Meat Loaf

It’s been freezing cold for several days now. The New York Times says it is in the 30’s today, but here on the far East side of Manhattan I’d say it feels well below 20. The blustery winds from the East River whip up and down York and First Avenues, giving us our own litle microclimate, similar to, say… Siberia. Even my 9 year old daughter caves in and wears a scarf.

Now, I know how to make meatloaf, you know how to make meatloaf…everyone knows how to make meatloaf. I even have a great recipe for meat loaf, thanks to my mother-in-law, The Greatest Home Cook in the World. (Irene, when are you going to start a food blog?) But Irene’s recipe calls for whipped cream cheese and motsa meal (Aren’t you curious? Sorry, some other time..), and I had neither. But I did have some ground siroloin and some Italian sweet sausage, plus some great homemade bread crumbs pining away in my freezer. So, off I went to my usual starting place, Epicurious.com (always sorting the search by fork rating to avoid wasting time on the duds). And there, three down from the the top on the search for “meat loaf”, I found it – Old Fashioned Meat Loaf (Gourmet, 1994). Of course, I made a few changes. But when it was done, it was, according to my husband (who of course has had his mother’s meat loaf), THE BEST MEAT LOAF HE’S EVER HAD.

I served it with mashed potatoes that I made from red bliss potatoes. I’d never used these particular type of potato in mashed potatoes before. Wow, they are so creamy, you barely need any milk (I used about a tbsp or so of half and half). I also made haricot verts. Easy recipe (again from Irene). You put the beans in a baking dish with olive oil, salt, pepper, and zest of one lemon. Bake at 450 for 10 minutes. Delicious!