
Hi Julie,
Beautiful meat hand! I made individual ones for halloween supper last night, along with mashed potato ghosts and peas.
Happy birthday! and congrats on making it to 40!!
I love the marrow! Not Martha inspired me too. I made a hand last night, it was such a fun project that I’m wondering what other kinds of weird food creations I can make for other holidays. Mine’s here – http://grabbingthegusto.wordpress.com/2010/11/01/halloween-meat-hand/
But most of all I love the fact that a meatloaf hand was an “I love you” for you. That’s so mooshy in a weird but cool way. Happy belated birthday. The 40’s are the best so far.
That hand is awesome! If my kiddie was a little older, I would have made it for dinner. Maybe in a few years – he’s only 3!
I fall into the “can never have enough cookbooks” camp, and would love to have the problem of finding space for a new one. Especially a Chatelaine one. I have quite a few of their recipes torn out of magazines!
Happy Belated Birthday
That looks so amazingly realistic! Looking at it even makes me a bit queasy… but I’m sure it was delicious!
Oooh, my 7 yr old son would LOVE a Meat hand for dinner!I’ll have to try to remember this next Halloween!
And I love Chatelaine, and their beautiful menus!
Please pick me! Pick me!
LOVE the meat hand!! I actually had to quickly skim the whole post just to see whether that bone was real!
Julie, that meat hand is going to make me have nightmares it’s so creepy, I’m sure it was tasty, too!
Love meat hand! So creative!
Eek. That meat hand is very creepy realistic looking. Ugh.
Yikes. I am afraid that I am with the children. Waaaay too creepy for me to eat. Excellent work, though.
OMG this is awesome! How did I miss this years ago?
I gotta say. We just ate meathand. Meathand is the highlight of halloween and is now an official tradition in our house. We have three fingers left. The bone was the best part!