After having experienced some of the cuisine in Germany, I have come to the conclusion that much of our “American” cuisine has roots in Germany; potato salad, hot dogs, hamburgers and meat loaf. The average German deli offers a wide range of meat loaves with variations in spices, herbs and meats.
Today I made a meat loaf with ground baby beef (veal) and baby sheep (lamb). My husband loves this!
How can one tell if the beef and sheep were truly babies when slaughtered? Well, the meat is a pale, delicate pink, sort of like English and Irish babies. Although, of course, I would never eat a human baby! Maybe my ancestors did but that was on another continent, during a different time, and it wasn’t my fault 🙂
Interlude. Our airfreight arrived on Friday and contained our espresso machine. My husband made coffee and I found an old, unwrapped, crushed biscuit in the bottom of my purse from Le Litteraire in Sens. It was almost like being there!
I found this poster at a second hand store for $38. After looking at reproductions of it on the net, I noticed that it wasn’t exactly the same; Depots Partout was missing from the reproductions. Researching further, I discovered that this was a poster by Leonetto Cappiello, considered the father of modern advertising because of his innovations in poster design. My poster seems to be worth from $300 to $12,000 dollars. I love not knowing 🙂
Staring dreamily at the poster, I consumed a breakfast of toast, egg, tomato, cheddar, bacon and grapefruit juice.
Meat loaf. Meat loaf is one of the easiest meals I make. You can make it with just about any combination of ground meat, add bread crumbs, eggs, herbs and some liquid to keep it moist.
Normally, if I was using a tomato base for my liquid, I’d make a quick homemade sauce with onion, garlic, diced tomato, oregano and basil, but I decided to use the canned tomatoes I bought at Wegmans that already had the herbs added. Never again will I buy these tomatoes! They were sweet. Bleah.
I hate this butcher block top that’s on my island. It looks like it was used for butchering cats or something. Bandit, the curious cat, never jumps up on the island. Clue. My new top should be coming in a week. I added a tablespoon of olive oil, salt and pepper to the diced tomatoes.
Baby potatoes. I adore cute food!
I still haven’t found normal size garlic; the cloves are small and wimpy, except for something they call “elephant garlic” whose cloves are larger than baby potatoes.
Colorful food is pleasing! It makes me smile.
I prepared a batch of baby potatoes with baby red bell peppers for roasting, thinking about Jade the vegetarian. She who must not eat meat.
I’d be willing to wager that if I found a French magret de canard in this ex-British colony gone rogue, she’d de-convert in a flash 😀 In the meantime, it doesn’t help that I like and make good vegetables. Still, she’s starting to have the Cassius look at meal times.
She’s salad with baby, plum colored tomatoes and cucumbers.
Veal and Lamb Meat Loaf
1 lb ground veal
1lb ground lamb
2 eggs
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 cans diced tomatoes with aromatics (not Wegmans) with 1 tbsp olive oil added
Mix the veal, lamb, eggs, crumbs, salt and pepper together. Add 1 cup of the diced tomato mixture and mix well to blend. Form into a loaf and place in a lightly oiled roasting pan.
Roast the loaf in a 350 F oven for 1 hour. Pour half of the remaining diced tomatoes over the loaf and return to the oven for 30 minutes.
Allow the loaf to cool for 5-10 minutes, then slice and serve with the remaining tomato sauce.
Wow ! That looks so good 😍😍😍
Thank you Tanya.
I must try your meatloaf – I don’t think I’ve eaten any since I lived in America, which is quite a long time ago 😉
I completely agree about the flavoured tomatoes – I once bought a can with added olives, thinking it would save me chopping them and they were horribly sweet too – yuck!
What is this sugar addiction?! Tomatoes are naturally sweet enough. No wonder children have diabetes here.
I know. Someone made me a BLT with Miracle Whip once and I found it completely inedible! I’ve got no objection to natural sugars in things like onions, carrots, tomatoes, etc, but I don’t feel the need to add sugar to anything and don’t enjoy it if it is added.
I don’t either Mad. I just don’t understand. You ate Miracle Whip 😀
One bite!
So you say 😀
Ha ha – I mean it and I was starving too! I had to go out and buy something else. It was as if someone had sprinkled sugar over the food 🙁
I know! Any every one else seems to enjoy it. Candied chili. Yuck!
🙂
wow that looks wonderful! I am impressed that you were even able to find veal and lamb – not easy to find in my neck of the woods. Looking forward to hearing more of your forays into cooking with American ingredients. Hunts does make a canned tomato with roasted red pepper that I enjoy over veggies. Otherwise, yes, the tomatoes with added seasonings tend to be over-seasoned in my opinion. Particularly with regards to garlic.
Thank you Trish. I’ll be looking at Hunts and “normal” brands that just have tomatoes in the can.
This looks fantastic.
Thank you Emma.
Ah meatloaf. Packed with meaty goodness and a fat load of childhood memories and nostalgia. Effing love it!!! That and the cute potatoes 🙂
Thank you 🙂
Glad you don’t eat human babies, love the meatloaf The salad with the adorable baby vegetables, is well, adorable.
Thank you Cheer.
I really laughed at ‘during a different time and it wasn’t my fault’ – great line! I only recently rediscovered meatloaf after some pretty awful childhood experiences, who knew how delicious it could be?! This recipe looks lovely. Thanks!
I’ve always liked meat loaf as long as it isn’t dry. I refuse to use ketchup to make it palatable.
Excellent posting Rosemary. For future culinary reference, our Irish babies are white with red heads (the noisy end).
Thank you Conor. I must have been thinking of English babies 😉
Hi Rosemary, Rick from Australia here. We like to make a tasty meatloaf too, using lamb or adolescent beef. We replace the bread crumbs with well-cooked brown rice, add parsley, dried oregano and nutmeg and use white pepper – one of my favourite ingredients – instead of the black. Let me know if you would like to see the recipe.
I like your spice mix and would love to see the recipe 🙂
Tell me if you know a more direct way but I plan to create a post with the recipe and then send you the link … this afternoon, Melbourne time
Great!
Here is the link: http://rmgtravelsandfood.com/2014/09/04/meatloaf/
It still has some breadcrumbs but half have been replaced with the brown rice.
Nice to chat with you!
So glad that you’re now in this time zone, but so lamenting Sens.
True. I’m trying to adjust but nothing lasts forever and we do what we must.
Love the way you’ve incorporate color in this recipe!
Thank you Afie.