My Mama

As you may have noted in my blog, this week (and maybe the rest of this month depending on how often the blog spirit inspires me) I'm going to be paying tribute to a few of my favorite cooks. I actually thought of this one when making yellow rice, something introduced to me by one of my favoritest people who introduced me to far more than a rice cooker and a package of Vigo. (More on that person later!)

But today, I wanted to spend a few brief moment's discussing the person who taught me the most about cooking before I go ahead and give away one of her recipes. I remember when I was little my Mom decided she was going to give me cooking lessons. She taught me how to make french toast and french onion soup before we gave up on lessons. Mostly I learned about cooking from spending time with my Mom, but the best thing I learned from her (recipe-wise) was her French Strawberry Pie. Which I'm not going to give you here. HAHA, thought you were gonna get that one, huh?!? Maybe later.

No, the recipe I'm going to give you today is for one of my favorite dishes. You know, the type of meal that you request when you come home from college for break or on special dinners. It's my Mom's Meatloaf!



What You'll Need:
1 lb ground meat or turkey
spaghetti sauce
2 slices of bread
onion soup mix

What to Do:
I think this is pretty commonsensical. Add a good dollop of spaghetti sauce to the meat, as well as the bread (torn into tiny pieces) and half the onion soup mix. Mix it all up by hand. You can either make this into one loaf, or make mini loaves. Top with the left over onion soup mix, and bake at 375. If you make mini meatloaves it will probably take about 20-25 minutes. If you're just doing one loaf, it will take a little longer. You'll know it's down when it gets nice and browned.

What else to serve:
As you can see in this pic, I served this with some roasted potatoes and sauteed escarole. I must admit both of these are from Martha Stewart Everyday Food. The potatoes are in the March episode and seriously are to die for. The Sauteed Escarole I found quite a while ago. It's ridiculously easy, and sooo incredibly good. Martha says this more eloquently but here's how you do it:

Cut up a head of escarole (into salad sized bites). Put a small tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan and add a clove of chopped garlic, and brown. Add the escarole and salt well (As I've said before, I like it salty). Sautee until wilted.

Wow, I've said enough today.