• I Married A Meatloaf Maniac

    Date: 2010.01.13 | Category: What's for Dinner? | Tags:

    I’m pretty ambivalent about meatloaf. I can make it, I can eat it but it’s not really something I love or particularly go out of my way to eat or make, especially when I lived alone. When it’s just you eating it, a meatloaf seems to appear twice as large as it actually is. Lee on the other hand could probably eat meatloaf every day if you let him. He has yet to find a meatloaf that he does not like and I think meatloaf nights rate up there above pizza nights for him. He is a meatloaf maniac.

    I try to space out our time between meatloaf meals and I try very hard not to make the same one twice in a row. I keep hoping that I am going to find the Holy Grail of meatloafs  – the one that will put all other meatloafs (meatloafs?) to shame and make me declare that, “Yes! Yes, I do like meatloaf and I’m not afraid to say it.” I haven’t found it.

    Luckily there are a gazillion different meatloaf recipes. I’ve made the basic Better Homes and Gardens one that was the first one I ever made. I’ve made ones that used three different kinds of meat (italian sausage, ground pork and ground beef – it was massive). I’ve made ones that use barbeque sauce or some kind of ketchup on top (why is it that ketchup on top of a meatloaf seems so unketchupy and yummy?). I’ve tried ones that have bacon laid on top (mmm bacon) though I absolutely draw the line at the bacon explosion. I say every now and then that I’m going to make a chicken or a turkey meatloaf but then I forget to buy the ground chicken or turkey (it’s not really a shopping cart regular for us).

    The one on tap for tonight is from Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution. It’s kind of an interesting one. You cook it in a dutch oven, then drain off the fat and and mix of tomatoes and chickpeas together for a sauce (well, and other stuff) and throw it back in the oven for awhile. You can put bacon on top of that one too (which will totally depend on if I remember to take the bacon out of the freezer when I get home).

    Then there’s always the discussion of what to serve with the meatloaf. Mashed potoatoes? Salad? Rice? Potatoes gratin? Nothing ever seems to fit quite right.

    So I want to know – what’s your go-to meatloaf recipe? And what the heck do you serve with it?

    Cross-posted at Loving Food and Sharing Recipes.