Italian-ish Meatloaf, Moist and Delicious (that's what she said...) (2/3/2010)

For shame. I haven't made anything new this week. Actually, we have been living off of the meager remains of our pantry. I have been holding out for my first Sunday papers and the bounty of coupons within to rocket me into my first week of "practicality meets frugality" shopping. I ordered my papers and my first batch was supposed to arrive last Sunday. Nothing. I had been meaning to call the Daily Harold this week to ask them "what the heck?!" but to my joy they saved me the effort and called me to make sure everything was going smoothly with my subscription thus far! Even though my answer was no it made me feel better to know that I was dealing with a paper awesome enough to pay people to care. Nicely done Daily Harold. Jacob and Finn just have to stick it out a few more days because I refuse to go shopping until I have coupons in hand. (I used to complain about how cheep people in Utah were... I think I was safe until I registered my car here, the DMV metal detectors must zap your brain waves on your way out...)
This recipe, one of my favorites, morphed into what it is today from my Aunt Cherri's meatloaf recipe which was good, but this is better. Trust me. It is so juicy you wont believe it, and the red bell pepper gives it the most wonderful smokey/ sweet taste. It will blow your mind. A great way to take it up another level is to put in a "pipeline of cheesy goodness" (two string cheese...um, logs? placed end to end in the center of your meatloaf.) When the loaf is done baking and you slice into it you will get a blob of oohy-gooey cheese with your serving. Stoked!

You will need:

- 2 lbs burger
- ½ cup buttermilk
- 1 egg beaten
- ½ cup chili sauce (like ketchup, but awesomer)
- 1 tblespn mustard
- 2 tblespn Worcestershire sauce
- ½ onion chopped
- 1 clove garlic minced
- ½ red bell pepper
- ½ cup sliced mushrooms (more to taste)
- 1 cup Italian bread crumbs
- ¼ tsp black pepper
- string cheese/mozzarella cheese if desired


Combine all ingredients (with hands is best) and place in loaf pan. Bake in 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

You may not have looked too closely at the links on the right hand column of my blog, but one of them is to a site called The Utah Hive. They recently added me as a contributor. It looks like an awesome site, just a compilation of all the Utah area food bloggers. I am not sure what my first post should be. Any suggestions?