Meatloaf Dinner

I just packed Watts a meatloaf sandwich for lunch. I debated whether or not I should tell him, but in the end I figured that type of sandwich should always be a surprise. I don't think it's ever anything one wants, at least it was never anything I wanted. Out of all the lunches my mother packed for me growing up, I think I hated meatloaf most of all. I didn't understand why she would put ketchup and mayonnaise on sandwich bread and then nestle a hunk of meat in between them. On days that meatloaf would make its way into my brown paper bag, sadness would settle in my belly and I'd eat whatever fruit or treat also made the journey to school while slowly stuffing that sandwich into its tomb. 

Fast forward to 2021. Thanks to Covid when everyone was zooming everyone, my former college roommates and I started a Zoom bookclub that meets once a month. This month we are discussing Karen Russell's Sleep Donation, but really we are talking about the meatloaf that Tim is making. Having had a meh weekend, his remedy was meatloaf. It is a common occurrence amongst our group- this being distracted by food. The two west coasters are often prepping their dinners while the three east coasters are cleaning up from it. To be fair this is one of the best book clubs I have ever been in. Everyone reads- or almost reads- all of the books thoroughly and we have lively discussions. But it is only natural that we digress and talk about other things, mostly our children with food a close second. After all, we all did share a kitchen once. 

A few days later, I am sitting outside the building where my daughter takes ballet on Monday nights. My phone dings. A picture of a meatloaf dinner arrives. Soon after that I also get to see an apple pie as big as two human heads put together. I reply with Chocolate Rye Cake with Kahlua. It seems only fair. 

Flora Shedden's recipe from her book: Aran

I have no recollection of my mother ever making meatloaf for dinner, only of being sent with it as a school lunch. This doesn't surprise me though because I was an awful eater as a child. Awful as in I would excuse myself for the toilet at the beginning of dinner to pee and then wait for as long as I could at the top of the stairs, hoping that I wouldn't have to eat whatever it was my mother served. I think I have blocked out most childhood meals from my memory. 

I'm not sure when I started caring about food or what caused the change. It could have been an episode of Julia Child's The French Chef- my mom played PBS cooking shows exclusively on Sunday afternoons- or it could have been the trend of famous baseball players opening up restaurants, my love of baseball birthing a love of food is a definite possibility. I remember begging my mother to take me to Rusty Staubb's restaurant in Manhattan called Rusty's which served BBQ. To her credit, my mother took me.  She also took me to little hole in the wall places to eat before a broadway show, something we did a lot during the summer. One time there was falafel. We ate it in an alley before a matinee of Guys and Dolls. I still haven't met a match for it. Whatever the catalyst was, by the time I was in my teens I started requesting birthday meals like: Coq au Vin and Beef Bourginon. I had fallen in love with food- both eating and preparing it. 

The other night, a few days after my friends' meatloaves, I made my own. It seemed inevitable really. The pictures. The weather. Nostalgia dripping heavily. For the meat eaters in my family I put together a turkey meatloaf adapted from this recipe. For the vegetarian and the weeknight veggie inclined (me) I made lentil cakes. I ignored the fact that this recipe was actually called a lentil burger. I also ignored the fact that I didn't have mushrooms or mustard seed. Instead, I paid attention to the idea of curry and the fact that my first restaurant meal after lockdown sometime this past spring were lentil cakes that were very currilicious. 

Meatloaf is not a staple in my menu wardrobe; however, I have made more than a few. Usually when I decide to make one it's usually because I need to do something with some type of ground meat that doesn't involve pasta or rice. Every time I find myself in this scenario I find myself scrolling and flipping through too many recipes. Eventually, I settle on one and use it as a base to work from doing whatever the hell I want when I plop that meat into the bowl. I think that's probably the way to go to be honest. It's kind of the beauty of meatloaf. No matter what you do, it will be satisfying. Able to turn a meh weekend around or take the sting out of a long hard day. 

A poorly taken picture of our Meatloaf (and Lentil Cake Dinner

That meatloaf sandwich I packed in Watts' lunch? Once he got over the shock, he said it was excellent. The rest of the meatloaf, if you're wondering, I ate cold for lunch the next day staring out the backdoor wishing it wasn't so hot outside while wondering what I was going to cook next.