My husband and I do not always share the same food tastes. He will usually eat what I fix but only if I don’t tell him what I’m fixing first. Although his tastes have varied over our 15 years together, he is currently in a “life is uncertain. East desert first” phase. For him this means eggs, hash browns and bacon or cheese burger with fries at least every other day. My favorite burger is a mushroom burger with 3 times as many mushrooms and leave out the burger. In this area of Texas he can usually find his favorite in any restaurant and I can rarely order mine.
One dish we do agree on is my meatloaf but then I try to keep him out of the kitchen while I’m putting it together. It has normal things like a pound of hamburger with a pound of ground chicken or ground turkey. When I find either on sale, I tend to stock pile them in the freezer just for meat balls or meat loaf. The meat is followed by 2 cups of fresh or dry breadcrumbs. I like to use a mixture of the heels from our homemade sourdough and black Russian bread. Add an egg and 1/2 of milk to bind it followed by the really good stuff. I use my food processor to make the fine bread crumbs and then again to chop a can of tomatoes. Once I’ve taken the tomatoes out I chop 2 stalks of celery, 2 carrots and red or yellow peppers. The last chop is 1/2 an onion, garlic, and 2-8 mushrooms. I vary the quantity of the mushrooms based on price and availability. In Washington we had lived a mile from Costco so mushrooms were added with a heavy hand. Now we are 75 miles from Costco and Walmart is not an inexpensive place to buy vegetables. Season to taste as you might with any meatloaf – Worcestershire sauce, hot sauce, steak sauce, Italian seasoning or just plain salt and pepper. I’ve even been known to stir in corn or other left over veggies. The original recipe had the loaf placed in a 5×9 pan but I like to divide the mixture into two or three small batches. I bake one in a large pan so the fat can drain off. The other one or two go into the freezer for just us later or a larger meatloaf for company. Bake at 350 for an hour. Let sit for 5 minutes before serving. The name of the original recipe (without carrots and mushrooms) was “Not Your Mother’s Meatloaf”. I wish I had used this recipe when my sons lived at home. I know I would have been able to get veggies into them without out a fight. It works on my husband.
Time2Retire 