Old-Fashioned Meatloaf and a Giveaway Winner!

There are some tried and true dishes that will never go out of style for me.  I love a good traditional meat lasagna, chicken pot pie or shepherd's pie.  It is obvious to me that the reason I love these dishes are because they remind me of my childhood.  My mom made classic versions of these dishes and one bite brings me back to our family's kitchen table.

Recently, I discovered that meatloaf can be added to this list.  My mom made an incredible meatloaf with the traditional ketchup glaze.  While meatloaf has been pretty popular on a lot of "comfort food" menus in restaurants, I haven't had a meatloaf dish that really reminds me of my mom's version.  When Bret made a request last week for a classic ketchup-glazed meatloaf, I decided to give it a try on my own.  The first thing I did was to call my mom and ask for her recipe.  Because my mom rarely cooks with exact measurements, she didn't really have a recipe for me.  I did a quick search online and found a Paula Deen recipe for Old-Fashioned Meat Loaf a/k/a "Basic" Meat Loaf.  I figured that if there was anyone who could do my mom's meatloaf justice, it would be Paula Deen.

First, I gathered my ingredients:

• 1 pound ground beef (I used an 80% cut)
• 1 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped onion (This was about half a small yellow onion)
• 1/2 cup chopped bell pepper (I used half a green bell pepper)
• 1 egg, lightly beaten
• 8 ounces canned diced tomatoes with juice (This is one cup of canned diced tomatoes with juice)
• 1/2 cup quick-cooking oats
• 1/3 cup ketchup
• 2 tablespoon brown sugar (I used dark brown sugar)
• 1 tablespoon prepare mustard (I used Stonewall Kitchen's Bourbon Molasses Mustard)

I pre-heated the oven to 375 degrees and got to work chopping up my onion and green pepper.  I put the chopped vegetables in a large bowl.

I then added the rest of the meatloaf ingredients to the large bowl - the ground beef, salt, ground black pepper, lightly-beaten egg, diced tomatoes with juice and quick-cooking oats.

I mixed everything together by hand.  I wasn't worried about over-working the meat since the tomato juice and egg added a nice moisture to the meat mixture.

I then greased a loaf pan and tightly packed the meat mixture into the loaf pan.  Earlier this year, I made mini turkey meatloaf using mini loaf pans to shape the meatloaf.  I set the loaf pan aside and let the meat mixture take shape into a loaf.

Meanwhile, I got my ketchup topping ingredients together.

I mixed together the ketchup, brown sugar and bourbon molasses mustard in a small bowl.

I lined a baking tray with aluminum foil and gave it a quick spray with baking spray.  I flipped the loaf pan over onto the baking tray and there was a beautiful meatloaf shape!

I generously brushed the ketchup glaze onto the top and all four side of the meatloaf.

I then put the baking tray into the oven to bake for about forty-five minutes.  The original recipe says to bake for an hour but my oven runs a little hot and I always cut down the baking time.  When the meatloaf was done, it had a beautiful glaze to it.  I let the meatloaf cool down and then carefully sliced it for serving.

The meatloaf was incredibly moist.  I actually think that the meatloaf could have used a little less moisture and I would drain the juice from the tomatoes the next time I make this dish.  The vegetables added a lot of flavor to the meatloaf and the ketchup glaze added the perfect sweet crust.  I cut the richness of the meatloaf by serving it with a side of Green Beans with Coriander and Garlic.

This recipe was a close version to my mom's classic meatloaf.  I'll have to disagree with Paula Deen though and say that there is nothing "basic" about this meatloaf!

Tell me, what is your favorite classic, traditional or old-fashioned dish?

Thanks to everyone who entered my giveaway for a free Eversave voucher to Sibling Rivalry!  Using Random.org, the winner is...

 ...Melissa from Melissa Nibbles!  Congratulations Melissa!  I'll email you the Eversave "save"!

Gordon Hamersley's Roasted Chicken

Hamersley's Bistro is one of my favorite restaurants in Boston.  I have written about this restaurant so many times on this blog because I have never had a bad meal or dining experience there.  Plus, this is also the restaurant where Bret first told me he loved me one summer night during a romantic meal on their patio.  So, I'm also pretty biased about how I feel about the restaurant!

