Pray Tell wrote:
> My sister and law makes great meat loaf. She is coming over w/hubby in
> one week.
>
> I want to make a good meat loaf for them that rivals hers.
>
> Any ideas? I usually just use that bake in a bag kit that comes with
> seasonings. What can I add to that to make it extra special?

Nay, nay, Pray Tell. Here are some ideas:

Basic receipe:

2 lbs ground beef
1 cup of bread crumbs
1 or two eggs as needed to make a stiff mix
salt and pepper to taste
Mold in tin and turn out onto cookie pan
place two strips of bacon across top, put
in 350d oven, bake until bacon is crisp

Now, once you have that, you can add or subtract
various options alone or in combinations:

1 package Jimmy Dean sausage

1 medium chopped onion and/or 1 medium chopped green pepper

Add a glaze - ketchup and brown sugar diluted with a bit of
water, spread on before or in place of bacon. Variation:
add 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder, or try maple syrup instead
of brown sugar.

Here's a dress-up trick for company: Take a stack of
mushrooms more-or-less the same size, and slice off the
cap at each side. Put half the loaf in the mold, then
place the mushrooms in a line down the middle, butting
them up against one another tightly making a single long
mushroom from end to end (put them cap side down so they
will be right-side-up when the loaf is inverted). Then
add the rest of the loaf and proceed as normal. When you
serve slices of the loaf, each slice will have a neat
little cooked mushroom in the center.

Add brown gravy for serving.

Spice variations: if you like spicy you can try adding
chili powder and/or ground cumin to the loaf mixture
or to the glaze.

You can also add a couple chopped
cloves of garlic to the loaf mixture.

Add 1/4 cup ketchup to the loaf mixture.

Top the loaf with rounds of yellow pepper (dress-up)
(on top of bacon).

Smash some seasoned croutons in the blender and
add to or replace the bread crumbs, or use to top
loaf (add during last few minutes of cooking).


The traditional side is mashed potatoes, of course, but you
could also try baked beans or refried beans as a variation.


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