Good Old Fashioned Meat and Potatoes

There's no getting around it - winter eating in the upper Midwest must include a healthy dose of meat and potatoes. I'd never made meat loaf before, so I decided to try it this week. I took the recipe from the Joy of Cooking, that old standby that never lets me down.

We had two old crusty heels of bread in the freezer, so I chopped them up into breadcrumbs. It's always a good idea to keep things like this around - you never know when you might need some breadcrumbs, and it would be a shame to use perfectly good fresh bread.


For the meatloaf base I used the breadcrumbs, chopped (local) garlic, two local eggs, a bit of my homemade butter (I know, it seems kind of crazy to add butter to something as rich as meatloaf, but that's what the recipe said, so that's what I did!) salt, pepper, and a bit of dried sage.

I added the beef, mixed it all up......

...and plopped it in a lightly oiled bread pan. It went in the oven, and I got started on my side dishes.

Nothing goes with meatloaf like mashed potatoes. I had the leftover half rutabaga from my rutabaga lentil dish, so I peeled it, chopped it up, and added it to the mix.

The roots got boiled until they were totally soft, then drained. I added a big pat of butter and a glug of cream, plus some salt, pepper, thyme, sage and rosemary, and mashed it all up.

These were the perfect creamy mashed potatoes! The rutabaga gave them a nice flavor, but were not overpowering in the least. Dave didn't even know they were in there until I told him after he'd eaten a big portion.

I also made a quick cabbage salad to give us some fresh crunchy-ness to balance the rich meat and potatoes. This is the last of the local savoy cabbage from Tipi Farm that Willy Street will have this season. We're now down to regular red and green cabbage.

When the meat loaf had been in about 40 minutes, I pulled it out and squirted some ketchup on top and let it cook about 10 minutes more. I wasn't sure how to tell when it was done, so I used my meat thermometer. When it got up to 120 degrees I called it done.

Here's our portions. This was a wonderful hearty meal....rich comfort food at its best!

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Megan's Meat Loaf
Very loosely based on a recipe from The Joy of Cooking

2 slices stale bread, diced finely
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons butter
Diced garlic
Salt
Pepper
Powdered Sage
About 1lb Ground Beef
Ketchup

Combine all ingredients except ketchup in a bowl. Put mixture into lightly oiled bread pan and bake at 350 degrees for about 50 minutes. About 10 minutes before it's done, pull meatloaf out of the oven and spread some ketchup on top. When the internal temp is 120 degrees, it's done.

Mashed Potatoes and Rutabaga

Rutabaga
Potatoes - any combination and amount of these two veggies will work.
Salt
Pepper
Dried Sage, Rosemary, and Thyme

Cut vegetables into cubes and boil until they are very soft, about 15 minutes. Drain. Add 1/4 cup heavy cream, 3-4 tablespoons butter, and seasonings. Mash until creamy.

Simple Cabbage Salad

1/4 large savoy cabbage, cut thinly
1 Carrot, julienned
White wine vinegar
Olive oil
Salt
Pepper

Combine everything. Add dressing ingredients slowly, tasting often, until the right flavor is achieved.

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