Category: Meatloaf Mondays

In honor of my dear childhood friend Karen’s 58^th birthday this week, I chose her recipe. Yep! Another “Karen” out of the gate early.  Great, another onion, I thought. Then I saw the green pepper which I heard Terry say to a young man at a church dinner last week, “I do not like green peppers but those red and yellow are pretty good.” This, as 2-year-old Sam was eating whole red peppers, one after another, off his father’s plate.  Well, we will see how this goes because I am making these recipes as they were intended and written. How else do we try new things recommended by others?  Did I mention I do not really like meatloaf?   However, I have tried them all so far.  Karen’s special ingredients included tomato sauce, ritz crackers (which are Terry’s favorite crackers) and green pepper. It said only ‘an onion’ again. So, I took creative liberty and used ½ cup chopped sweet onion instead of a whole onion. Sorry, I had to standardize the onion, or each recipe was going to crash and burn over this poor vegetable. The same goes for the green pepper.

Here is what I learned in Week #4.  At the grocery store when buying said onion, I saw that an onion purchased individually is much larger than the small onions that come in a bag. I laughed. “Is this why recipes just say ‘an onion’ in the recipe? Are there actually bag buyers of onions?” Wow. Never have I bought a bag of onions. I rarely have bought even one onion in the past 34 years. What would I ever do with a bag full? During this week I had the time to see Karen #1 and ask about her Great Grandma’s recipe and the onion amount. She laughed and said, “I would likely put just half an onion as well”.  That is a new revelation. Cooks adjust a recipe as they prefer. Even when it is great grandma’s favorite meatloaf.

I pulled this meatloaf from the oven and served it up with a vegetable. Immediately he said, “oh, green peppers.”  If he is nothing else, he is predictable. He did not know the author of this recipe. I had to make it as is, to see if his preference for green peppers had changed in this recipe. This was likely not a fair shot, and I would like to make Karen’s again in week 43 or so without the green pepper to see how it fares. A good question to ask is why I put in an ingredient I know Terry does not like?  It comes down to early in our marriage.  Terry liked nothing but plain foods, little variety. He was not about to try anything new until suddenly he ate a little broccoli on a potato with cheese. Or he would take a swipe of mayo on a BLT. He tried many new foods over the years, but is still very stubborn, about a few. For instance, Asian food, guacamole and shrimp cocktail. Deep fried is the only way he will eat shrimp. Until this Christmas, he said he likes the shrimp now that Chef Dad cooks on his teppanyaki. See, he might like it.

This all goes back to the opening of this blog.  We often like what we like from our childhood or maybe we don’t like what we don’t like from our childhood. My mom or Grandma Louise seemed to make liver often when I was growing up. This stands out as a strong smelly memory. I would not eat liver now. I think my mom ate something called blood pudding too.  Recently, I was in Scotland and heard this is called black pudding. It was on the buffet. Yuck. Then I was told that blood pudding is not allowed in the US any longer for sanitary reasons. Might be why I have not heard of my mom eating it in over 45 years.

Back to Terry.  He says they ate a lot of ‘blade steak’ growing up.  To my knowledge, he has never bought it or asked me to buy it. Terry would eat the school cafeteria pizzas every week if he could. You know, the ones that are small rectangles. We all loved those, right?  They often had those growing up.

The rating for Week 4 was a 7.  He is learning the 8.5 from week 3 is not sustainable for all the weeks ahead, or it was that darn green pepper. Either way, he loved the flavor of the Ritz crackers.  Here is the recipe from another Karen with great handwriting and cute recipe cards. Thanks Karen, and I hope it was a great birthday week!

It is a hard and fast rule EVERY Monday I make meatloaf, but Terry was at the AD conference in Columbus on November 11, so we had to skip.  I could not deprive him of an AD outing at an Easton restaurant and send along meatloaf to heat up.  During this conference he was the victim of a break-in of his truck overnight at the hotel. Fifteen or so trucks were hit. This caused him some stress with the broken window and damage to the paint and door. It almost ruined his hunting trip down south after the conference. He said he would miss the conference for meatloaf next time. The hooligans took the Christmas gift he bought for me at Macys that night too. Boo to criminals.

