I was reading an article this morning that focused attention on a Mennonite woman and her cookbook empire based on dishes like meatloaf and sweet peach pie. What the article touted was her good ole fashioned American cooking and how popular her books are with readers. She doesn't use organic produce, colorful sauces or unpronouncible purple vegetables to make her dishes for the chic crowds. I want to meet this woman, she sounds like someone I want over to dinner! Coincidentally, I just happen to have my own meatloaf recipe all ready, complete with photograph! I made this meal a few weeks ago and thought it was very colorful. The meatloaf is easy, 1 lb of 90% lean ground beef, 1 lb of ground pork and 1/2 pound ground sausage combined in a large bowl with a can of diced tomatos, 1 egg, a few dashes of soy sauce, salt and pepper to taste, a few shakes of oregano, a few cloves of garlic, and about 1/2 to 3/4 cup quick cooking oats. Mush around in a bowl with your hands (like making chunky mud pies) and turn out onto a broiling pan. form into a loaf and into a 350 degree oven for about an hour to an hour and 15 minutes. For this meal, I also peeled and cut up two sweet potatoes into fries, drizzled them with olive oil, sea salt, pepper, and some cayanne pepper and shoved into the same oven to bake...they turn out to be a bit soft, but the taste is good (guess who wants a tabletop deep fat frier for Christmas???) Also a quick sautee of asparagus in butter and salt and pepper completes the meal. A colorful table, no?

Enjoy,
Seth