Firefly Meatloaf

Ahhh, Saturday.  Two appointments at the office.  A calling for a friend's dad.  Then, home to change clothes and off to the grocery for the first time in about a month...  I should've gone back to the office.  But, every recipe I looked at called for something I didn't have. Plus Connie was out of his pretzel crisps. 
I typically do my menu planning in the car.  Carte du Jour - one of the cookbooks published by Royal Caribbean - had gone in the car with me on the way to pick Mom up to take her to the calling.  I'd gotten some great ideas and mapped out some potential dinners.  But, I wasn't totally ready.  Then, on the way to the grocery, we stopped at Tuesday Morning.  Our salad spinner died.  Our blender and mandoline are on their last legs.  It was time to try and replace all of them.  Did you know Tuesday Morning carries cookbooks?  Sometimes it's the same collection forever.  Sometimes they get some great new ones in.  You've just got to stop in a couple of times a year - or more :-)  This trip I found one from Niman Ranch.  They're the meat folks.  Most of the book is the Niman Ranch story.  But the back third is recipes.  Almost all of which I'd like to try. 


The recipe that first caught my eye is Firefly Meatloaf.  It's from Firefly restaurant in San Francisco.   Since Connie plays bridge on Monday evenings, dinner that night is either ultra quick or he's going to have to hit the dollar menu at Mickey D's.  Meatloaf would be the perfect reheatable dinner to get him fed and out the door on time.  So I could start my lovely evening of quietly catching up on a bunch of things at the office - all from the comfort of my home.

What did we think?  This was very good.  It wasn't as good as my mom's, but then when is ANY meatloaf as good as Mom's?  Same goes for chocolate chip cookies.  Well, unless your mom wasn't a great cook.  Then, I might understand.  But, my mom is a fantastic cook!  So, this is something we'd make again but probably won't because there are just so daggone many wonderful recipes out there to be tried.


Firefly Meatloaf

Ingredients:

2 1/4 lbs ground beef
2 T olive oil
2 large cloves garlic, chopped
2 yellow onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
1 1/4 c dried bread crumbs
1 c milk
2 large eggs
1/3  ketchup
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1 T kosher salt
1 t ground black pepper
1 t Hungarian sweet paprika
1/4 t cayenne pepper
1/4 t celery seeds
pinch ground allspice
pinch freshly grated nutmeg
6 slices apple wood smoked bacon

Directions:

This is made in three parts. First, you want to soak the bread crumbs in the milk.  They should soak for at least ten minutes so all of the milk is absorbed. 

While that's soaking, you want to saute the onion and celery until they're tender. 

Add the garlic at the last minute so it doesn't burn and become bitter.  The third part is whisking together the seasonings and the eggs.  Once that's all done, mix it all up.  You're better off using your hands with this.  Form the mixture into a loaf on a rimmed baking sheet.  Wrap the loaf with the bacon and bake it at 350F for about an hour.

adapted from Niman Ranch Cookbook