On the first Monday of every month, my third grade teacher would pass out the Scholastic Book order form. I LOVED IT!
I would wait until I got home, lay it out on my bed, and pour over
it—every book and every word—4 pages, and when I was
finished I’d do it again, saying to myself I want this and I want that…but we
didn’t have a lot of money and I hardly ever ordered. BUT, one Monday, there was a cookbook in
there and I decided then and there I HAD to have it. So I asked my mom for $1.96, she gave it
with weirdly no questions asked, I filled out the order form, and turned it in on
Wednesday morning. Two weeks later it
arrived! It was like Christmas!! I put
it in my bookbag and as soon as I got home I opened it up, started at page 1,
and read it like a novel. I was hooked.
The next day I told my mom I wanted to make dinner. She was all like “whaaaaaaaaaat?”, but
readily agreed since both she and my dad worked 10 hour days and it was less
work for her. I gave her a list, she
bought the ingredients, and the game was afoot!
I could see the trepidation in their eyes, forks raised to their mouths
but hesitation looming, looking at each other like “you go first”, and finally
my dad took the first bite. So good!! And I’ve been making it ever since.
My Scholastic Book |
What follows is a variation on that recipe—it’s come so far
since 1979. I’ve made it for every
boyfriend I’ve ever had, won 2 awards with it, and it’s the treasured dinner of
my children’s Godfather. And I’m happy
to share it with you here. So many memories
are made in the kitchen…get your kids in there with you :)
--------------------------------------------------------
3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs3/4 cup milk or tomato juice
1 egg, beaten
1 small, chopped onion
1 1/2 lbs ground beef (if available, buy meatloaf mixture in your local grocery store--usually a combination of beef/pork/veal)
1 packet meatloaf seasoning packet (I use McCormick's for simplicity sake, as it contains all the spices you will need)
ketchup
yellow mustard
light brown sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees
Long ago I did away with the meatloaf pan because it was a nightmare to clean. Simply grease a 9x11 pan and set aside so you can free-form the meatloaf later.
Put breadcrumbs, milk, egg, and onion in bowl. Mix until breadcrumbs are soaked. Add seasoning packet and mix.
Add meat. With clean hands, work all ingredients together until well mixed. Shape into a ball.
Place in greased pan and shape into a rectangle, smoothing top.
Mix together: 1/4 cup ketchup, 2 teaspoons mustard, 3 tablespoons brown sugar. Make this sauce mixture twice. Spread one on top of the meatloaf and let drip down sides. Place the other batch in the refrigerator until ready to use.
ready for oven |
Bake meatloaf at 350 for 1 hour. Approx 10 minutes before meatloaf is ready, heat 2nd batch of sauce slowly on stove until warm.
out of the oven |
Serve with mashed potatoes and peas. Pass heated sauce on the side.
(Note: See picture below: one of the early recipe variations in my 9 year old handwriting. I see I used to use bouillon and only salt/pepper, and check out the fancy name "Meatloaf with Tangy Sauce"...what a pain in the ass I was!! LOL)
I love that you finally posted this! Now I can have YOU over...lol
ReplyDeleteBest meatloaf EVER!! :) - LN
Yay!! Then I can be the one to have too much wine and not clean up. Oh wait...that's usually me too...LOL
ReplyDeleteserved this meatloaf to Larry we loved it. Now if we have meatloaf I can
ReplyDeleteonly fix it this way. You can't go wrong serving this.
AB
Glad you liked it! :)
DeleteI've been eating this meatloaf for 34 years and it is always delicious. The "Tangy Sauce" is the best part. Gigga
ReplyDelete