Because Every Man, Woman and Child Deserve Good Meatloaf

There are a handful of things that I will only eat if made from my mother's general recipe. They include meatloaf, tuna salad, pumpkin pie, and a handful of other things. Today I'm going to share my recipe for meatloaf.

Now, I know you may ask "Who doesn't know how to make meatloaf?" Well, lots of people. Take my good friend Jody for example. One day I went to her house and she asked me how I make meatloaf. I gave her the general recipe below and she shared with me that she had been taking meat and shaping it into a loaf, serving it to her husband and calling it meatloaf. I slept better that night knowing that I had saved one American family from the travesty of bad meatloaf.

Meatloaf is one of my favorite foods and my children love it too. We generally serve it with baked potatoes and green beans. But hey, make it yours.

I have found one other meatloaf recipe that I like to use in addition to this one called Cheddar Topped Meatloaf which includes barbeque sauce and cheddar cheese but this is my go-to recipe.

This will feed a hungry group of 6-8 people.

2 lb ground beef*

2 eggs*

1/2 c. oats (I prefer quick cooking for this recipe but beggars can't be choosers)

Salt & Pepper

Ketchup

*Typically I like home grown, corn feed, hormone free beef but it is the end of October which means the ground beef is all gone until butchering time which will be after Thanksgiving. Some people demand prefer beef that comes on stryofoam trays and others of us are married to their sons. Those people will also not eat brown eggs for various, weak, obnoxious reasons. Others of us are married to their sons. Which is not the reason I am using store boughten eggs and beef. The reason is because I was at my mother's when I was making this meat loaf and that's what she had. Why did I feel the need to share this? No idea. None at all. Call it therapy at your expense. {Note: It has been my experience that the sons of these naysayers could care less where their beef or eggs come from as long as the meatloaf tastes good.}

Add all the ingredients to a large bowl. At which time you remember you forgot to include onions in the recipe. So if you are daring, add about a tablespoon of minced dried onions to the mixture. But do not add big fresh chunks of onion because then it wouldn't be mom's recipe.

Add about 1/2 cup ketchup. Or more. Or less. The truth is I have no idea how much is there. It's better to err on the side of too little and add more later.

Mix it all up with your hands or a big wooden spoon if you are one of *those* people. It should be a moist, gloppy mess.

Put it in a 9x9 square pan, two loaf pans, or if you must, shape it into a loaf on a cookie sheet. Bake at 350 for 1 hour uncovered.

Eat with lots of ketchup.

Now I will slumber peacefully tonight knowing that there is no reason why anyone in America should be slopping a pound of ground beef into a loaf pan and calling it meatloaf. Nor will anyone ever again have a reason to put a boiled egg in the middle of the meatloaf. Now that is just weird.