How is it that it takes me 6 hours to make a meatloaf dinner?

Okay, so my dear friend, of Borscht fame, gave me a subscription to Better Homes and Gardens, which I love. A long time ago I saw a meatloaf recipe that looked promising. Fast forward several months to sitting in a doctor's waiting room. I flip through a BH&G magazine. I read the letters to the editor. One lady says something like,

WHOA! Your meatloaf recipe was the ultimate. We thought our old family recipe was the best in history, but after tasting your meatloaf, we promptly ditched our recipe. BH&G Meatloaf reigns!!!

WELL. That got my little attention. But I was afraid maybe I didn't have my magazine with the sensational meatloaf recipe at home anymore. Maybe I was done with it and had passed it on. This gave me cause for great worry.

So, last night I jumped out of bed (unable to sleep because of stimulating hot chocolate) and trundled downstairs where I found the magazine on the nightstand for my mother-in-law'[s reading pleasure. There it was, the coveted recipe.

To make a long story short, I shopped fresh today and came home and chopped all these vegetables. Happy to report that in the nick of time I remembered my stepson had given me Chop Wizard, which is Dishwasher Safe. The chef who made this American Classic meatloaf recipe said that all the celery, onions, mushrooms, etc., must be chopped extra fine . . . itsy, bitsy. And I am further happy to report that Chop Wizard is a sturdy little appliance, fine quality and, by golly, it chopped everything into extra fine little cubes with no complications . . . well, very few complications. It saved me about 3 hours of chopping, and even then the recipe took 6 hours, well, including eating and cleaning up.

So, after we ate I asked, Is this recipe any better than my Betty Crocker, JR., Meatloaf, which takes about 10 minutes to put together and is loved by all? The answer was unanimous, that both meatloaves were fine. GADS. The new recipe has all the vegetables, but I can't say I'd do it again. Reminds me when Mike and I were first married and I wanted the kids to bond. I assigned that they make this elaborate Blueberry dessert. The recipe was in Southern Living, I think. I was drawn to it because the mother and her daughter were swinging on the front porch of this southern home, eating blueberry dessert, all pure loveliness. If she made Blueberry dessert, and she did, because it was her recipe, then, by golly, we were going to make blueberry dessert and be pure loveliness, too.

The kids bonded all right because they toiled ALL afternoon to make it. When I tasted it, I was like, Hey, wait a minute . . . this tastes EXACTLY like . . . French toast with blueberry syrup. I can make French toast in 15 minutes.

So, there you have it. There is no need whatsoever to do lengthy and complicated recipes, Chop Wizard notwithstanding (stepson when home with a hunk of meatloaf for saving me 3 hours). I have long been a fan of recipes with a list of ingredients you can count on one hand. Oh well, I felt the meatloaf had to be made, since I had such an interesting way of going about it. And it was very good, just by the time I sat down to eat, my taste buds had signed off. I'm sure tomorrow, when it becomes meatloaf sandwich on soft bread with Hellman's mayonnaise, that it will be so great that I will say, I cannot wait to make this meatloaf again.

No sleep and 6 hour meatloaf has put me in a royally crummy mood. I am also worried that I will sleep on my arm funny and murder it. That almost happened last night, killing my arm, it was very scary. I could hardly bring it back. Can that really happen?? Can you really wipe out a limb? It happens to the tree limbs in the ice. My icy little cracked and bleeding fingers, too. I will just be perfectly honest. Calling today quits and we'll try again tomorrow. I think I'll have French toast with blueberry syrup tomorrow, that should level the field.

I love you people in Blogland,
KEM