Back around Jan. 7th, JOR! posted his mom's meatloaf recipe. Since Sami Lama requested it, here it is reposted for everyone's enjoyment and edification.

Meat Loafs (Loaves?)

1 1/2 pounds hamburger
3/4 cup rolled oats
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/4 cup chopped onions
1 egg beaten
3/4 cup milk

Sauce
1/3 cup ketchup
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tbsp prepared mustard

1. Make 6 small loaves (must be round, not square) - cover with sauce, on top only, of course.
2. Bake 350 degrees for 35 minutes.

Pretty simple and straight forward and oh so delicious. These meat pucks, and I mean that in the most flattering of ways, are 'old-school exceptional' on my meatloaf scale.

So, dear 'loaflings, I have been silent for too long. Yes, it is an excuse you have all heard before and I don't know what to say. I seem to have fallen into a long winter of meatloaf hibernation. My juices aren't flowing and I haven't baked a loaf in quite some time.

However, a couple of recent events of note:

1) A month or so ago, at one of the many irregular meetings of VGC, Jor! (yes, the exclamation is warranted) served his mother's homestyle recipe. And what a tastey treat, well worth the trip to Stayner or just over to Jor!'s for a bite. Hopefully, I will post the recipe here soon.

2) I have recently become addicted to Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. If you haven't seen this show you don't know what you are missing. Watching Gordon Ramsay, one of England's better chefs, go into nightmarish professional kitchens and basically swear at everyone until they cook better is brilliant TV. "How does this relate to meatloaf?", you say. Well, check out episode 3 of season 2, Momma Cherri's Soul Food Shack for Gordon making, what I can only imagine, are the world's tastiest meatloaf tapas.

3) Stumbling through the interweb, you often come across the craziest of things. People with time and energy can accomplish anything. Like this woman, Sonya Thomas. She is ranked second in the world by The International Federation of Competitive Eating. In 2004, she ate 8.4 lbs of baked beans in 2 minutes and 47 seconds and she is only 105 lbs soaking wet. According to the IFOCE, she is the great American hope in toppling the dominance of the Japanese in the annals of competitive eating lore. One can only hope they add meatloaf to the list.

Anyway, that's it for me. Don't forget, please email me any meatloaf news, reviews or sitings to meatloafisfine@gmail.com

Last Thanksgiving, I tried my hand at making a meatless loaf. Actually, I tried to make two that would complement each other as an entree for the sole vegetarian in our group. Going through my photo archive I found that I had some nice pix taken by Chris McNDP on his fancy new camera. Also, thanks to Miss Julia for the bag of grits, all the way from North Carolina.

Anyways, here is the recipe and a couple of photos of my Grits and Greens Loaf.

Grits and Greens Loaf

3 tbsp unseasoned dry breadcrumbs
2 pkg chopped frozen spinach
3 tbsp butter
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
3 cups skim milk
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/4 tsp cayenne
1 cup uncooked grits
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese
4 eggs

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. Generously butter a loaf pan and sprinkle the bottom and sides with breadcrumbs. Thaw and squeeze excess moisture out of spinach.

3. In medium skillet, heat 1 tbsp of butter. Carefully cook onion and garlic until tender. Add spinach and cook further for about 2 minutes. Set aside.

4. In a 1.5l suacepan, bring milk, salt, pepper and cayeene to slow boil. Stir in grits, reduce heat to medium-low and cook, stirring constantly until grits are thick. Stir in remaining 2 tbsp of butter, cheese and spinach mixture.

5. In a small bowl, beat the eggs. Whisk in about 1 cup of grits mixture to warm the eggs. Blend the egg mixture back into grits suacepan.

6. Pour mixture into loaf pan. Place pan in larger pan half filled with water. Bake until firm, puffed and golden, about 45-55 minutes. Let stand about 10 minutes before serving.

I served this with a vegetarian mushroom and onion gravy as well as an attempted Sweet Potato and Tofu loaf (which didn't turn out).


It was very tasty and a great addition to the Thanksgiving feast at Gangster and Sarah's.

Just as a quick aside, I doctored one of the last photos!!!!

The first person to tell me where gets a prize. Email or leave a comment.

How teasing can I be?? What kind of quesion is that? I will tease as much is needed, god-damn'it! Anyway...

As requested, here is the loaf recipe I made the other day. It is pretty simple, but in hindsight, I think it could be a little tastier. With some modifications, (I glazed it differently and it needs more internal flavour than just ketchup) it was taken from the Everything Tastes Better with Bacon cookbook.

