Meatloaf

I am a big fan of meatloaf. With snow flurries falling today it seemed like a great day to have the oven on for hours and to make a hearty meal of meatloaf and mashed potatoes. My husband's cousin is visiting and both he and my husband worked outside all day today in the cold and flurries doing tree work and stone work, respectively. So as I stood at the butcher's counter today, 1 1/2 lbs of meat didn't look like enough. I went for 1 3/4 lbs of meatloaf mix (beef, pork, and veal). I am hoping we'll have some leftovers because there is nothing like a meatloaf sandwich in my mind. I love 'em with mayo, BBQ sauce and lettuce. And cold.

I preheated the oven to 350 (Joy of Cooking advice) and I anticipate it'll take 1 1/2 hours to bake for that much meat. I always use a meat thermometer when pork is involved.

The recommended temperature is around 160 for pork.

I start out with one slice of sandwich bread (this is a good use for the heel!) and I soak it in about 2-3T milk and 1 egg (although I have used either one or the other before, so if you don't have an egg, don't worry about it).

Once it is soggy, I use my hands to mush up that mixture and then I add the meat and mix it all together.

You must use your hands! I then add in the extras.

This time I used about 1/2 an onion and 1 small green pepper.

I often add mushrooms too, but I didn't have any.

I added about 2T ketchup, 1T chili sauce, 1T worcestershire sauce, 1t garlic powder, 1t black pepper, and 1T oregano. I know I have also tossed in dry mustard, basil, salt, and other spices in the past. I mix all this together and put it in a loaf pan. I cover the top with ketchup and stick it in the oven.