Saturday, October 18, 2014

Mommy's Magic Meatloaf


Here's another recipe from Mom's favourites file. She was an elementary school teacher and put in long hours both at school and at home preparing for class.

Mom would cook on weekends and freeze meals so that weekday dinners would be healthy but simple. One of her classic dishes I call Mommy's Magic Meatloaf. Here's Mom making a batch when she lived in Bellingham to be near me.

Mommy's Magic Meatloaf
• 1 pound ground beef
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 egg
• 1 tablespoon poultry seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 cup crumbled bread
• 1/2 cup ketchup

Leave several slices of bread out to get dry. Crumble them into small pieces in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Finely chop a small onion and mix with the bread. Add salt, pepper and poultry seasoning and mix well. Beat one egg with 1/2 cup milk. Pour over the bread to moisten.

Add the hamburger to the bowl and mix well. This is the "magic" part. It's the loving touch of Mom's hands that makes it taste so good. Now my hands have to take on that important role.


Place the meatloaf mixture in a baking dish and form it into a loaf. Leave a small space between the side of the meatloaf and the edge of the dish for juices to collect during cooking.

Cover with a liberal amount of ketchup and bake at 350 degrees for about one hour. Let the meatloaf cool for about five minutes before cutting. Serve with mashed potatoes and peas and for a comfort meal just like mommy used to make.

What are some of the foods your Mom made that seemed like magic? -- Margy

5 comments :

  1. This is so sweet!
    We had a family joke about my foster-sister auntie who would always 'make gravy like mom's'. Hers was always lumpy, gramma's: never!

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  2. A liberal amount of ketchup. Yes, indeed! Meatloaf was one of the dishes the Daddy would ask me to make when I was a teenager. He was a sweetheart. Back then, my concoctions were not very tasty. :-)

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  3. We love meatloaf, it is a comfort food in winter. Your mom's recipe is similar to mine, I also add a couple of spoonfuls of soup mix, usually onion.

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  4. Yumm! Just had my dear Mom with us for a week. She has had trouble eating the last year or so - nothing tastes right to her. But she really enjoyed Tramp 1's fried chicken and mashed potatoes with gravy. Next time, we will give your dear mother's meatloaf a whirl. Poultry seasoning sounds tasty!

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  5. Thanks all for commenting on my recipe post. Jenn, don't we always remember things even better than they were. Family closeness makes almost anything taste good. Linda, the onion soup mix sounds like a good addition. Wayne always uses it in his roast baked in the BBQ.

    2Tramps - I know how taste can change with age. Mom didn't really enjoy eating all that much in her later years. I even find that I need to add more spices when I cook than I did before, but I attribute it to eating too many chili peppers than age. Do you buy that?

    Margy

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Thanks for stopping by. Comments, questions, and suggestions are always welcome. - Margy