The choice for this week was a no-brainer. I spent several hours last week with Morgan organizing this website and hitting publish on the blog. The first 11 weeks at one time. The site is not meant to be fancy. Just a place for the entries and recipes. To thank our friends and give you all a shout out for the recipes and playing along. I am not a computer person at all. I love writing in cursive and paper journals. I was so happy to hear that Morgan was doing some free lance work and had the time to help me. If you are new to Meatloaf Mondays & More, the welcome gives the back story. Also, if you want to comment ensure you are inside the entry, not just scrolling on the main page. This week I have some questions to ask that I would love feedback on.
I picked out Morgan’s recipe, which sweetly read “Meatloaf from My Great Grandma”. I could not read one word on the notecard so I texted Morgan to ask about it. The text went like this… “Guess who is on deck? You! Or should I say, your great grandma?” Morgan replied, “OMG THROW MINE AWAY. I’ve never even made it. I, for real, just pulled it from my Grandma’s recipe book. I can’t be on your blog. That was a joke. I just wanted to contribute a recipe”. First, I really want to understand how she has her Great Grandma’s recipes. I want to see that book. Of course, I am older than Morgan (and her mom!) so my greats and grandmas were likely all ‘a pinch of this and that’ type of people. Not recipe book people. Second, Morgan should be glad she submitted this recipe.
Back to the word I could not read on her recipe card. Morgan said it was “piquant”. It means “having a pleasantly sharp taste or appetizing flavor”. I also found definitions that listed pungent, sharp or spicy taste. The origin of this word is French from the 1500s . This recipe is interesting in that we are at week #12 and only two recipes have used nutmeg and sage so far: Morgan’s Great Grandma’s meatloaf and Morgan’s Mom, Rhonda Casady’s Favorite Meatloaf recipe from Week #3. There was one other thing that were similar to only these two recipes, that I do not believe are from the same side of the family. Both said to ‘grate’ the onions. In the photo below I show the grater I used. On the biggest grate the onions seem a bit big for Terry’s general liking. On the other sides, the onions get watery (mostly). Is this grater the type of kitchen tool meant for ‘grating’ onions? This photo also shows how big the onions are in the meat mixture. However, I easily covered those with the piquant sauce. 🙂
I made the meatloaf in the muffin pan because this is the first recipe that suggested it. They were cute. I paired it with asparagus. This recipe was written with such love. I have to show it as written. The comment about whether we would prefer a hamburger, cracked me up. And then the ‘love ya!’ comment makes me smile.
Morgan is one of the best. She has always pushed me as much as she can from my boomer ways to her millennial ways. She has taught me much about branding, public relations work and social media. I am glad we worked together a few years back. As far as the hamburger comment is concerned. Yes, I would! So much so, that I did not put the piquant sauce on one meatloaf muffin and it tasted remarkably like a hamburger. Maybe that is the key to me liking meatloaf.
Terry’s first comment was ‘”this is pretty good”. After he had four muffins, he proclaimed “a solid 8!” He was very happy. Terry does not have the list, the recipes or past scores yet he has not repeated a rating yet through Week #12. How is he doing that?! He started with a 7 and says mine is a 10, but all the rankings so far are different in that range. I wonder if that will keep up. I am very glad that Morgan submitted this recipe, even if it was just so she could help Terry pull a fast one on me at my retirement party. Our summary is that a Great Grandma’s recipe book is very reliable for what is contained within. Thanks for sharing, Morgan!
I have one more thing to add this week about spices and such. In a previous post, I mentioned how quickly spices expire, and how large the containers seem to be. The photo below shows the dry mustard I have not had that long. It expires in April 2025 and very little has been used. I would definitely need to cook more than one time weekly to use it by the expiration. Colman’s could definitely sell this in a much smaller quantity. I did not realize until researching this a bit that dry mustard is also called ground mustard and is sold in a smaller container by other brands. I have always bought the can of Colman’s and have thrown it away due to the expiration date in the past. I know I have been told that products can be used after their expiration, but they might not be as effective. How long and how not effective? Are the dates set to get us to buy more products or is there a method to the expiration dates? What is a safe time period to still use it? Well, Week #12 is in the books. Only 30 or so to go!
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