Meat Loaf!

The first (and maybe the only) non-Egg related post on this site is about my Mother's meat loaf. This happens to be the only non Egg item that I really cook, so this turn of events is really not all that surprising!

Here is the recipe and some pics from my favorite dish as a child (and today I must confess!).

Mix the following ingredients:
-1/2 tsp salt (heaping)
-1 tsp sage (heaping)
-1/4 tsp pepper
-1 cup bread crumbs (heaping)
-1 cup milk
-2 eggs

For the sauce/topping, mix:
-1/4 tsp nutmeg (heaping)
-1/3 cup brown sugar
-1/2 cup ketchup
-3 squirts mustard


The add between 1 - 1/2 lbs of ground chuck.


At this point, you put/form the meat loaf into a loaf pan (?) and then spread on the topping. Then bake between 1 hour 15 min and 1 hour and 30 min. I cooked this one for exactly 1 hour and 15 min and it probably could have used another 15 min or so.


I must say that my Mother's meat loaf is always a little different than mine, so she is either not giving me the entire recipe or her constant use of the word heaping and her scientific measurements of "squirts" of mustard lead to a little bit of variation in recipes. Having said that, if you follow the above recipe to the T, then the outcome is a fantastic night of some of the best comfort food around.

The Search for Perfect Chicken Wings

I love wings. I think they are easy to cook, relatively quick, and delicious. I love wings.

Having said that, I am constantly looking to improve my wing grilling skills. I find that I am constantly in a battle between smoking the wings for ideal tenderness and cooking them over direct heat for exterior crispiness. I know that I can do both during the same cook but that is a bit of a pain.

So this time, I did some BBQ wings and decided to smoke them but at a much higher temperature than I normally would.


I smoked the wings at about 325 (ish) for approximately 1 hour and 20 min. I was somewhat disappointed that the skins had not crisped up a little more (they were still a bit rubbery looking) so I removed the plate setter and then charred them up for abour 10 min over the open flame.


This did the trick and the wings were excellent after I tossed them in some BBQ sauce and served them hot. However I still came away feeling like there has to be a better way......thoughts?