Happy day after Easter day! It was a great weekend and carried on through Monday, when Terry was along for Meatloaf Monday groceries. He does not pay much attention these days or I did not notice him checking out the items I was placing in the cart. He likely had his own ‘to get list’ on his mind. Also, I only had to slip in ground beef and marinara. The marinara is a new ingredient for Week #25. I have not used it yet that I can remember. I bought some frozen cheese sticks that Terry thought were for our trip later this week to stay with our grandsons in Chicago. I figured the cheese sticks would throw him off the marinara trail if he saw the bottle.
This recipe was mailed to me in a Christmas card and the sweet note with it read, “Never sent you my meatloaf recipe. Hope you love this one. It is Joy’s favorite and a spin off of Julie’s recipe.” The sender was Anna Yoder, a long time friend of Brooke’s (and our family). Anna also does a bit of catering at times so she helped Terry with my retirement party. The ‘Julie’ is her mother-in-law. The ‘Joy’ is this sweet girl.
Well, if Joy likes it, then I am sure we will too. Anna is like her mom with a very detailed recipe card, giving me all the details I need to execute this recipe. Just for a reminder, it is Anna’s mom that sits a the highest rank of 9.9 in Week #5. Yet Anna makes a variation of her MIL’s. Interesting. It must be good then. Anna’s meatloaf called for something else I had not seen yet. The ground beef amount in the recipe was listed at 1 and 1/2 lbs. I only find ground beef in 1lb or 2lb packages. So, my question is always, what do you do with the other 1/2 pound? Freeze it? Use it in something else within the week? Truly, I would love to know. Perhaps others shop where you can still ask a butcher for a specific amount of ground beef. I settled this issue today with browning the other 1/2lb to hopefully, use later this week. But said trip to Chicago may prevent that from happening. I think I did write in an earlier post that a 1/2 pound of ground Italian sausage was the same dilemma. That seemed a bit more natural to make sausage patties for Terry to eat for breakfast. I guess I could have made two hamburger patties. Oh, well.
Look at these pretty cards. Pretty handwriting and details I love. This recipe was very easy to make. Terry commented when he walked in that the house smelled wonderful. It will be a sad Monday when this project is over and he no longer comments on the smell of our kitchen on Mondays. The only notable change from the recipe is that I had to bake it 75 minutes to get all the red out of the meat and for the thermometer to reach 160°. Terry said the sauce was really sweet. Maybe even a bit too sweet but he ate two healthy sized pieces. So, not too sweet. 🙂 He said it had a decent flavor. He noted there was ‘more stuff’ in this one than the past couple of meatloaves. I would have to fact check that statement. After 25 weeks of meatloaf, Terry is refining his tastes and showing his own preferences. He gave this meatloaf a solid 8.4. He would definitely eat it again. Next time we might just have to invite sweet Joy and her clan though. That would make any meal more enjoyable! Thanks Anna for the recipe and sweet note.
Slow week without much else to share. Maybe we will have more tales from seeing the older boys this weekend. They will keep us on our toes for sure.
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