One of my favorite recipes

My favorite meat loaf recipe comes from this cookbook:  Square Meals by Jane and Michael Stern.  This cookbook features recipes that were popular from the 1920's through the 1950's and not only gives the recipe- but the history behind it. 

My favorite recipe from this cookbook is called "diner meat loaf."  I like the combination of beef and pork.  (And as a rule, I do not eat beef.)

Here is how it looks with the beef, pork and oatmeal. 

 I added a small can of mushrooms.

Another trick of my own to add a little more fiber and flavor is to add carrots.  When my children were little I would grind the carrots very small.  I was also "hiding them" from their Dad.  Doug and I both like carrots in our meat loaf, so I slice them very thin.  I used three small carrots. 

Two of these little babies.  My granddaughter, Natalie, was born on the same day as my egg lady/friend/colleague, Mary Jo.  Mary Jo gave this dozen eggs to me ("the eternal symbol of fertility,") as a gift celebrating Natalie's birth.  You can see why I am friends with Mary Jo.  I like the way that lady thinks!

Here is how the meatloaf looks when all mixed up before I cover with tomato juice and catsup.

And here is how it looks after I slop on the tomato juice and catsup.  My mother had one of these speckled enamelware baking dishes with lid and when I married and "set up housekeeping," I had to have the same.  She always baked her meatloaf in hers and I have always baked my meatloaf in mine.  And my meatloaf always looks something like a football. 

The instructions in the cookbook read  "Do not under cook.  A pink-centered meat loaf would humiliate any true diner chef.  Gray is the color, through and through." 

Before living here, I (and the two maternal generations preceding moi) have always cooked with gas.  Dug's stove is electric and I hate it.  It always "over cooks."  I get mad and then he says it is my fault for not knowing to compensate. 

As I said yesterday, I have been sick and my appetite has been hampered by the fact that everything tastes like cardboard and my sense of smell has been hampered.  So I made buttered peas. 

And mashed potatoes.  Do you know what the secret is to good mashed potatoes?  Heat your milk before you add it to the potatoes.  I always heat mine in the microwave in a coffee cup.  And lots of butter, of course.  I remember when my children were in grade school and they came home and said "the potatoes at school are white- not yellow like yours!" 

And, just because I found it in the cabinet, I mixed up one of those envelopes of brown gravy.

It was so good (yes even to me through my stuffy head) that we ate it for lunch and dinner. 

I have to change every recipe that I make.  Do you?  I just always think to myself "now, how could I make this just a little better?"  For this recipe, I add one small (drained) can of mushrooms, 3 small carrots sliced thin and a teaspoon of Colman's dry mustard.  I use three-quarters of a cup of tomato juice when I mix the recipe and then I use the remaining quarter of tomato juice mixed with catsup to spread over the mixture before baking.  And, because I have colitis, I eliminate the onion.  

Here is the recipe from Square Meals:

1 and 1/4  lbs ground beef

1/4 lb of ground pork

3/4  cup instant oatmeal

2 eggs, beaten

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup tomato juice

1 onion, minced

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Mix beef, pork, oatmeal and eggs.  Blend in milk, tomato juice, onion, Worcestershire, and seasonings.  Pack firmly into 9x5 inch loaf pan, shaping a rounded top.  Bake one and a half hours.  Let stand 10 minutes before slicing.  Drain off any excess juice at bottom of pan.  Serves 8.

I hope you enjoy this recipe as much as I do!