Simple Meatloaf

Last night's yummy creation was just a basic meatloaf. Here is what I used and how I did it...

2 pounds ground chuck
1 pound ground turkey
1/2 a bulb of garlic
1 medium onion
1 egg
salt and pepper
2 Tablespoons dried basil
4 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Ketchup

The garlic clove that I used was one that had a zillion little tiny cloves instead of several larger ones. I used A LOT of them. I peeled the garlic and threw them all into the bowl of my food processor. Then, I peeled and cut up the onion into a medium dice and put that in the processor too. I whirred them together until they were the size of rice. Not a full puree, but not chunky either. (ps ... using the processor did NOT eliminate the onion fumes and the tears.)

I dumped that into a large mixing bowl.  I added the egg and both meats. I added some salt and pepper, and the basil, then added the Worcestershire sauce. Then I just used my hands and mixed it all together. I'm a BIG believer in not working the meat too much. I hardly touch ground beef when I'm making burger patties because I want them to stay tender.

After the mixture was well mixed, I put it into my HUGE cast iron pan with bacon drippings to grease the pan. Then I covered the top with a coating of regular store-bought ketchup. I had my oven preheating to 425, so while I finished waiting for the oven to heat up, I started cooking the meat loaf on the stove. I turned the burner on high to get it seared on the bottom, then I turned it to medium/high after about 5 minutes. Once the over was at temp, I slid the meatloaf into the oven.  Now ... I thought it wouldn't take very long since I had started it on the stove top, but it seemed to take FOREVER. I checked it after 15 minutes, no where near done. I checked it another 15 after that ... nope still not close. I bumped up the oven to 450 and told everyone dinner was in 15 minutes.

I had leftover broccoli and sugar snap beans from an hour devour platter, so I dropped them into salted boiling water, put the lid on, and just let them sit in the hot water until we were ready to eat. (They were PERFECT!)  I put a pot of rice on, with a chicken bullion cube and a bunch of dried parsley. 

15 minutes later, I took the pan out of the oven, and the instant-read thermometer went right to 180.  Since I used the mix of turkey and beef, I wasn't messing around with the temp. It needed to be 180 to make me feel "safe" about eating the turkey in the mix.

Dinner was served with a pie-shaped wedge of meatloaf, rice, broccoli and sugar snap beans. I cut the kids up for them and added more ketchup for them. They ate it like they hadn't seen food in weeks. They are 3 and 4.5, by the way, and thought this was AWESOME! My Honey put pepper flakes on his (both helpings), and I just ate mine as it was.

The bottom had an awesome crust from me starting it on the stove. The top was that awesome thick, sticky ketchup crust. It really was awesome. And we have at least half left over for tonight, which is great because the first thing my 4.5 year old son asked me this morning was, "Mommy, can I have for supper tonight what we had last night again?". I thought we had more sugar snap peas, but I don't see them now. I hope he's OK with green beans.

Hope you enjoy it. :)