Carla Hall's Garlicky Meat Loaf 10.26.11

Halloween goes with Vampires goes with Garlic goes with Carla Hall's Garlicky Meat Loaf!

Today Carla tackles a classic, adds a bit of seasonal humor and a Holiday ingredient.  Lots and lots of garlic! I LOVE IT!

Carla's loaf is a pretty standard recipe, with a couple of exceptions...

Oatmeal replaces bread crumbs.  She runs them through a blender to grind them up a bit.  Then she soaks them in milk to add volume (and I believe to keep the grease from the sausage and hamburger from being absorbed).  You soak the oatmeal in milk for a couple of minutes which puffs the oatmeal dust up perfectly.

There are onions, carrots, horseradish and optional celery (which I added) in the loaf, so plenty of hidden vegetables.  Not exactly Daphne healthy, but anytime you can hide vegetables in something this tasty you are a step ahead.

And speaking of Daphne, the vampire teeth she wore during the group tasting was a pretty odd way to let her off the hook for eating meat today.  I mean she tried a hot dog... Is meatloaf any worse?

But I digress...

I made a few very tiny additions to the recipe.  Inside the meatloaf, Carla calls for ketchup.  I prefer the zippier taste of BBQ sauce.

A added a dusting of ground garlic powder on the top before adding the sauce.

I also used a very spicy sausage (recipe calls for 1/2 a pound added to a pound and a half of hamburger.

I also used a remote prob meat thermometer that measures the internal temperature of the meat prior while it is cooking.  I cooked until the temp read 160 degrees.  Carla's recipe calls for a 1 hour cook time.  I had formed my loaf pretty thick, so it took almost an hour twenty minutes to cook through.

And the verdict is DELICIOUS!  As good a meat loaf as I have ever had.

the horseradish, BBQ sauce and spicy sausage combines to make a tangy zippy flavorful meatloaf.  Certainly not too spicy, not painful runny eyes heat, but certainly a better meatloaf!

The Oats did indeed make a big difference.  Moist throughout and this morning, when I made my meatloaf sandwich for breakfast, it was just as juicy!

You can find Carla's version of this recipe on The Chew website by clicking HERE.

And the daily collection of recipes from the show (click here for that), you will see among them a recipe for haunted mashed potatoes.

I took the advice and served my meat loaf with smashed potatoes with roasted garlic.  Equally delicious!  Especially adding roasted garlic paste to the mix!

A comforting meal filled with enough garlic to ward of vampires and enough vegetables to justify a family feast!