Never the same loaf twice

Now that fall is finally here and cool weather has arrived for good, I can have the oven on for more than 15 minutes.  I have been baking more bread and making more meatloaf.  The one always affects the other.  I use the leftover bread for breadcrumbs in the meatloaf.  I make a different bread every week, so the meatloaf is never the same boring old meatloaf.  You never know what concoction I am going to serve you when I say I am making meatloaf.

Normally it involves a pound of ground beef and a third pound of ground pork.  But sometimes I add ground turkey as well or ground lamb and sometimes I buy 'meatloaf mix' and add more beef.  There was a time when I used a meat substitute to replace both the pork and the breadcrumbs.  It added a nice texture but I haven't been able to find it in stores in years.

The filler is almost always some kind of bread. I've used crumbs from cans, stuffing mix, and crumbled bread. I'm partial to using stale sage cornbread muffins when I have them. But often I never have any left.  I'll use roasted eggplant if I've made some already but that doesn't happen very often.  Roasted eggplant makes a very tasty meatloaf.  Moist and tender.  Thawed frozen spinach gets added as well.

Spices are usually garlic, ground mustard, onion powder, a bit of soy sauce and some pomegranate chipoltle sauce.  Sometimes dijon mustard if I am out of the pomegranate stuff.  Never ketchup. The first time I made meatloaf my husband said "I don't really like meatloaf, I'm not that fond of ketchup." He was surprised to learn I didn't use ketchup & happy to discover he actually did like meatloaf. 

I've had the mix go awry a few times over the years. I've used too many fatty cuts of meat, or too much filler. I've put in entirely too much mustard and not enough garlic. I've baked it too long & not long enough. But it's nearly always good, even if it isn't quite right.  I know people don't consider meatloaf to be a very creative dish but I think it is. I think it has a nice scope for variety & personal expression. It is one of my favorite meals to make

Today's meatloaf is made with ground beef & ground pork. It also includes bread crumbs from the Pepperoni Pecorino loaf I made last night. It has spinach, soy, ground mustard, garlic and the pomegranate sauce. I can't give an actual recipe because, apart from the meat, I have no idea how much of anything I used.