Mom's Not So Imaginary Meatloaf

If you wander on over to my about me section (which is a crazy thing to have on a public journal that involves me talking to myself - in front of other people) you will find that I run an imaginary cooking show in my kitchen.  I would be lying if I said my purchase of Paula Deen's egg blue cookware did not influence any type of immature characterizations in my kitchen...for the entire remainder of last year.  Acutally...if I was anywhere near a kitchen with a utensil in my hand I immediately went to a dark place that involved a ridiculously slow dialect and a lot of "ya'lls."  My family is from Upstate New York by the way.  But we live in Middle GA so I totally get a free pass for turning into Mega (get it) Deen on you.  HA!  I love cooking.  Mostly because I grew up with an Eastern European family and we spent our entire childhoods in the kitchen with family.  It's how we bonded, problem solved, brain stormed, learned how to drink rum and vodka by the time we were 12.  All we had to do was ask Dziadzio (Grandpa for all you non-Polish out there) for a Coke. 

"Do you want a dark Coke or a light Coke?"
"Um..just a Coke, please?"

...

Omg, that was totally more rum than coke.  Every.  Time.

He was also the man who invented his own whiskey sour recipe that involved the use of a raw egg.  It was actually amazing and somehow we lost the recipe before he passed away.  Major fail on our parts.  I keep hoping it will turn up somewhere so that I can frame it for my father.  We are a rum, vodka, wine, cooking, crazy type of family.  And I know we are not the only ones like this.  We are loud...really, it is just hard to hide us in the dainty south.  I honestly don't know how I survived High School here, but I did.  It's kind of amazing.  One of my earliest memories of moving from South Jersey to Middle GA involved me in 9th grade computer class calling out numbers for a typing test.  It was one of those rare moments that the teacher had to leave the room...actually...now that I think about it, those moments were not so rare.  I can imagine them rushing to the break room just to scream, stretch, throw back a shot...hey, I'm not judging.  Ya'll rock....anyway, teacher, gone.  Me, in front of a huge room of 9-12th grade students who undoubtedly had spent their entire lives fixed in Middle GA.  Right here.  So when I got to the letter "S" my northern spunk of an accent made it sound like I said "ass" over and over.  They had me repeat it 5 times until I realized it wasn't a back room fart they were laughing at.  Nope.  Fun times.  Being the new girl ROCKS.  *sigh*

One advantage of being raised by Northern Eastern Europeans and spending a chunk of my life in the South was being able to sample a wide variety of food.  Southerners can definitely hold their own in the kitchen, that's for sure.  There are so many different cooking styles in this country, to move around and try new things is a privilege.  I don't understand picky eaters.  Spit out my food and I'll turn more shades of red in front of you than your childhood crayola box.  Do. Not. Spit. Out. My. Food.  I will insult you for the rest of my life.

Which brings me to this...my Mom's meatloaf.  It is the most amazing meatloaf you will ever taste.  I challenge you to try it.  If you want to make it more healthy, you can do turkey with fresh chopped spinach or 1 lb turkey and 1 lb pork.  This is the original recipe, and yes, "ya'll," it will make you wanna smack ya mama's!  Mmmm...

Mom's Meatloaf

1 lb ground beef
1 lb ground turkey
1 lb ground pork
3 eggs
Salt and pepper to taste
Garlic powder
1 grated onion
1/4 cup Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup Italian flavored breadcrumbs
1/2 cup wheat germ
1/4 cup milk
1/4 cup Country Bob's sauce or Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
3/4 cup ketchop
3 packets Splenda

Grate the onion (yes...GRATE it) and mix with the other wet ingredients. Add the wet and dry ingredients to the meat. Kneed the wet and dry ingredients into the meat until everything is well blended.

Place meat mixture in an ungreased 9 x 13-inch glass baking dish. Shape meat mixture into the shape of a meatloaf.

Bake uncovered in oven at 325 degrees for about an hour.  Mix 3 packets of Splenda with 3/4 cup ketchup and spread it on top of the meatloaf.  Bake uncovered for 15-20 more minutes until caramelized.

(I used turkey and fresh chopped spinach for the meat mixture in the picture below...)