I told you previously that I love cooking. But I have this issue of not being able to follow a recipe. So today my challenge was to recreate a dinner I pulled off a few weeks ago. It’s called popular demand, but not very popular with me for obvious reasons. I just can’t remember what exactly I threw in there last time. That can be quite embarrassing.

Today’s request was for meatloaf. And it’s not been a staple dish at our dinner table previously. That’s probably because I’ve been a bit suspicious of ground beef for other than Swedish meatballs and spaghetti sauce. Somehow associated it with bad-for-you food, like really fatty hamburgers. But of course that’s not necessarily the case, a few of my ideas obviously need some tweaking.

So a few weeks ago, I made a meatloaf and it was a huge success.  Which, I’m sure, was news only to me. I kind of liked making it because the loaf bakes itself once you have made the dough and put it in a loaf pan, and the mixing only takes a few minutes. I can do something else while it’s baking.

So this afternoon I raided the fridge and found about 2.2 lbs/1 kg skinny ground sirloin, eggs (needed 2), a couple of onions (chopped finely), little cream (about 3 oz/1 dl), some feta cheese (used maybe about 6+ oz/180g), bread crumbs (I use very little, maybe 3-4 tsp) and sugar-free syrup (needed only about 2 or so tsp). So I mixed all that together with some salt, pepper, garlic and some herbs. All measures are of course approximate…if you want to try, just create, whatever feels right! I can think of throwing in mushrooms, bell peppers or even super finely chopped ham.  This was intended for 6 people, so half of everything would make about a normal sized loaf pan.

I mixed it again and again until it was fluffy and moist, then spooned the mix into an olive-oiled baking dish. Covered with a thin layer of ketchup, honey mustard and syrup mixed together, and put it to bake in 350 F/180 C oven for an hour. Voila!  I could work a little bit and Skype with our  son while the dinner was cooking itself.

Then made a modest house salad to go with the loaf. Tasty, low-cost, low carb and no sweat dinner. A little simple happiness with a glass of  red on a Friday night. And any rests can be nicely wrapped with some veggies for lunch tomorrow.

Ordinary can be good, even delicious. And that’s how I’d like to see life turn out in general. More time to admire the sunset.