Homestyle Cooking: Meatloaf!

Everybody has their own recipe for meatloaf, and each one is just the way you had it growing up, and no other recipe for meatloaf can compare. What good is meatloaf if it's not just the way that mom/dad/grandma used to make?  In college, my biggest almost-fights - recurrent arguments? Joking arguments that almost weren't jokes? - with my friend Abe were over our respective meatloaf recipes. His recipe involves lots of ketchup, with more ketchup served on top - meatloaf, to his family, is a mechanism for getting rid of ketchup in a tasty fashion. Whereas I would never let ketchup within a MILE of my meatloaf - who eats meatloaf with ketchup??? Meatloaf is nostalgia, personified (food-onified?). As such, visiting my folks last week over Spring break, and having my grandfather over, I happily use my mothers - or rather, her Aunt Grace's - meatloaf recipe for some good home cooking. I don't tend to make it for myself very often, as it's rather a lot of food for one person. On the other hand, it does freeze well. But when I make it for family, well, there is never enough left to freeze!

Meatloaf

1.5 lbs ground beef

1 c. seasoned bread crumbs

1 c. tomato sauce

2 eggs

1 medium onion, chopped (optional)

1/2 tsp salt

dash of pepper

Preheat oven 400F. Mix all ingredients thoroughly - I usually just do this by hand, as I find that gets the whole mixture a bit more homogenous. Now, this recipe is a bit flexible, and usually when I make it it's with a little more (or less) meat. As such, I usually give it a good mix, then add more tomato sauce or breadcrumbs as necessary. You want the meat to be firm and moist - holding it's shape well - you don't want it to be overly crumbly from too many breadcrumbs or overly moist or slimy from too much tomato sauce or too many eggs. When cooking in Baltimore, I actually usually make a 2+ lb batch, which I split into two smaller loafs, saving one for a second meal with my folks.

Now, once everything is nicely mixed, and (for larger batches) split into equal loaf sized parts, you shape your meatloaf. This is the ... trademark? ... of my meatloafs. Ever since I was very small and helping my parents make meatloaf, I've always always always made my meatloaf into shapes. A cat, a Christmas tree or snowman, something seasonal. I've found that rabbits are particularly nice. Bake for 1.5 hours (more or less - obviously for more meat, cook longer, for less, cook shorter). Serve without ketchup.