Cooking In Boone ... Staunton: MMMMmmmmmmmmeatloaf

So… while Virginia was working on the macaroni and cheese above… I was making meatloaf…. now… you may think that meatloaf is nothing special…. To that, I say you’re wrong. I love some meatloaf… so… since today was the first time we’ve made non-turkey related food since the last blog posting.. I was ready for some meatloaf.

This recipe is one of my own… we didn’t find it online… didn’t find it in a cook book…. just took some previous recipes of meatloaf and reworked tem to fit what I wanted….

Today’s ingredient I wanted in the meatloaf was:

For those that don’t speak in pictures… those are sun-dried tomatoes.

To start things off, you have to reconstitute the tomatoes a bit… just drop a handful of them into some boiling water … turn the burner off, and just let them coast in the hot water for about 15 minutes…

After 15 minutes, they’ll be a bit more pliable; a bit less leather-like.

While the ‘maters are reconstituting… this is a good time to get some other things ready… I used sourdough bread for the bread component of the meatloaf… probably about a cup’s worth of bread per pound of meat or so…. chop / tear it up into small pieces….

Now… the meat… we used 2 pounds of 80/20 ground beef…. a little bit of fat will help the meat from sticking to the pan… and it’ll keep everything moist…

After you’ve gotten the bread broken up, and the meat unpacked and ready to go… the sun dried tomatoes should be about ready….

Chop the ‘maters into smaller pieces, and then you can toss them into the meat mixture with the bread… and then it’s time to add the various spices and remaining ingredients…. This would also be a good time to preheat the oven to 425….

We’ve got a few subtle flavors going on already with the sourdough and sun-dried tomatoes… so we just want to supplement those flavors with a few more…. I tossed in 1 egg, 1TSP Minced Onion, 1TSP Garlic, 1TSP Onion powder, 1TSP Pepper, 1/2TSP Salt and about 1/4 Cup of Italian Seasoning... This may sound like a lot, but typically, you would use a packet of Onion Soup mix… which is about 1/3 of a cup of minced onions, and powdered sodium and various other things of undetermined health values… So in comparison, this isn’t too bad.

oh…. and I forgot… thankfully, Virginia reminded me… You need to add a good “Dollop” of Ketchup.

Now… it’s time to mix everything up…. so… in that spirit…

MIXING MONTAGE!!!

Viola. Got everything mixed up and into the pan… now, it’s time for it to go into the oven…. total cook time is about an hour… but we have to put the topping on it… so… set the timer for 45 minutes…

Above are the ingredients for my mom’s meatloaf sauce…. the stuff is amazing… but… I’ll warn you… she might call me and tell me to get her recipe off the internet… so… write it down while you can… I like to make a double recipe so there’s enough to go on top of each cut slice of meatloaf…

2/3 Cup Ketchup
2 TSP Ground Mustard
4 TBSP Brown Sugar

Believe it or not… that’s it..

Toss it on the burner… medium heat or so when the timer goes off… you’ll have some lumps… but just push them against the bottom as you stir and that should help break them up…

So.. the sauce took you 5 minutes to make… so… 45 minutes on the timer.. 5 minutes sauce cook time… you’re at 50 minutes on the meatloaf so far.. so… pull it out.. and cover it in the magic sauce….