27th Street

Comfort Food

November 20, 2009 · 11 Comments

I think everybody has a favourite comfort food. What’s yours?

Growing up, mine was always my mom’s meatloaf. Any old meatloaf didn’t do it for me. It was this particular meatloaf. Naturally, I learned how to make it. It isn’t something I make very often, but every once in a while, maybe once a year, I’ll do one up. Last time, I added a twist – I cooked it out back on the bbq, adding a perfect smoky edge to it.

Here’s the way you make it….

Chop an onion and a green pepper, fine.
Add it to equal amounts of ground beef and ground pork.
Add a generous handful of breadcrumbs.
Add an egg.
Toss in a generous amount of dried basil and thyme and then some salt and pepper.
Squish it around in the bowl with your hands until everything is mixed together well.
Form it into one big or two smaller loaves. Mom always did hers in yellow rectangular glass baking pans.
Cover the top of the loaves with strips of bacon, so that the top is totally covered.
Be sure there is room between the sides of the loaves and the sides of the pan.
Now you have to brush the top of the loaves with the secret ingredient. Don’t tell anybody. It’s Heinz Chili Sauce. There is no substitute. I don’t have any other use for Heinz Chili Sauce, but it’s what makes this “Mom’s Meatloaf”.
Bake in the oven (or the bbq!) at about 350F for about an hour (depending on the size of your loaves…smaller ones could take only 45 minutes.

Serve hot for dinner… but be sure to save some for sandwiches next day, on crusty kaiser buns.

As you know, I’m on the train, shedding pounds…so I’m not going to enjoy this for a while. Consider it a little food fantasy. I’ll post this also on Dinner at the Anchovy’s for future reference.

Categories: food
Tagged: ,

11 responses so far ↓

Leave a Comment