As I was preparing for holiday grocery shopping, I knew this dinner would include Brent, Bethany, Everett and Peter. They were home for a few days to celebrate Christmas. I never asked if they liked meatloaf because it was Monday, and in the Schnipke house, we have meatloaf. Good thing they had their favorite pizza the evening before.
I want to add one thing here. Groceries. I keep running out of ketchup. I wonder why. I rarely buy one ketchup per year and now I buy 2 at a time. Also, I am purchasing so much ground beef I should think of buying in bulk.
What I did not share from Week #8, that bleeds into Week #9 is that Meatloaf Monday is gaining a fan base. When the Mathewson family, our friend Jana’s parents and siblings, were deciding what to cook for Christmas dinner this year, they decided to have meatloaf. Four people made a variation of this dish to share with everyone. Since Jana’s family was here on December 23rd, they had meatloaf twice in 3 days. That is going hard on this dish! On December 25, as we were all enjoying our traditional Christmas dinner that includes a perfect filet, scallops, crème brulé and many other fixings, the Mathewson’s were having meatloaf. I was very glad to have filet over meatloaf. I think Terry was happy with that too. Although he still says he is not tired of meatloaf yet.
The Mathewson Christmas dinner gave me the idea to make their winning meatloaf our Week #10. I thought it would be Jana’s recipe which is already in the pile of recipes I was gifted. But, oh my, her sister Rachael edged her out to win. Jana even thought it was the best.
Meatloaf
3lbs ground beef
2 eggs
2 sleeves Ritz crackers
2 packets Lipton Onion Soup
½ cup Ketchup
pepper
salt
½ c. milk
1 T. Worcestershire Sauce
Mix well. Add Panko breadcrumbs if too wet. Bake 75 minutes at 375 degrees.
Glaze
½ c. ketchup
2-3 T. mustard.
1 T. vinegar
2T. brown sugar
This is how this recipe was given to me via text. Maybe even less detail. I had no idea about salt and pepper, so I just used the standard of ½ t. salt and ¼ t. pepper. However, with three pounds of ground beef maybe I should have added more. I knew Terry would like the addition of mustard and onion soup mix v. real onion. We have not seen either of these ingredients in a recipe yet. He also likes those Ritz crackers used in Week #4. For his second helping, Terry added mustard to his slice and pronounced a solid 9.0. A very high score.
I mentioned earlier that Everett and Peter, two of our grandsons, would be joining us for this meal. Their practical and smart parents asked them each to try at least one bite. I know we should not have busted out laughing, but Peter, age 5, said very emphatically, “That was disgusting!” I know Rachael has children and works with children so she will not be offended by that comment. Out of the mouths of babes. Peter and Everett were much happier with Christmas leftovers. Here is a sweet photo of the child who pronounced empathically what he thought of this dish. Makes it easier right, Rachael?
Since this was a three-pound meatloaf and we had so many Christmas leftovers, we shared the leftovers with our neighbors. When Terry’s uncle brought back our dish, he said it was very good. Sharing the love, (and meatloaf) during Christmas.
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