I'm a great cook, but the joke in my house has always been, I Can't Make Meatloaf or turkey stuffing!!

Question

My mother had a stroke & never wrote her recipes down. I'm writing a cookbook for my kids, of all my recipes!
It's just something small for Christmas
It would be so funny to include the two things they laugh about everytime I've made them.
Tried ketchup, onion soup onion peppers raw & cooked. Amount of eggs to meat what meat? no eggs? milk fresh bread crumb? dry crumbs seasoned/not? Parmasian cheese/cheddar
MY stuffing is soggy, tried sausage raisins apples eggs to stuffing, what's better cubes, crumbles Brands, flavors of stuffing? Mine is awful!
You get the picture! LOL!
If I ask now I'll be able to test them out. I'll be eternally grateful to the winners and all of you.
It will be the perfect ending for:
Mom's Cookbook of Memories.
Thank you, kids are in VT and CA I'm in NJ! I miss them so much but they are happy have wonderful jobs & are going to school part-time.
Help me learn to make meatloaf & stuffing that will make me proud to serve it!
Thank You, Sue

Answer 1

instead of using raw egg in your meatloaf, try using cooked egg that you have mashed very fine. it gives a really different flavor and everyone loves my meatloaf! also when you put in veggies, mince them very fine as well. ie onions, black olives, mushrooms, peppers. i use a pound of extra extra lean ground round and add about a 1/3 pound of ground pork.

turkey: after rinsing with cold water, i pat my turkey dry, inside and out. i let it sit for twenty-thirty minutes after patting it dry. just to make sure it is dry.
my stuffing: dry bread cubes, onions, spices, and then i put in a tin of mushroom soup, [just the soup, don't add the milk that you would if you were making soup for lunch], and white wine. mix it up, if it feels a bit dry add a bit more wine. stuff her into the bird, lace the top of the bird with bacon strips and when i baste it i baste with gingerale and water mixed half and half! i also do my roasts with gingerale/water mix.
again, everyone enjoys my turkey and stuffing - stuffing is never soggy, the bird is always moist and the gravy is always great. [probably the wine and gingerale - lol]

good luck with it................and i know what you mean. i can't make brownies if my life depended on it! honestly. they never come out right! but i make a damn good spaghetti sauce. if you ever want the recipe let me know! its dead easy with a bit of cheating!
cheers!

Answer 2

There is an AWESOME RECIPE SITE THAT I SWEAR BY!!! I can't stand eating meatloaf but I can make it! If you go to ALLRECIPES.com there is a recipe for Sweet and Sour meatloaf that my sister makes, and suprisingly enough I LOVE IT! I also can make a mean meatloaf! Recipe as follws:

1- 2 Pounds ground beef
2 Eggs slightly beaten
Plain Bread crumbs
Stem & Pieces mushrooms
Cubed Cheddar cheese
Small pearl onions chopped in halves
Bell peppers diced


In a Large mixing bowl combine the ground beef and eggs mixing until thouroughly combined.
Liberally incorporate 1/4 to 1/2 Cup bread crumbs. Mix thouroughly.
Add the onions,Peppers, and Mushrooms.
Mix well.

Add cubes of cheddar cheese and continue mixing until all combined.

In a Bread loaf pan shape the mixture.

Bake on 350 farenheight for about 40-50 minuets.

The last 5 minuets of cooking add some more cheddar cheese on top.


Once meatloaf is done cut into pieces and serve with mashed potatoes, and green beans


For Stuffing... I usually cheat and buy Stove top!! I LOVE THE CORNBREAD STUFFING!! They also have Turkey, Chicken, and Pork stuffing! They are fool proof!!! YUMMY!!

Hope this helped a bit!

Answer 3

when i make a meatloaf, usually it never turns out the same. either i had something different or i dont. But my basic recipe is:

2 lbs hamburger
1 box of Onion Soup Mix
1/4 cup ketchup
2 eggs
3 slices of bread torn up in small pieces.

In a bowl mix the hamburger, and both packages of the onion soup mix the ketchup, eggs, and bread. Then heres where i start adding ingredients. add 1/2 cup BBQ, and numerous shakes of Soy Sauce. I even add spices to it to like thyme and rosemary. it all depends on what u like. my dad always tells me that i when u make a meatloaf u can never fix it the same way twice.

As for stuffing, im not a big stuffing eater but when i do want stuffing i just get the Kraft Turkey Stuffing and follow the directions on the box.