For Week #3, “Rhonda Casady’s Favorite Meatloaf” was up to bat. I figured if Rhonda was willing to put her full name on the title of the recipe card, it must be something she is VERY sure about. This one called for a pound of ground beef and a pound of Italian sausage. I know Terry likes Italian sausage. I do not. I knew he might really like this one. It also contained two rarely used ingredients in meatloaf topping, maple syrup and nutmeg.  Interesting.  He said, “This was good.” He could not pick out the flavors, so I let him off the hook and shared it had Italian sausage. “Oh! I am a big fan of Italian sausage,” he said. “8.5!”   Do I know my husband or what?   Can I add this point? Cooks who do not use recipes, measure ingredients or give enough detail on a recipe card because it is obvious, drive me crazy. I had to text Rhonda about the garlic needed. I asked “powder, salt or fresh?” And how much pepper? I am sure she thought I was the problem. She likely was right! My ability to execute these recipes might be the real challenge for the next 40 weeks.  Anyhow, I must have done fine to get the 8.5.   Tonight, we decided we could not wait until next fall to talk about the ingredients and the person who gave us each recipe after he ate it. We would never remember all the details. It was fun chatting with him about the meatloaf project and the recipes to date.  Bonding over meatloaf. Who would have guessed?

Rhonda Casady’s Favorite Meatloaf

1 lb. Italian Sausage
1 lb. lean ground beef
2 beaten eggs
¼ c. grated onion
½ t. sage
1 t. garlic powder
1 t, Italian Seasoning

Mix well, Place in loaf pan, Bake at 350 degrees for one hour. Drain grease.

Topping:
Mix ½ c. ketchup, 3 T. of maple syrup, ½ t, nutmeg and 1 t. dry mustard. Add to loaf and bake another 10-15 minutes.

It gets dicey from here on out.  Before I published this journal, I was asked if I would consider writing about this project and if I would share the recipes. I heard more than once, “I need a new meatloaf recipe so please share what you learn.” I was also asked whether this could hurt the feelings of the wonderful friends that gave me these recipes.  Knowing us, I did not think so, BUT…

Disclaimer: Before you read on, if I make your recipe, you must promise not to be offended by the ranking of your favorite great grandmother’s recipe or the church lady recipe that you call the ‘perfect meatloaf dish’. This is about Terry. His craziness for meatloaf and then of course, my ability to make it anything close to the intended outcome.  I have learned we all like what we like, so you likely do have the perfect meatloaf dish for you and your family.  I also hope there is grace with your recipe being posted in this format. I was not going to post the recipes but kept being asked for them so I decided to post them. Then you can all try this experiment on your own. We want to hear if you find a great new recipe through this experiment. We love you all and are so glad you shared your recipes with us. Since Mr. McCormick got a solid 6, I think we are safe but let’s see how the year unfolds.

Did you wonder at any point yet, what the Schnipkes ate post children in the home, if I never cooked?  Anything.  Oatmeal, eggs, cereal, salad, turkey…whatever we could find. Terry would eat regularly at a ball game, or we might pick up to-go. Just ask long-time CGHS band mom Anne, his concession buddy, how many chicken sandwiches or bags of popcorn he would eat all winter long at games.  Every Wednesday evening for many years he would pick me up at work for Mexican food. Those were great evenings. We called them our date nights to catch up on everything.  One question that hits me here is this: “Why dirty dishes when you get home after 7:00 pm each night?”  I remember my predecessor Esther telling me once she had to leave the agency by 6:00 p.m. each evening, so she could have dinner for her husband by no later than 6:30.”  It was part of their pre-marriage agreement. 😊  She is a great cook though. There is no way that was me. I left when I felt I had done enough for the day, or I had somewhere else to be.  I was not about to go home and cook.

