Making Mom's Old World Meatloaf

With this slushy night in Brooklyn, it seemed especially gratifying to cook up some comfort food. While I consider myself domestically challenged in many ways, I did love helping my late Mom in the kitchen at times, especially for my favorites she would make. Like potato salad. And stuffing. And, especially, meatloaf! It was a recipe handed down for generations in her family.

Ok, so here's my recipe for meatloaf, with little variation from the way Mom used to make it. WARNING: It's messy (and caloric but full of protein)!

A family-sized (about 2 lb) package of ground beef
4 eggs
1 cup of whole milk
finely chopped red onion
2 caps of white vinegar
A few dashes of black pepper (to taste)
1 cup of garlic chips

Put the above in a large bowl to knead and squish with your bare hands (make sure your mitts are scrubbed before making, and you will constantly need to scrape from fingers and rinse hands). Yes, this is very Old World but that's why it tastes so great! Touched by your own TLC. (If you don't like getting your hands messy, this is distinctly not a recipe for you.)

Layer bottom of bread pan with some tomato puree. Shape the mix into pan. Cover with puree and pry sides away from pan with knife to let puree drip and coat them, too. Spread onion slices on top.

Put in oven at 350 degrees for an hour 15 minutes. Onions on top should be crispy. And voila! Mom's Old World Meatloaf. And I swear she was guiding me through this. Turned out terrific! Chomp!