Comfort Food at its Finest

The temperature dropped here again today and for me when that happens, I want comfort foods. Today, I needed (Yes, needed!) meatloaf, mashed potatoes and an apple crisp. Holy crap. IT WAS AWESOME!!
Just a note...I had left overs. I hate to admit it, but I did. Here's the thing, though, the meatloaf and mashed potatoes are so good you'll want to eat them for lunch the next day. Or you can invite a friend over to help you eat it!
Meatloaf. I think there are two schools of thought here...with gravy or tomato sauce. I am of the tomato sauce school of thought, sort of. I don't use tomato sauce, but instead I use ketchup. That's right, ketchup. Not catsup. This is Texas, it's ketchup. If I had enough, I would even use Whataburger ketchup, because everyone knows it is the best ketchup ever made. If you disagree, you're wrong, sorry!

OK, so here we go!

Meatloaf

2/3 lb hamburger
1/4 lb sage sausage (remember how we're dividing foods and freezing it? yeah, comes in handy now!)
2 tablespoons ketchup
1 tablespoon yellow mustard
2 tablespoons finely diced yellow onions
3 tablespoons canned corn (trust me on this one!)
1/3 cup seasoned bread crumbs
1 large egg

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Put all ingredients in a medium sized mixing bowl and combine thoroughly. *DON'T BE A SISSY!! DIG IN!! PUT YOUR HANDS IN THE BOWL!! GET MESSY!! It's gonna taste better, I promise!*
2. Put your meat concoction into a glass baking dish and shape into a loaf-like shape. USE YOUR HANDS!!
3. Bake for 45 minutes, but check at 30 minutes to see how it's doing. If there is a lot of fluid/fat in the pan, drain it off carefully into the sink. When the meatloaf is looking nice and dark brown and when it's not looking pink in the middle (don't use your hands to check...come on now, use a fork...) top with a little bit of extra ketchup, if you want. I don't usually do this because I forget, BUT I did it this time and it was pretty awesome. Bake it for about 15 minutes with the ketchup on it.

The mashed potatoes this time were way better than I think I've ever made. I don't like doing instant, because real mashed potatoes are pretty easy and way tastier.

1 large potato, cut
2-3 cups water
1 tablespoon kosher salt
4 tablespoons unsalted butter (I think this is what made the difference this time)
1/8-1/4 cup milk
fresh ground pepper to taste

1. Boil water and 1/2 of the salt and then add the potatoes. Cook till tender.
2. Drain potatoes, add butter, the rest of the salt, and the milk. Mash them up completely. Pepper and salt as you want.

I don't know if it was the regular butter instead of the regular tub margarine I usually use or the kosher salt (yes, I bought some after some investigation the other day). I don't know what the deal was but they turned out amazing.

Apple Crisp

1 granny smith apple, peeled and cored
1 red delicious apple, peeled and cored
1/2 cup flour
1/3 cup plus 2 table spoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 the zest of one lemon

Preheat oven to 350.

1. Cut your apple slices into large chunks and place into a large ramican or small glass baking dish. Add the zest of half of one lemon and toss together.
2. In a small bowl, combine flour, sugar, cinnamon and nutmeg. After it's mixed, add your butter. I broke my butter into small pieces to make it easier to combine it all. Mix the butter and dry ingredients really well, until it clumps up. (I broke down and bought a cheap-o, 1 cup chopper at wally world and it has really come in handy. It only took like, a minute, pulsing on and off with the mixer to get just the right consistency. If you don't have a mixer, no worries, just use a fork!)
3. Once it's all mixed up, cover the apples with the flour mixture. Bake for about 30-35 minutes or until the crumbly stuff is starting to brown and the apple mixture is starting to bubble up.

Honestly, I wasn't sure this was going to turn out well. IT WAS AMAZING!! The lemon zest not only keeps the apples from turning brown while you're mixing the crumb topping, but it also adds just the perfect slight tang to compliment the sweetness of the apples and sugar. Holy mole. FABULOUS!

Like I said, I bought a little chopper at walmart, but I've used it enough times in this past week for it to have worked off the $10 it cost. You know I don't want to tell you to buy a ton of kitchen gadgets, but this has made cooking prep a little easier.

OK. Now, go buy ingredients to at least make the apple crisp. You'll thank me later.


Happy Cooking!

Amy