A MOUTHFUL OF MEATLOAF

Last night for supper, I fixed meatloaf and sauce, smashed potatoes (no typo), and pole beans, plus bread and butter pickles. Yum, yum. Milton loves my meatloaf. I make it kind of "iffy"--if I don't have this or that, I improvise. For example, if I don't have the ground pork, so what? If I have less ground beef that the recipe calls for--or more--so what? If I don't have the bell pepper, so what? It's still good. I think it's the sauce that's the winner. The main thing is to get the meatloaf done. I've had a variety of ovens that heat too much or too little, so the trick to the success of meatloaf is to find the right amount of time to bake it.

I used to write a cooking column, "Kristy's Kitchen," for a New York Times subsidiary. I'd entertain groups, missionaries, evangelists, etc., as a pastor's wife and then write about the recipes, the dinner parties, and the yum-yums from my guests. Or, we'd be invited to homes with fabulous cooks, and I'd write about dinner parties I attended.

This recipe (with my tweakings, already mentioned) is from a parishioner whom we pastored way back when we lived in coastal Carrabelle, Florida, on the Gulf of Mexico in Florida's pretty panhandle. However, we ate mostly seafood when we lived there. Some of our parishioners were oysterers and shrimpers and fishermen, and they enjoyed sharing their seafood with us. At that time, Carrabelle was known to have The World's Smallest Police Station. It was a phone booth! Yes, that's right. Smaller than even Andy's and Barney's! We made some good memories while living there. Today, though it still retains its charm and quaintness, it's also a hot spot--it has very expensive real estate.

Sorry. I didn't mean to walk down Memory Lane.

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Here's the meatloaf recipe:

Meatloaf & Sauce

1 1/2 to 2 pounds very lean ground beef

1/2 pound ground pork

4 slices of bread cut up and mashed into 4 eggs

handful of frozen diced onions

handful of frozen diced bell pepper

salt and pepper, to taste

Mix all ingredients together and form into a loaf in a 9 x 13 pan. Bake 45 minutes in a hot oven. (Recipe calls for 350. I set mine to 425.) Remove from oven and pour out any accumulated grease. Pour sauce over meatloaf and replace in oven for 30 to 45 minutes more. You can cover with foil the last 15 minutes or so to avoid too much browning.

Sauce

1 small can tomato paste

3 small cans water

1/4 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

3 dashes Worcestershire sauce

glob of ketchup

glob of BBQ sauce

Whisk together until blended.

Enjoy!