Great Meatloaf Recipe

Despite all my cooking experiments, I don't recall ever making meatloaf, but wanted to introduce my kids to this all-American comfort food!  I just didn't want to use my mom's or grandma's dried out versions (my mom is unlikely to Google this post and my grandma is long gone, RIP!). 

I adapted a recipe from one of my favorite Food Network authorities, Alton Brown, and did the following:

 

Here I mixed up a couple of pounds of a meat blend from Casey's Foods in Naperville, IL, (http://caseysfoods.com/), which is 1/3 ground chuck, 1/3 veal, and 1/3 pork.  I added two eggs, a bit of salt, and about a TBSP of chopped cayenne pepper that I grew on my patio.  A cool tip from the original recipe is to use a half cup of ground BBQ potato chips chopped in a food processor instead of the usual bread crumbs to add flavor and texture.  I went the extra mile by mixing in a 1/4 cup of mirepoix (look it up) of finely chopped and sauteed onion, carrot, and garlic, but you can probably skip this by dashing in a bit of garlic salt instead. 

I formed the meat into two "logs" to fix my pan and lit the charcoal grill; see the photo to see how I grilled it indirectly, though I cooked it right over the coals for the first 20 minutes or so in the pan.  I also added some sliced jalapenos so my son and I could get some heat (my daughter won't go there!).  You'll need to use your own judgement about cooking on a grill or in an oven.  Overall it cooked about 20 minutes directly over the coals while in the pan, then another 15-20 indirectly away from the coals.  Flip it once.  Only once if possible.  Don't overwork your meat :)  Just throw it all in the oven for 40-50 minutes on maybe 350 if you don't want to bother with the grill. 

The baste is simply 3/4 cup ketchup and a bit of worcestershire sauce mixed in. It all went over really well, especially when with a little extra sauce around for topping the sandwiches we ended up making out of the meatloaf!  Definitely awesome on the grill!