Back to Week #2 and the meatloaf.

First up, is from Karen, a lovely long-time co-worker. (I must specify as there are lots of Karens in the world. I do not mean the terrible connation that beautiful name, so popular in the 1960’s and 1970’s has gotten in the last 4 years). This Karen makes the absolute best butterscotch cookies. Each birthday, I would get a plate and often eat five by lunchtime. Don’t judge. I will miss those in my retirement days for sure!

Karen’s recipe was called “My Great Grandmother’s Favorite Recipe for Meatloaf.” I wanted to hit Terry hard with how my recipe is not the best. It also seemed fairly simple to get this project started. First up, shopping.  Here’s a new wrinkle. I also do not like to regularly grocery shop. I actually, do not like it irregularly either.  But here I am. Cooking and grocery shopping on Mondays.  I was in the vegetable aisle looking at the onions. I had no idea which one to choose when the recipe says ‘onion’.  I was guessing the choice mattered to the person making the dish. I texted the pickiest cooking “expert” in the family, Chef Dad. (His new nickname for this project.)  He said he always uses sweet onion unless the recipe specifies. Mostly Vidalia he said.  I went with it and thought, every recipe that does not specify is getting sweet onion. I sure hope that is right. The recipe called for a whole onion. I thought there was no way I could use this whole onion. Again, this evening. I had to leave for a book club, so I left detailed baking instructions. I got the same loving text gushing about his wonder at coming home to meatloaf. Did I say yet, how excited he is?

When I got home, I asked how he liked this week’s installment.  “Well, you know how I feel about onions?”  WAIT! Game changer. Is he not going to like any recipe with onions?  I don’t use them in my recipe so is that why he likes mine so much?  This is a big deal because most recipes for meatloaf call for onions.   I asked for his score, and he said “6.5”. WHAT?! “You gave it a higher score than last week, and you don’t like all the onion?” He also mentioned it was dense. Like thick. Solid. He said, “the ketchup and brown sugar, I am assuming on top, was very good.”  Did I mention yet, Terry has a sweet tooth, so of course, he loves the brown sugar part.  The denseness might come from the oatmeal used in this recipe.  Terry is not told who the giver of the recipe is or the ingredients until after he rates it.  At this point, I said it is going to be a long year if he chooses to fit 42 recipes between 6.5 and 10.

Karen has the loveliest handwriting and recipe cards worthy of a share.

I could not believe it was Monday morning. I had no time and no groceries. I found 1 lb. of ground beef in the freezer and grabbed the stack of recipes. I wondered how long that ground beef had been in the freezer. I found the perfect way to start. My friend Barb thought she would be funny at my retirement party and give me a packet of the McCormick seasoning called appropriately, “Meatloaf”. Mix with milk (all we had was fat free), an egg, breadcrumbs and bake. I could only make half the recipe as the package called for two pounds of ground beef. Of course, I was busy that evening when Terry got home (I’m retired, not dead!) so I left instructions for him to bake his first surprise meatloaf. Later that evening, I got this huge text about how awesome I was when he saw it. It does not take much to make him happy. When I got home, I asked for his score. “Score?” he said. “Yes, we should score these each week. If mine is a 10, then how do you rank all the others?” “Well, whose recipe, was it?” “Oh no, you can’t know that. It will impact your scoring.” He said “Well, it was interesting. It all sort of fell apart. Like loose hamburger.” I immediately thought of the 90s sitcom that referenced ‘loose meat sandwiches’. It sounded gross back then and it did not hit me any better now. “I give it a 6.”
“What? On a scale of 1 to 10? You must be kidding?”, I said. I knew immediately he was being generous because he is too nice to hurt the feelings of the person who gave us this recipe.

He had no idea it was a package of spices with one egg, breadcrumbs and milk. Well, the joke is on him because that is a tight range for 41 more Meatloaf Mondays.