Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Disgusting, delicious meatloaf

Yesterday was one of those days. I didn't even get home until 7, at which point I was starving. But the dinner plan was for mini meatloaves, which was going to take the better part of an hour. Alas, I didn't have another choice ready to go, so I set to work, frantically moving from ingredient to ingredient.

But right off the bat, I faced disaster. Many of my cooking mistakes occur not during the actual cooking, but during storage and prep. I only recently found out that you're not supposed to refrigerate garlic, but I forgot to check on mine until yesterday, when I found that every single clove had sprouted. DISASTERS. I had to try to cut around the sprouts, which is basically nearly impossible.

Making meatloaf is a whole other type of disaster. I've never made meatloaf before, so I didn't anticipate how much it would resemble barf. My recipe called for mixing egg, bread crumbs, ketchup and french onion soup mix. Um...gross.

And dog food....

And turds.

I was so disgusted by this point, I made Sean form the four little loaves with his hands.

Ewwwww.

And then they came out of the oven and looked EVEN MORE DISGUSTING. I was convinced this would translate to the taste and was already telling Sean we may have to order pizza.

But you know what? They were perfect. (Please ignore how sad our little dinner was; we were so hungry we didn't even want to waste time making side dishes.) They tasted just like meatloaf should — spicy sweet with just the right soft texture.

Lesson learned: don't judge a disgusting meatloaf by its looks.

4 comments:

Amanda said...

hahaha... Pioneer Woman's Pastor Ryan wrote something about how his meatloaf isn't the prettiest girl at the party or something like that and I now can't think about or look at a meatloaf without remembering that. It's true though... they don't look nearly as good as they taste. :)

Joe said...

Even the name sucks ... MEATLOAF. That sounds horrible. But yes, good meatloaf, while ugly, is a wonderful thing.

Amber said...

i was saying the same thing to Sean; meatloaf is such a horrible, horrible name.

Joe said...

Also, I meant to mention that garlic sprouts aren't bad. You're right: You definitely don't need to refrigerate garlic, and it will sprout much more quickly in the fridge, but it'll sprout on the counter, too, and often does. I've brought home garlic from the grocery store that had already sprouted.

At any rate, just chop those sprouts right up and throw 'em in with everything else. NO BIGGIE.