A Spoonful of Sugar...

Well, a ton of brown sugar...makes anything delicious. Here is a "new" recipe. I wanted to make a meatloaf for dinner but I wasn't sure if Pat was a fan, and I, for one, am not a HUGE fan of the same old, mundane, tasteless, bland meatloaf that calls for salt, pepper, an egg and oatmeal smothered in ketchup to hide the fact that its mushy and has no flavor...NO NO NO, this is a special meatloaf. Here is the basic recipe...

• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef
• 3/4 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 3/4 cup saltine crumbs, finely crushed

Directions:

1. 1
   Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. 2
   Lightly grease a 5x9 inch loaf pan.
3. 3
   Press the brown sugar in the bottom of the prepared loaf pan and spread the ketchup over the sugar.
4. 4
   In a mixing bowl, mix thoroughly all remaining ingredients and shape into a loaf.
5. 5
   Place on top of the ketchup and bake for 1 hour or until clear juices appear. 
6. 
   

I made a few "alterations and additions". I put about 1/4-1/2 an inch of brown sugar on the bottom of the pan. Instead of just ketchup, I mixed in some of 'Tony Roma's' Original Bar-B-Que sauce and covered the brown sugar with it. In the actual meat, I added some green bell peppers and celery (which I chopped up in a food processor) and also put a little bit of the Tony Roma's sauce in it, as well as a little bit of fresh garlic (only a little bit, though). 
It only took about 45 minutes to cook, so, with 15 minutes left, I put a little bit of my ketchup/bar-b-que mix on top of the meatloaf and let it finish cooking..... 
We also had sauteed spinach and fresh green beans that were boiled with salt, pepper, and BUTTER----YUMMO

OH EM GEE---Ask my hubby...it was delicious.
Try it for yourself--Add your favorite things or take out some...
One thing I LOVELOVELOVE about cooking is experimenting. When you know the foundation to a recipe--you can taylor it to whatever mood you're in....Hope you enjoy this one.