I have been making meatloaf confidently (and deliciously) for 20 years now. I've always used my Nana O'Brien's basic recipe proportions but over the years I've tweaked it a bit: ground turkey instead of all beef, panko for regular bread crumbs, fresh rosemary in place of all purpose seasoning. But one thing I've kept exactly, precisely the same: The Glaze. It's a mixture of ketchup, yellow mustard & brown sugar. You mix all those things up and pour it on the meat before it goes in the oven and it is magic.
I'm convinced that glaze sealed the deal for me and the hot husband. It's that good.
For years, I have made this dish for friends and family. Dinner parties and Wednesday nights. I love it so much that I often wish that it wasn't called "meatloaf", something this delicious needs- nay, DESERVES a far more sophisticated and culinarily appropriate title! "Chopped Meat Divine" would be so much better! Don't you think?
So anyway, as I was making yet another masterpiece tonight I did something I've never done before! And I have no idea what prompted me to do so: I plopped the meat in the baking dish (as usual) and shaped the loaf (like always), but this time instead of gauging the shape of the meat from looking down at the pan, I also got down low and looked at across the top; I spanned the Meatloaf Horizon and I saw that it was dramatically misshapen! It's lack of symmetry was shocking and I instantly felt motivated to adjust and correct and make it as pleasing in the baking dish as it was in my heart and mind. A few hugs and pushes and presses and soon enough if was more uniform and equal.
It was a revelation! And a reminder. You can look at something for 20 years and always see that thing the same way, OR, you can tilt your perspective and see it for how it could be. Don't you already feel smarter?
I'm convinced that glaze sealed the deal for me and the hot husband. It's that good.
For years, I have made this dish for friends and family. Dinner parties and Wednesday nights. I love it so much that I often wish that it wasn't called "meatloaf", something this delicious needs- nay, DESERVES a far more sophisticated and culinarily appropriate title! "Chopped Meat Divine" would be so much better! Don't you think?
So anyway, as I was making yet another masterpiece tonight I did something I've never done before! And I have no idea what prompted me to do so: I plopped the meat in the baking dish (as usual) and shaped the loaf (like always), but this time instead of gauging the shape of the meat from looking down at the pan, I also got down low and looked at across the top; I spanned the Meatloaf Horizon and I saw that it was dramatically misshapen! It's lack of symmetry was shocking and I instantly felt motivated to adjust and correct and make it as pleasing in the baking dish as it was in my heart and mind. A few hugs and pushes and presses and soon enough if was more uniform and equal.
It was a revelation! And a reminder. You can look at something for 20 years and always see that thing the same way, OR, you can tilt your perspective and see it for how it could be. Don't you already feel smarter?
Dinner is at 7.
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