As a chef people always as me about my favorite food. When I tell them meatloaf they are so surprised. Growing up in New Hampshire meatloaf was somewhat of a white trash food. I can remember my first introduction to meatloaf from my mother. The recipe was something like this:
1 lb ground beef
1 chopped yellow onion
1 chopped green pepper
1 c progresso bread crumbs
1 egg beaten
1 T yellow mustard
1/2 c ketchup
1 package of wishbone Italian dressing
Not exactly gourmet I would say, and most times a bit dry, but for some strange reason I loved it. I guess the fact that we doused it in ketchup like a hamburger helped a great deal.
One day I went to lunch with my mother at this restaurant attached to Bradlee's Department Store http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradlees. On the menu they had meatloaf and mashed potatoes all covered in gravy. Gravy? When did they start doing this? Well of course I had to try it and yet again my meatloaf was taken to a new level.
Fast forward about 20 years. I have guests coming over for dinner. They are a very meat and potatoes type of family. I wanted something I could do ahead of time and just pop in the oven but yet was on a budget. Meatloaf it was but I couldn't do any old meatloaf I needed something upscale. Out came the cookbooks. Flipping and flipping I finally came across a stuffed meatloaf in the Frog Commisary Cookbook. The twist on this meatloaf - it was stuffed with cheese and spinach. The meatloaf mixture was made and then flattened out between two pieces of waxed paper. down the center I crumbled a mixture of blue cheese and sauteed spinach. This meat mix was then rolled like a jelly roll and cooked. Each slice of this yummy stuff contained a small nugget of goodness. My guests were amazed!
Here is is 2007 and meatloaf still reins for me! The other night I whipped up a fantastic turkey meatloaf in no time. It consisted of ground turkey breast, egg, panko crumbs, chopped onion, copped jalepano, diced sundried tomatoes in olive oil, mustard, steak sauce and salt/pepper. As simple as it was, this was some of the most tasty and healthy meatloaf I have ever made.
No doubt there is a meatloaf book already out there but watch for the Kitchen Bitch's version one day. You will be happy you purchased it! Who said meatloaf is white trash anymore, it is gourmet these days.
