…with its crisp morning air and earlier sunsets, and with it, thoughts of traditional comfort food like meatloaf begin to speak to me…mmm.  I grew up eating the delicious meatloaf my mom baked and have found it to be such a great dish to prepare, not only because it’s so easy, quick and tasty, but because of the leftovers!  Tomorrow’s meatloaf sandwiches – cold or hot – layered with sliced dill pickle, onion, mustard and ketchup are simply scrumptious.  Meatloaf is quite a forgiving dish and so, even if you’re missing a particular ingredient, it will still turn out o.k., as I found out recently when my husband had just arrived from a week away on ministry and I was due to leave 2 days later for a ministry trip of my own.  I thought he would appreciate a home cooked meal after being on the road, so I prepared meatloaf, corn on the cob and baked potatoes.  (I ALWAYS make baked potatoes ’cause you just wash them, prick them with a fork and throw them on the oven rack when you put the meatloaf in to bake.  The meatloaf is done in about an hour, and the potatoes can remain in the oven a bit longer if necessary.  This is called multi-tasking, but your oven does all the work.)  While I’m busy in the kitchen my 13 year-old pipes up, “I’ve had meatloaf so many times in my life, I think it’s part of my DNA!”  Then my 16 year-old chimes in, “yeah, it’s like World War II food!”  I got a good laugh about the mutated DNA of my 13 year-old and told my 16 year-old he would have been lucky to have so much meat at one sitting during World War II…my kids keep me laughing – mostly at myself.  Funnier still – they devoured so much meatloaf that night at dinner, there was none left to take to the neighbors as I had originally planned.  We live in a community loaded with elderly folks, so I enjoy sharing the extra with our neighbors who are just sick and tired of cooking at age 85!  OK here’s the basic recipe:

4 pounds of ground beef (I’m really blessed to be able to have natural beef from a farm where we know what the cow’s eating, etc.  It’s worth the effort to search out such a supplier-great quality and amazing prices.  LOTS of ground beef comes in my beef order so I make an extra big meatloaf to share.)

4 eggs

1 cup breadcrumbs of any kind

3/4 cup ketchup

seasoning salt shaken over all (no MSG)

2/3 cup milk

1 giant onion chopped tiny (my 16 year-old begged me to leave it out but I refused – onion makes food worth eating and it certainly didn’t quench his bottomless appetite!) You can add more or less of what you like – meatloaf is flexible!

I mash this all together and make two loaves.  I put them side by side in a huge baking pan.  Then for the crowning glory:

Put 1/2 a cup of brown sugar in a bowl.  Stir in enough ketchup to make a thick paste.  Spread this over the meat loaves.

Bake at 350 for about an hour until done.  Great grub! (as I said, I throw in some small potatoes when I put the loaves in the oven and have butter and sour cream on hand for toppers for the potatoes.  I’m getting really hungry typing these details – ENJOY!)