If you've been to Hamersley's Bistro, you know that Gordon Hamersley's roast chicken with garlic, lemon and parsley is unbelievable and a dish that you just can't miss.  Awhile back, one of the partners at my firm gave me a copy of this recipe to make Gordon Hamersley's roast chicken and since I had the day off of work, I finally gave it a try yesterday.

The recipe isn't the most clear in its instructions and I followed it as closely as possible.  First, I gathered the ingredients:

Marinade

• 1 bunch of Italian parsley (I used about a half bunch of curly leaf parsley)

• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and roughly chopped (I used five cloves)
• 3 shallots, peeled and roughly chopped
• 1 tablespoon dried rosemary
• 3 tablespoons Dijon mustard (I used Edmond Fallot Green Peppercorn Dijon Mustard)
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 tablespoons cracked black pepper
• 6 tablespoons olive oil

For the Chicken

• 2 chickens, 3 pounds each (my chickens were closer to 4 pounds each)
• 2 russet potatoes, scrubbed and cut into quarters the long way
• 1 large Spanish onion, skin on the root trimmed, cut into quarters throughout the root
• 3 teaspoons cooking oil (I used vegetable oil)
• 4 ounces rich chicken stock
• 1 heard roasted garlic, cloves separated
• 1 lemon, 1/2 cut into slices and 1/2 juiced (I ended up using one whole lemon for slicing and the juice of the lemon that had been zested for the marinade)
• 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter
• Salt and pepper, to taste

First, I combined all of the ingredients for the marinade except the lemon zest in the food processor.  I pulsed it until smooth and then folded in the lemon zest.

I then washed and dried the chickens.

I rubbed them all over with the marinade, covered them and let them sit in the fridge for two hours.

After the chicken marinated for two hours, I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees.  I placed a small baking pan in the oven to heat up while the oven was pre-heating.  While the oven warmed up, I seasoned the chickens with salt and pepper and placed them in two roasting pans.  One of the roasting pans was this great Paula Deen roasting pan that I purchased from CSN Stores as the winner of Evan's giveaway.

When the oven reached 350 degrees, I took the baking pan out, sprayed it with cooking spray and added a few drops of the vegetable oil.  I seasoned the pan with salt and pepper, and then added the chopped onion and potatoes to the pan.  I put the baking pan in the middle rack and put the chicken on the top rack for about an hour and twenty minutes.

While the chicken was roasting, I separated and peeled the cloves of a head of garlic.  I tossed the garlic cloves with olive oil and slowly roasted them in the toaster oven.

When the chicken and vegetables were done roasting, I took both out of the oven.  While Bret checked the temperature on the chickens (to make sure they got to 165 degrees), I removed the dry outer leaves of the onion.  I covered the baking pan with the onion and potatoes with aluminum foil and put it on the stove top to keep warm.

Meanwhile, the chicken were placed on a cutting board to cool for about twenty minutes before breaking them down.  Bret graciously helped me with this as this gets me a little squeamish. 

Once the chickens were broken down, they were arranged skin side up in two lightly greased roasting pans.  The lemon slices were added on top of the chicken and a combination of the cooking juices and two ounces of chicken stock were poured on top.

The chickens went into the oven and were broiled for about ten minutes each.  While the chickens were getting crisp, I reduced three ounces of chicken stock, the juice of one whole lemon and the roasted garlic cloves in a small sauce pan.  When the sauce thickened, I added a tablespoon of unsalted butter to the sauce, and seasoned it with salt and pepper.

Even though it was just the two of us, I arranged one of the chickens on a platter with the potatoes and onions.  After all of the hard work, I couldn't skimp on presentation!

We served ourselves and also added poured some of the sauce onto the chicken and vegetables.

This was definitely an intensive recipe.  It took about four hours from making the marinade to finally sit down and eat dinner.  But it was worth the time and effort.  It was pretty close to the flavors of Gordon Hamersley's version - from the crispy chicken skin, moist chicken meat, crispy potatoes, roasted garlic and lemon undertones. 

We have a ton of roasted chicken leftover (a whole chicken and a half!).  Tell me, do you have any creative ways to use leftover roasted chicken?