Good eating for a cold winter's day

If August is known as the dog days of summer, what should we call January? The disagreeable dark devil of winter? True, the shortest day of the year falls in December but there’s Christmas or Hanukah or a ski holiday or a New Year’s celebration to look forward to with anticipation and that helps a person to get through December’s darkness. But January? Seems to me that January is nothing but bad weather no matter how you look at it.

Last year the lower 48 were seeing unprecedented snow. Storm after storm after storm. True, this year we’ve had inordinate amounts of sun down here while parts of Alaska are scrambling to cope with the white stuff, but even our sunshine brings its own problems. Drought. Plants that aren’t protected by a blanket of snow. Drying winds sapping all moisture from our lawns and flower beds. Doesn’t matter how you look at it, January isn’t my favorite month.

I don’t remember a winter like this one when I lived on Nephi and Mathilde’s ranch. Oh, we got a Chinook wind a couple of times and everything was a mess because the ground was still frozen and there was no place for the snow-turned-water to go but that only happened a couple of times and never in January, even then.

With winters in Jackson Hole, you could count on at least three deep cold snaps a year. If you didn’t get one around Thanksgiving, you could count on one just after Christmas, another one or two in January and maybe one in February. By deep cold snaps, I’m talking about -35F to -45F and I remember one Christmas when it got down to -60F. By anybody’s standards, that’s just a mite chilly.

Times like that, Mathilde made sure there was plenty of good sustaining food served at her table. One dish, a meat loaf that she served, has been a staple in my family ever since I left her home. It’s so good I’ve had men who professed to hate meat loaf ask their wives to get the recipe from me. Maybe this dish will help lighten the dark days of winter for you.

MATHILDE’S EASY MEAT LOAF

400 F. Oven

Preheat oven. Meanwhile:

In a large bowl, whip with a fork until slightly beaten:

1                 egg

Add:

1                 lb. hamburger

2          Tbsp. melted butter (or margarine)

2          Tbsp. chopped onion

¼         tsp. pepper

1          C. oatmeal (can use coarsely broken soda crackers)

1          C. milk

1          tsp. salt

Mix thoroughly.

Line the bottom of a loaf pan with catsup. Form loaf of meat mixture and put in pan. Across top lay:

Strips of bacon

Bake in oven 1 hour.

That’s the official recipe but it’s not how I make it. To begin with, y’all know I’m not a great fan of strict measurements. Who has exactly one pound of hamburger lurking in their fridge? Not me. And I don’t see any reason to add melted butter when you’re putting strips of bacon across the top and catsup on the bottom. And 2 Tbsp of chopped onion? Pullease! If a little onion is good, a little more is better, right?

            So I do this my own way.

            I don’t buy milk unless one of the kids is home so I substitute ¾ C of water added to the egg and sprinkle 1/3 C of powdered milk (doesn’t have to be instant but it can be) over the meat after I put it in. My husband is allergic to onions but onion salt doesn’t bother him so I make a good sprinkling of onion salt across the top of the meat, too, before I mix everything together – just to where I can see there’s onion salt there – and that takes care of both the salt and onion ingredients.  Pepper can be optional. I never used to use it but now I do and the meat loaf is good either way.

If you’re in a time crunch (and who isn’t these days?) you can put this meat loaf mixture in a microwaveable dish, cover it with plastic wrap, then microwave it at full power for 10 to 15 minutes and it will be ready to serve.

What could be easier?