Adventures in Meatloaf

1 lb ground Italian sausage

2.5 lb ground beef

4 ounces crumbled feta cheese

3 eggs

1 medium red onion, diced

6 cloves garlic, diced

4 oz fresh spinach, finely chopped

4 oz oats

salt & pepper

oregano

Here’s the ingredients for the tzaziki sauce:

plain yogurt ~ this time I used about half a container, approx 8 oz

cucumber, diced ~ I used half of an “english cucumber”, a longer variety popular here in the US

dill

salt

sumac

Ideally the first thing you want to do is make the tzaziki sauce so that it can sit in the cool (such as your refrigerator) and go through the magic process of “flavor melding” as long as possible before you use it. I have found that my favorite tzaziki sauce is a minimum of 24 hours old, but like today it only sat for a couple hours.
I first discovered tzaziki sauce served on gyros many years ago. I am a huge lover of dill and tangy busrts on the palate, so it’s been a match made in heaven ever since. I find lots of ways to use it in many dishes, and will slightly change the taste depending on what I am using it for. It’s ridiculously easy to make! Just mix the diced cucumber with the yogurt, and add the seasonings to your own taste. I usually go heavy on the dill, as you can see here.

Adding the sumac to this version gives just a little lift to the tangy flavor, and I thought it complimented the meatloaf perfectly.

Making the meatloaf might be considered fun, or it might be considered messy (we think it’s both) ~ it just depends on how much of a kid you are! I got the best of both worlds, because I got all the ingredients in the pan to mix but then enlisted the help of my 8 year old daughter for the actual mixing.

I learned working in restaurant kitchens in my late teens and early 20’s that sometimes the best tools available are your hands. This is almost 5 lbs of meat and lots of small parts to distribute throughout, so it really does work the best to use your hands to mix. I would also consider it a stress-reliever, because you can squeeze everything together as hard as you like ~ and as long!

I pre-heated the oven to 350 degrees. Once the meat was “homogenized”, it was ready to be put into a baking dish. My glass baking dish was pretty much perfect for this size, and it measures 9.25” x 13.25” (inches). There was no special trick to putting it in the dish. Just get it all in there, even it out on top, and pop the dish in the oven!

I don’t set timers for the oven very often, but I can say that it took about 45-55 minutes for this to cook through. It’s rather ironic how I can “sense” time but I can’t show up anywhere on time, or wear a watch with any luck. It’s been that way since I was a child. I might be able to tell you what time it is within a few minutes when there is no clock around for literally miles, but my absolute best efforts to do something at a particular time usually have me sliding in at the wire. Eh, we all have our peculiarities…

You will have to drain the grease off of this once you pull it out of the oven (and before you take a picture, hahahaha), unless you set it up to cook on a draining pan above the baking dish. That seems like unneeded effort most of the times I have seen it in recipes over the years, so I rarely take that approach. I ended up with right around 2 cups of grease to drain, but keep in mind the types of ground meat I used ~ they are higher fat content in general. My dogs will appreciate the little extra treat poured over their bowls, and I am confident between the wildlife and wandering local dogs the rest poured out just in the treeline will be thoroughly enjoyed as well as the dish itself.

One of the things I love best about living in this time of humanity is the access to food diversity that we are so blessed with. There is not any cuisine, any flavor, any corner of the world that I cannot taste if I so desire, and I can do so with no more than a day’s drive to a metropolitan area for specialty ingredients. I believe that our ability to eat such a wide variety gives us an experience that has not been duplicated prior to this time in human lifetimes. It's definitely a delicious journey, one of life's greatest pleasures!

As a side note, I would like to thank the masters of the universe for allowing me to create this post without @aurynthenorse playing the music of meatloaf all night long while I was cooking, and then writing about, food one of his favorite rock stars is named after. And congratulations to @steemagers for making their entrance into steem and encouraging teen participation on steemit!