Basic Meatloaf

When I was growing up, we had meatloaf a few times a year and my Mother always made it with a red gravy. My friends' moms also made meatloaf with a red gravy. Before I was married, I lived on my own for a while and once or twice I duplicated and tweaked my Mother's meatloaf serving it of course with the red gravy.

Then I got married and tweaked it some more and when I served meatloaf for the first time to my husband (which included red gravy), he stared at it like I was serving him swill. My new husband asked me, why did you "try" this with red gravy instead of brown? Long story short, he's always had meatloaf with brown gravy, a fact which after almost 17 years of marriage I need to remember to verify with his mom. I mean it's not like he and I were from different parts of the country; we lived in the same metro area and in our metro area meatloaf was served with red gravy which is my gravy of choice for meatloaf.

In the spirit of compromise, I normally serve meatloaf with brown gravy to keep my groom happy. The kicker is, when I get attitude and decide to make the meatloaf with red gravy since I do all of the cooking and I feel from time to time I should be able to cook what I want in my own kitchen, he has the cheek to say, "You know I like brown gravy on meatloaf, why do you ALWAYS make it with red gravy?".

So any way I now have proof that I don't always make meatloaf with red gravy.

Basic Meatloaf -

1lb. lean ground sirloin, 1/2 lb. regular breakfast sausage, 1/2 ground veal, 1 egg beaten, 1 tablespoon yellow mustard, 2 tablespoons freshly chopped flat leaf parsley, 2 tablespoons milk, 1 tablespoon Worcestershire, 2 cloves of garlic minced, 1 teaspoon dried thyme, salt and pepper to taste. Mix all of the ingredients together in a large bowl using your hands. This mixture will be very mushy, be careful not to overwork the meat or your meatloaf will be tough. Add Italian bread crumbs 1/2 cup at a time until your meat mixture become firm enough to hold shape. Form the meat mixture into a loaf and place in a high-sided roasting pan. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 45 minutes.

Baste the meatloaf with your gravy of choice and bake for 10 more minutes. Remove meatloaf from oven and allow to rest for 5 minutes before moving it to a serving platter.

The picture doesn't show it but the slices are moist and light.

I get all warmed up look at the picture and think that red would just make this picture pop. Oh well, I know the yellow mustard makes the taste pop.