Schmidty's Meat Loaf

3 think slices bacon, cut in half
1 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 lbs ground beef
1/2 cup ground breadcrumbs
1/4 cup ketchup
1/2 tsp dijon mustard
2 eggs, lightly beaten

1. Preheat the oven to 350.

2. In a skillet, cook the bacon until limp and barely cooked. Put aside, reserve 1 tbsp of bacon drippings in skillet.

3. Saute the onions in same skillet for 3-4 minutes until translucent. Add garlic until lightly browned, 1-2 minutes.

4. Combine onions with all remaining ingredients in large bowl. Don't over mix.

5. Place in loaf pan and bake for 30 minutes.

6. Remove from oven, and arrange bacon across top of loaf.

7. Return to oven and bake for 40 minutes longer. Remove from oven, let stand for ten minutes and serve.

Now it should be mentioned that I made these small. I split the ingredients into two and baked them in smaller loaf tins.
The salt shaker was used for scale. Here is one up close.


And not to worry, the recipe for the Italian loaf is on the way.

There are two smallish quick and easy meatloaves in my oven right now. Just used what I had in the fridge/freezer. More to follow.

So, if you haven't guessed I am suffering from 'loaf-block.

I think it has all been done. I want to try something new, but I just can't figure out what to do.

I need help. I need requests.

I don't have a lot of money to spend on loaves, but if you give some direction I will try my best.

Please, get me out of my funk!

So it is the 27th and I have no 'loaf to give.

Once again, Christmas on the island has knocked me into the vicious rut of Sleep, Eat, Drink, Be Merry, Sleep, Eat, Drink, Be Merry, and so on and so on.

Back to Toronto tomorrow, so maybe I will get some rest before I have to hit the work front.

I hope everyone had very peaceful and happy Holidays, especially those folks that are still celebrating.

Sorry guys, I don't think there is going to be a Yule 'Loaf. Maybe in 2006.

So, I am busy. These are the high holy shopping days and I work in retail. My time is at a huge premium, but I would like to make a 'loaf. I need help.

What does everyone think would go well in a Yule 'Loaf?

If the suggestions are reasonable, I will try to make it on Xmas day or Boxing day for use at a Boxing day party I think I will be attending.

After Des' most enlightening comment, I went and had a look at firstlight.ca. They do have some great photos. This is my favourite:

So I went to see 'The History of Violence' tonight with D. It was a pretty good film and for Cronenberg it was pleasant at 96min. All in all, a nice film. The violence was grim and the relationships quite real. I especially liked he final scene. Not to spoil anything, but it appears meatloaf is involved. As one blogger writes, one actor "passes [Viggo] the meatloaf as an extension of hospitality."

Cronenberg is a genius.

Wandering around the 'net for as long as I have you come across a strange collection of useful and less than useful sites. One of these sites, one that I came across 5 or 6 years ago, was the home of Getty Images. Now for those that don't know, Getty Images is a company that sells images used in marketing and mass media. They have millions of photographs. And I mean millions. The best part is that they are all searchable, albeit in a less than print perfect form. But they still make for entertaining surfing.

This is what I got after I searched for 'meatloaf'. (Remember to clarify between 'Meat Loaf (Named Person)' and 'Meat Loaf (Meat Dish)')

A little while ago my friend Pasta sent me a short note about his first experience making a 'loaf. Since he lives in Colorado, a state that has a strong history with the cattle industry and deep in the centre of the US of A, the home of meatloaf, I thought he may have gotten by purely on karma and osmosis. Boy, was I wrong!

Hey Pete:

I hope to have a story with a better outcome for you next time:

Sex has been said to be like pizza. Even when its bad, its still not that bad. I assure you this does not hold true for meatloaf.

I made a meatloaf tonight from a recipe that I found on the web. It was a Martha Stewart Recipe. It was a meatloaf gone wrong.

I would love to tell you that Martha's meatloaf recipe was a no frills dish that she and her fellow cons may have enjoyed some Thursday evening, a dish that was more for hiding a file than for delivering true nourishment. Alas, the recipe was from 2000, so I need to take at least some of the blame. I'm not sure what went wrong, but what did go wrong, went very wrong. It was not overcooked. It had a nice glaze. The consistency was not too bad. So - I can't really tell you what exactly was wrong with it, other than something was. And this was not an isolated opinion. A frozen pizza was quickly de-thawed for the rest of the family. I however was not as quick to abandon the meal. I figured - its cooked I may learn something from it. What I learned was that this meatloaf was ONLY a vehicle for mustard - and frankly not a very good one at that. I actually had to abandon the mustard for a stronger smokier barbecue sauce, and then just had to throw in the towel. Perhaps our kind host can help me with a simple recipe that minimizes the chance of me screwing it up.

