Meatloaf & Cornbread

I've kept this strictly a baking blog, but I thought that since I also cook it might be nice to vary it up some! I have made it a point to cook things that taste good and are pretty easy to make. I rarely use cookbooks because they usually contain ingredients that I don't readily have on hand. So years ago, I started my own "cookbook" that contains tried & true recipes I've found at my favorite cooking site AllRecipes.com and other random places.

Let me first start by saying that I don't like meatloaf. It's dry and rough. And generally doesn't taste like anything. And while many people make meatloaf I haven't run across anyone who just absolutely loves it. Whenever you say the word meatloaf you can almost hear this groan of despair coming from the listener. But in my usual fashion, I just had to find a recipe that would be easy to make and delicious on top of that.

What makes this meatloaf extradinary is the sauce. It's a simple blend of ketchup, brown sugar, and mustard. It may look like a lot of sauce, but it's important for the meat to soak up all those flavors and still have sauce on top for an extra "pow!". I've always made this meatloaf with ground beef, but just last night I tried it with ground turkey meat and it came out just as delicious! So feel free to experiment with it! I can safely say that if you make this meatloaf recipe you will instantly be a favorite with the crowd. Haha! :-)

Meatloaf Extraordinaire:

meatloaf:

1 Egg, beaten

2/3 cup Milk

3 slices Bread, crumbled

1 cup Shredded Cheddar Cheese

A dash of Onion Powder

1 tsp Salt

1/4 tsp Pepper

1 lb Ground Beef

sauce:

1/2 cup Ketchup

1/2 cup Brown Sugar

1/4 cup Mustard

• In a large bowl, combine the first 8 ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well.
• Shape into a loaf. Place in a greased 9-in x 5-in x 3-in, loaf pan.
• In a small bowl, combine the brown sugar, ketchup and mustard; pour over loaf.
• Bake at 350° for 60 minutes or until no pink remains.

Corn Bread. I know a lot of people who like cornbread. I'm not one of them. I think it's completely useless if you have to dunk a piece of bread in soup just to make it soft and edible! Since I'm Puerto Rican, I didn't have to worry about running into the cornbread issue very much. Thank God! My mom rarely ever made cornbread and when she did it was a little bitty pan that was eaten mostly by my dad. I've tried other people's cornbread and my opinion remains the same. Eck.

It was quite accidental that I ran into this recipe. Nate needed to make cornbread for a lunch chili thing at work. I inwardly groaned. How was I supposed to make cornbread when I didn't even like it?! I went to AllRecipes and typed in cornbread. Recipe after recipe looked the same. And then I found one that was described as "moist" and "sweet". I had to give it a try! I mean, after all, how could you not try a cornbread recipe that has you use pancake mix instead of flour?!

Waikki Cornbread:

3 cups Buttermilk Baking mix

1 cup White Sugar

2 1/2 tsp Baking Powder

1/4 cup Yellow Cornmeal

3 Eggs

1 1/4 cups Milk

2 sticks Butter, melted

• Mix the first 4 ingredients in a bowl and set aside.
• Beat eggs, milk, and butter until creamy in another bowl.
• Stir in "flour" mixture until well combined.
• Pour mixture into a greased 9 x 13 pan.
• Bake in preheated oven at 350°for 30 minutes or until toothpick inserted into the center of the bread comes out clean.

I promised easy recipes didn't I? Now go try them and see how good they taste! :-)