mom! the meatloaf!

I love Will Ferrell's classic line from Wedding Crashers. Todd and I are always shouting, "Mom! The meatloaf!"

Well I'm making meatloaf. I wanted to wait until the wedding was over to finally try to make meatloaf. It didn't really help my pre-wedding diet, so I've been dreaming about meatloaf for months! The best meatloaf I've ever had was at my birthday dinner at the Hudson Hotel in NYC in 2004.

Katie Joel was on Oprah a few months ago promoting her new cookbook (which is on my Amazon.com wishlist). She made meatloaf on the show and I couldn't wait to try it. Fortunately, I was able to print the recipe off of oprah dot com. It sounds amazing. The only thing I'm worried about is trying to form it into a loaf. I don't have a loat pan yet and it was one of the few registry items that we didn't receive. I'm excited to try it.

I'm also going to try this smoked macaroni and cheese with gouda recipe that I got from the Southern Living magazine. Yummy!!!

Here is the Katie Lee Joel meatloaf recipe from her book "The Comfort Table:"

INGREDIENTS
1 Tbsp. olive oil
1/2 medium yellow onion, diced (about 3/4 cup)
1 garlic clove, minced
1 medium red pepper, finely diced (about 1 cup)
1 bay leaf
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
2 tsp. chopped fresh thyme
2 pounds lean ground beef
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1 cup ketchup
1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 350°. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Spray lightly with oil.

Heat the olive oil in a medium skillet over medium heat. Sauté the onions, garlic and bay leaf until the onions are tender, about 3 minutes. Add the red pepper and cook until the red pepper is tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in the parsley and thyme and cook for another 2 minutes. Remove pan from the heat and let the onion mixture cool. Discard the bay leaf.

In a large bowl, combine the beef, eggs, bread crumbs, 1/2 cup of ketchup, the Worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper and the cooled vegetables. Use your hands to mix everything together.

Transfer the mixture to the center of the baking sheet and form into a loaf. Coat the meat loaf with the remaining 1/2 cup ketchup.

Bake for 1 to 1 1/2 hours (depending on the shape of your loaf), until the meat loaf is firm. Let set for about 5 minutes before slicing.