Well, not knowing exactly what steps transpired really ties my hands, but I will give it a go.

According to Dame Melanie Barnard, whose cookbook I praised elsewhere on this 'blog, meatloaves consist or "four categories or ingredients: a main protein, a starch, a binder, and seasonings." You would be hard pressed to find a recipe that doesn't fit this template and I am pretty sure Martha's didn't stray too far from it. What I am about to share are the key tips to each of the four categories. Hopefully, the mistake will be obvious.

Main protein - The key is using a fairly lean fresh (not frozen) selection of meat. Extra lean and/or expensive cuts are generally pointless as they don't add anything except pretension and a little fat is needed for flavour and moistness.

Starch - The starch makes the 'loaf juicy, softer and more flavourful by absorbing the released juices from cooking protein. That is its purpose. The best choice is bread crumbs/chunks from a 1 to 2 day old loaf. Stale or old bread crumbs can actually make a loaf taste off, especially breadcrumbs kept in the freezer for a long time. Freezer burn has a very strong flavour.

Binder - The binder is what keeps the starch and protein together and not crumbling apart in the mixing process. Most starches are quite dry and proteins only release juices when cooked. The binder is best if it is a bland flavour carrying agent like eggs or dairy product (ie milk, yoghurt, or, god forbid, cream). It is there to keep the starch from sucked all the mosture out of the protein as well as keeping the whole package together in its loaf shape.

Seasonings - A lot of spices are best used fresh. If adding vegetables (ie carrots, onions, celery, etc) it is best to cook them lightly before adding them to the mixture. The cooking brings out more flavoured moisture. Dried spices more than a year old may have lost a lot of their flavour. One key thing is that seasonings should be used "with an assertive hand" as they truly make the loaf.

Also, if the recipe used was the one I linked to then be warned that chili sauce means something different now than it did even a few years ago. Chili sauce doesn't mean the Asian variety of textured hot sauce, but more like the Heinz Ketchup-version mixed with chili and peppers. It isn't inordently spicy.

Hope this helps. Please let me know if you try again. Oh, and I miss you too Mark.

This has been the longest time I have gone without a post. I apologize to any and all that still read this drivel. I have been uninspired and unhealthy, but that is no excuse. I sound continue with my quest.

In that vein, I do have a lot to catch up on. There are still a number of ideas I wanted to write about, plus a couple of blurps sent to me. Not in any chronological, here is the first of what I hope is many. This was sent to me by Janis, who I think is in Alaska, but who really knows:

Dear meatloaf officionado,

Recently I was at the dentist, sitting back enjoying my nitris (sp) 'treatment', when I began contemplating the good ol' days when teeth were pulled, not fixed. I was pondering this because I was questioning who the delightful person was who invented nitris. Then it came to me that it certainly wasn't a dentist of long ago since he was happy to just pull the offending tooth. Which then led me down the path that many people had a mouth full of gums, not teeth. My final conclusion was that it was during this early dentistry time frame that meatloaf was discovered! Makes perfect sense. Back then people were 'meat and potatoes' folks and without teeth the couldn't enjoy their meat! Some kindly grandma, most likely, was the savior of the day. Now ketsup.....that's another thing.

I actually found your e-mail by trying to find the 'real' origin of meatloaf. Unfortunately, I didn't find one I liked any better than my explaination. Bon apetite !

Thanks Janis!

I am not sure that this is the true origin of meatloaf, but I am really excited by your use of external stimuli to try and get to the truth. Nitrous oxide is some crazy stuff and, although, I try and steer clear, it seems that meatloaf is as good a thing to think about in a dentists chair. Well done.

One of the many things I have had boiling on the back burners of my creative place was a piece on the Meatloaf sandwich. Well, as proof of the bonds between friends, my pal Pasta sent this missive all the way from Colorado:

While I do have affection for meatloaf, I personally see a freshly baked meatloaf as a vehicle for producing left over meatloaf. Left over meatloaf, cold and sliced (generously thick), may be considered, by some, unappetizing. Some people, like my wife, have issues with leftovers. Please reserve your judgment until you have tried it between two slices of bread (I would go a lighter type of bread, perhaps a mild multigrain in lieu of any kind of rye or pumpernickel) with yellow - yes, you heard me, yellow mustard. Of course, that said, a nice country grainy white wine mustard is really nice too! I believe it's the tartness that is the key and the reason that regular Dijon just doesn't cut it.

