Was gonna do meatloaf last night, decided to make it tonight instead, for my Sunday dinner
companion. She's never had my meatloaf.
I discovered a tiny neighborhood market not far from my apartment, and they sell freshly ground beef
(85% lean) for $2.39 a pound everyday. That's a dollar a pound less than the supermarket, and
infinitely fresher!!! I have been buying my ground beef there for several weeks. And when I say
freshly ground...they grind it for you when you ask for it. They also have a full butcher shop, plus
a deli counter. The deli is standard Boars head stuff, but the fresh meat is very good. I get the
feeling the butcher area is the main draw for this place, everything else is gravy. At least, when
I've been there, people are buying meat mostly...and then impulse items.
I bought about 2.25 pounds yesterday, plus a half a pound of "just hours old" breakfast sausage meat
that looked really good.
I cooked half the breakfast sausage as two small patties with a scrambled egg this morning, wow was
it good. I used about half a lb of the ground beef last night, in a skillet casserole of beefy mac
and cheese. Ok, it's not fancy, but it's comfort food, and I saved some to bring for lunches this
week. No particular recipe....brown the ground beef with a bit of diced onion, add it to cooked mac
and cheese with some frozen peas.
Anyway, I added the quarter pound of breakfast sausage (It was heavenly!) to the pound and 3/4 or so
of ground beef, mixed in a jumbo egg, (this little market only sells jumbo eggs!) some bread crumbs,
ketchup, and a bit of barbecue sauce, along with a half a pouch of onion soup mix. Mixed it all
togther well and patted it into a standard pyrex loaf pan. Baked it for an hour and 10 minutes.
Added a can of beef mushroom gravy to some of the pan drippings, heated it all through, and served
it with buttered corn and pan roasted potatoes. The potatoes were canned potatoes that I sprinkled
with Old World seasoning and browned in butter in a cast iron skillet, then put in the oven to brown
further for about 25 minutes.
It was a delicious meal, again, nothing fancy or gourmet, but delicious home cooking. My friend
LOVED it and I will make it again for her.