ITALIAN MEATLOAF....ITALIAN MEATBALLS

So yesterday I created a 'blunder' that actually turned out to be FANTASTIC!
Growing up, we never ate meatloaf. I've never been able to figure this out since my father loves good'ole southern food. The only reason I can contribute to this is that he was surrounded by three women that have very odd eating habits, which at many times are surrounded by red meat ISSUES! My sister would NEVER eat red meat, I would only eat red meat under specific conditions, and my Mother, well, my Mother would just never eat.

My first experience with meatloaf was tasting it at my Mother-in-Law's house. She's a great cook, but she wasn't the one who had actually made it. Well.....I must say to whoever made this dish....it was absolute heaven in my mouth! It was so moist and tender and when I made a sandwich out of it, a whole new world opened! I was addicted, it became something I would crave in the future. Now, this is a good thing because he have feeder cows, and to 'support the case', we of course eat alot of red meat.

So I was off, in search of a great recipe! And like with any great recipe, I always add and change to make it my own based on what I think would make it good. However, I do have a couple of specific rules prior:

1) I hate reheating meat in the microwave (much less using my microwave period). As a result, my loaf must be moist to withstand the 'eating of leftover' action.

2) I'm very anti using cornflakes in anything but in my cereal!...not to say that it's a horrible idea, and to each their own, I just can't do it!

3) In every dish, it must have to first bite...'oh this is great' factor...since I am one of those people that loves the look on my husbands face when he eats something great I have just made for him.
I have came up with a couple of meatloaf recipes, based on my research, that I really love. These recipes represent good'ole southern style meatleaf....until last night.

Now, before I say this, I have one very big problem in my kitchen. I have a recipe box, I have recipe cards, but I have never had the time to sit down and write all of my recipes and organize them. This is something important to me since I always remember my Grandma Hammye using these recipe cards, and my Mom now has many as well. As a result, many of my recipes are handwritten on whatever piece of paper that was laying closest to my kitchen. And that also goes for my writing utensil, which now seems to be either pencil, marker, and now CRAYON!

Now, back to the task at hand, I found my untitled recipe for meatloaf last night and started assembling it early to throw in the frig and then cook a couple of hours later. I combined all my ingredients from my POST IT note recipe, and then realized that no where in my list of ingredients did it call for adding KETCHUP....and that's when I had realized....

I HAD JUST SUBSTITUED MY WONDERFUL MEATLOAF RECIPE WITH MY ITALIAN MEATBALL RECIPE!!! YIKES!

Now, the one aspect of this that made me rest easy, was that of many women make ITALIAN MEATLOAF....so I added how much ketchup I thought would work, put it in my pan, covered it and forgot about my mistake.

A couple of hours later I popped it in the oven and prayed that my mashed potatoes, corn and yeast rolls would still compliment my loaf. When it was done, my hubby began to eat....after a couple minutes of eating he looked at me, on no!!...this was it, he was going to tell me that it just didn't taste right...However, to my surprise he said,

"THIS IS SO MUCH BETTER THAN ANY REGULAR MEATLOAF I'VE EVER TASTED!!!"

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! He was right, it was perfect!!

So here's the recipe....this one is for MEATLOAF....you will also find below how I leave out the ketshup and make meatballs. (Sorry, I don't have pics at this time but I will add them next time I make this....but really, you don't need them)


ITALIAN MEATLOAF
(these ingredient amounts works great for 2 people to eat that night and then for each to eat leftovers the next day...if you have a large family, I would suggest 'upping' your ingredients by about 1 1/2 - 2 pounds of meat. Of course you also have to 'up' your other ingredients too!) 2 POUNDS WILL MAKE ALOT OF MEATLOAF, enough to feed 4-5 people with leftovers.


1 lb Ground Beef
2 garlic cloves (I use fresh squeezed through my hand mincer, but refrigerated minced works well too!)
3 tbs parsley (optional. but fresh works the best)
5 tbs Romano, Parmesan or Asiago cheese
1 egg
1/2 C of milk
1/2 Italian Seasoned bread crumbs
1 finely chopped medium or small onion (whichever you prefer)
3/4 cup of ketchup

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and mix'em up well. Set your oven on 375 degrees. Now, I don't use an actual LOAF pan, I just use a glass pyrex pan of whatever size...I like this because I don't like to stuff my loaf into a tight pan, I like to leave room on each side up my loaf between it and the pan.

Spray the pan and squeeze some (extra) ketchup in the bottom where your loaf will lay. This is make a neat 'crust' and will just give it a different dimension of flavor. Once you've done that, put your ingredients in the bottom of the pan and form a loaf. Don't PRESS to ingredients tightly together but more 'form' the loaf, using your best MOM hands. You want you loaf to be one entity but you don't want to pack it down!

Squeeze some (extra) ketchup over the top of the meatloaf (I like to use alot and cover that sucker!!) and pop it in the oven on 375 for about 1 hour. Honestly, you'll know when it's done because you can see it browning on the top where you don't have ketchup (if you don't). You can also separate a portion of the middle and take some out with your fork to check the color...but I'm telling you, IT'S DONE! Cook it good, but don't overcook it, you don't want it to dry out. But I'll tell ya, the MILK is what helps it to be super moist!

NOW, IF YOU DON'T WANT THIS TO BE AN ITALIAN LOAF, Just cut down the cheese by half or leave it out all together, and use REGULAR BREADCRUMBS INSTEAD OF ITALIAN. Now, if you are make italian meatloaf but only have regular breadcrumbs, just add alot of italian spices, oregano and basil....trust me, you can't mess up with these spices.
I make my loaf with mased taters and corn but I gotta tell you that this would also work well along side of pasta or even put it on top of your spaghetti if you want.

MY FAVORITE IS MAKING A SANDWICH OUT OF IT!! You don't need fancy bread, just put it between 2 slices of wheat bread and VIOLA....A WHOLE NEW WORLD!!!

NOW.......LET'S MAKE THE MEATBALLS....

ITALIAN MEATBALLS...
Use all the ingredients, just LEAVE OUT THE KETCHUP!!! Combine ingredients and roll GENTLY into whatever size balls you prefer. Now, I must be honest, I would still add just a touch of ketchup for a tomato-ee taste, but it's really up to you!!!

Cook the meatballs again at 375, but you just want to check them to see if they are browning. This may take about 30-45 minutes. I HAVE TO TELL YA.....THESE ARE AMAZING WITHOUT SAUCE. But you can put them in your sauce and let them simmer....but you really don't need to, they will have this great harder outside and moist heaven on the inside!!!!

Now you can serve these with spaghetti or make a meatball sandwich out of them!!!