Now, with some introspection, and complete outward honesty, I cannot be sure that the meatloaf as a vehicle for left over meatloaf, and more specifically meatloaf sandwiches, isn't actually a vehicle for mustard. I do love mustard.

Brilliant! I couldn't have put it better myself (except for the mustard thing, I know I love meatloaf)

Anyway, for you further enjoyment, here are a couple of photos of a meatloaf sandwich I made a little while ago.

I am still fighting a tough battle with inspiration. And I think I am losing.

Tomorrow, I have to go to a Thanksgiving potluck of sorts and was asked to make a salad or vegetable dish. Hoping to start something, I approached Token Vegetarian, who was also invited but was tasked with making her own vegetarian entree.

We traded because I wanted to try a vegetarian loaf. So, tomorrow, I will be making a Southwesten Sweet Potato Spinach Strata. I hope my karma bill is paid up.

So, in an attempt to break the staring contest of an impass with my demotivation I did some shopping. Using the wonderfully functional Used Books section on my employer's website, I managed to acquire a small out of print cookbook entitled Everybody Loves Meatloaf.

What a score!

This book is incredible. I thought I was alone, but this woman is dedicated. I didn't know anyone could love meatloaf as much as myself, but dammit she sure does. Here are the first few paragraphs of the introduction:

"My maternal grandmother made a very fine meatloaf. In fact, she made many good meatloaves, and took great pride in the preparation and serving of each one. Meatloaf-making was my first home-cooking lesson. Grandma taught me to mix gently, to pat smoothly, and to tend to the loaf carefully during baking. Over forty years later, as I write this book, I realize that she was talking about a lot more than meatloaf.

The modern meatloaf, like other widely loved foods such as pizzas, pastas, and burgers, has expanded its horizons well beyond the traditional definition. The new meatloaf may be chicken or turkey, salmon or shrimp, or may not even have any meat in it at all! This book is a celebration or all meatloaves, old and new, meat or not.

After years of being held in high esteem in the American food world, meatloaf fell into disfavor during the last decade [80's - ed]. It became the butt of school cafetaria jokes, and it was the centerfold of gluey gravy-stained diner menus. Meatloaf was relegated to the kitchen closet, and rarely discussed in polite culinary company.

It is good news indeed that meatloaf has lately made a comeback! And why not? It has all the right stuff for the way we cook today - easy to make and serve, very versatile, economical, nutritionally correct, usually good hot or cold, and loved by practically everyone.

Depending upon the occasion, meatloaf can be a culinary masterpiece, or it can be a flavorful everyday menu staple. In my view, it is both. There are loaves for celebrations - say, a rich patelike loaf with some mellow red wine. And then there are loaves to brighten the most mundane days - hearty slices of ground meats bound together with good breadcrumbs and topped with ketchup and bacon.

In researching this book, I found that nearly everyone has a meatloaf story, ranging from a gravy incident with a sibling to a romance over a little shrimp mousse and champagne on New Year's Eve. In addition, nearly everyone I know has a meatloaf recipe, but very few have more than one. So, because we can never get enough of a good thing, here are a few more meatloaves to add to your collection, as well as a repertoire of poultry, seafood, and vegetarian loaves, all designed to give you a whole new view on this American classic."

Can ya dig it? This book rocks. There are over 100 recipes of "loaves and fixin's". Some of the ones that really piqued my interest were Argentinian Steakloaf, Osso Bucco Loaf with Gremolata Tomato Gravy, Basque-Style Meatloaf, Turkey and Shiitake Loaf with Sherry Gravy, Dirty Rice Loaf, Casino Clam Loaf, Southwest Tuna Melt Loaf, Garlic, Grits and Greens Loaf and Deviled Broccoli Squares. They should include a crack pipe and twelve step program with this book. It is just that good. I haven't even mentioned anything from the Suaces and Sides section.

Ms. Barnard has completely outdone herself. This is one chockablock full little book. Besides all the recipes, she includes tips and tricks and some really helpful hints. And that doesn't even include the chapter entitled Advanced Meatloaf.

You may have noticed how quiet it is here. Well, I have hit a minor wall as it comes to writing. I have three or four things percolating, but I am generally uninspired.

Don't worry, I will be back soon.

I made some 'loaf this fine evening.

This evening's Jerk Pork Meatloaf is brought to you by Jack Welch, Gabriel Byrne and Rupert Holmes.

Recipe and photos to follow.