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Recipe Wed Feb 05 2014
Meatloaf: A Cure for the Winter Blues
Don't bother checking the weather report. What would be the point? It's snowing or it's just about to snow and it's cold. There was a Polar Vortex last week and a Winter Storm with an actual name. I'm not complaining, I'm just making sure that you're keeping up. It's rough out there! Jack Frost has been very busy this winter.
It's around this time every year that my love for Chicago and the onset of my Seasonal Affective Disorder go fist to cuffs. This year is particularly challenging. I am in hibernation mode and can barely be bothered to roll out of bed. I also have cabin fever like you wouldn't believe and Target doesn't have enough Vitamin D in its warehouse to help. I've been coping my usual way by eating my feelings. How about you?
Over the weekend while cleaning my kitchen I realized that we've basically been surviving on soup alone. I love soup and chili so much that I'm apparently trying to drown my family in it. Chicken Chili, Veggie Chili, Cincinnati Chili, Tomato Soup, Chicken Noodle Soup...the list is endless. I guess soup is my winter comfort food of choice. We've had it all and I'm clearly obsessed.
While staring at the carnage of bowls and spoons over the weekend I decided to give myself a little food challenge this week. It is time to find a new comfort food of the moment. The first thing I thought of was meatloaf. You flavored foam eaters can put your little judgment faces away. Meatloaf is magical. It's delicious and easy enough to make that I almost forget the winter wonderland that awaits me outside. What do you reach for when Tom Skilling tells us there's a Polar Vortex headed our way?
Ingredients
4 slices of bread torn into pieces (I used rye...that's my favorite)
8 small sage leaves
1 ½ pounds ground lean turkey
1 large yellow onion chopped
1 celery stalk cut into 2-inch pieces
½ teaspoon dried thyme
1 large whole egg, lightly beaten
2 tablespoons tomato paste
4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 ¼ teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
¾ teaspoon coarse salt
black pepper to taste
1 large egg white
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Pulse bread and sage leaves in bowl of a food processor; pulse until you have fine crumbs and then transfer to a medium sized bowl and add turkey. Process onion and celery in food processor until finely chopped and add to turkey mixture. Add thyme, whole egg, 1 tablespoon of tomato paste, mustard, 1 teaspoon of Worcestershire, and salt & pepper to the mix and use your hands to combine. Place in a 9x5x2 inch nonstick loaf pan. In a small bowl combine egg white with tablespoon of tomato paste and ¼ teaspoon of Worcestershire and whisk until smooth. Spoon this mixture over meatloaf and spread out to coat evenly. Transfer pan to the oven and cook for 1 ¼ hours.