Meatloaf in a jar

A reader in Australia named Santina is teaching herself to can. She wrote: "I'm in Australia and canning isn't as widely used as it is in the US. I had a friend help me get started but once I got the pressure canner I exceeded her expertise."

Santina wanted to can -- meatloaf! Her question for me was whether or not Worcester sauce could be used in the recipe (answer: yes), and I sent her a list of canning no-no's from my FAQ ebook on the subject.

Bottom line, she canned up 14 pints of meatload and sent me some photos of her success. From her description, it sounds like she did everything right -- including leaving out the breadcrumbs since flour products shouldn't be canned.

(Click on the photos to enlarge them slightly, though the text will still be pretty small.)

I just love it when people make their own canning adventures, as long as they stay within the bounds of safe canning procedures. Congrats, Santina!

How cool is it that people literally on opposite sides of the globe can exchange canning tips? Ain't the internet sweet?

The humble meatloaf

A couple of weeks ago, the girls spent a few days with their grandparents in Coeur d'Alene (my folks come up for a couple months in the spring and fall, and we encourage the girls to spend as much time with them as possible). While they were gone, Don and I indulged in a rare treat: meatloaf.

That's right, the humble meatloaf is a rare treat for us. Don and I love meatloaf, but the girls hate it. Therefore we seldom have a chance to have it.

We have plenty of ground beef in the freezer from the last time we butchered, so it was nice to have an excuse to use some of it. Older Daughter refuses to eat ground beef in any form, so we tend to go through that staple very slowly.

I doubled the recipe, so I defrosted two packages.

The recipe calls for bread crumbs, but I always use oatmeal. Works just as well.

Milk... lots of onions...

...and a generous dollop of Worcestershire sauce.

Instead of ketchup, I use barbecue sauce for a bit more flavor.

Looks rather grim at this stage, doesn't it? The girls would use this photo to justify their dislike of the dish. But once it's mixed, it looks fine.

I used to make meatloaf in bread pans, but bread pans don't allow extra fat to drain off. So now I put foil on a cookie sheet and put a cooling rack over that...

...and pack the raw meatloaf on top. Some bits of meat sort of fall through, but not as much as you'd think (and I can always scrape it up).

Baked and ready to eat, with lots of goodies for leftovers and sandwiches.

Let's hear it for the humble meatloaf, comfort food extraordinaire!