Answer 4

The secret to stuffing is finely chopped celery and onions along with real chicken broth as the only liquid. The bread and seasoning are pretty much standard though some like a lot of sage. I do the above and get lots of compliments on the stuffing. I make four times as much stuffing as it takes to fill the bird and pack it in foil around the bird. Meatloaf - keep it simple and a good recipe comes with Onion Soup mix (like store brands or Campbells) . I use two eggs per pound of meat and I add finely chopped onions and bell peppers . I also use diet lean ground beef and season it with black pepper. If you try the meatloaf recipe be sure to invite me over. thanks.

Answer 5

I hate meat loaf, but my husband loves it. He thinks my "recipe" is great. . .little does he know that there IS no recipe. This is roughly how I fix it for him:

1 to 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef, mixed with approximately four slices of white bread turned into crumbs and a beaten egg. To that, I add a couple of good shakes of Worchestershire sauce, enough onion and garlic powder to make it smell good, as much diced onion as you want, and a nice big splash of ketchup.

Mix well, but don't overmix -- that may be part of the problem if the texture of your meatloaf isn't what you'd like it to be. Pack lightly into a loaf pan and bake at 350 degrees until done, draining off the accumulated grease several times. Top with more ketchup if desired about five or ten minutes before you think it's done. (Around an hour or so.)

Stuffing -- I make my mom's super-duper "secret" recipe. Start with a big ol' package of Stovetop corn bread stuffing, and add whatever you've got by way of stale or leftover bread crumbled up together. I use white, wheat, left over hot rolls, that last piece of corn bread in the pan, or whatever. Rye and pumpernickle are about the only things I don't use because they're too strong.

Add some diced celery and onion, and enough chicken broth with half a stick of margarine melted into it to moisten well. Bake at 350 until heated through. The seasoning in the stuffing mix is too intense by itself, but adding more bread makes it just right.

Sorry I can't be more specific on quantities, but I cook by smell, appearance, and taste, rather than strictly by recipe. I've been married for over 30 years, and I haven't killed or starved my husband yet! ;-)

Answer 6

There is this great meatloaf recipe we cut out of a mini page from the news paper called marvelous meatloaf... its the best I've ever had. Heres the recipe:

~1 1/2 lbs. ground beef ~1/2 onion, chopped
~1 egg, beaten ~1/2 cup ketchup
~1/4 cup tomato sauce ~1/2 cup brown sugar
~3/4 cup dry breadcrumbs


1. Combine all ingrediants, except ketchup and brown sugar, in a large bowl. Mix well.
2. Press evenly in a loaf pan.
3. Combine ketchup and brown sugar in a small bowl. Mix well.
4.Spread ketchup mixture evenly on meat mixture.
5. Bake in a preheated 350-degree oven for 1 hour.
Serves 8.

Answer 7

I have to say my first reaction was mashed potatoes with some blue cheese mixed in. But then I re-read your question --okay, I admit it-- I didn't read it through all the way the first time-- and saw you were worried about it being to heavy for sumer. In that case, I thnk a rice salad would be better. Add some red onions, maybe some parsley or cilantro for color, but probably better simple than complex since you already have a lot going with our stuffed peppers. And by the way, just because it's turkey meatoaf doesn't mean it wouldn't benefit from a good slather of ketchup.

Answer 8

MEATLOAF
3# ground chuck
1/2 cup ketchup
2 eggs
1 medium onion diced
1 tube of saltine crackers, crushed while in package
1/2 cup milk
Mix all ingredients together into 9x13 cake pan. Shape into oval, and hollow out middle to look like a ring.
Need one green pepper cut into strips. Put the strips over the meatloaf, evenly spaced some people don't like the baked peppers but it gives the meatloaf a flavor much like stuffed peppers. Squirt ketchup back and forth in a zig zag design all a way around the loaf.
350 degree oven--1 hour

TURKEY DRESSING
3 cups of turkey broth (I get mine after I roast the turkey)
shortcut-use broth from a can
2 cups finely chopped onion
1 cup finely diced celery
! rounded Tablespoon of sage
6 eggs
16 ounces of milk
2 loaves of extremely dried out bread (start putting the heels and other slices of bread into a cardboard box a week before you need it. The cardboard draws the moisture out of the bread and will become extremely. Break this up into small pieces.
Place everything into large bowl or roaster. Hand mix ingredients well.
Bake in oven for 1 hour at 350 degrees.

Answer 9

Meat loaf

1/3 # ground beef
1/3 # groudn pork
1/3 # ground veal
1 medium onion small diced
3 ribs celery small diced
1 cup milk
3 cups panko bread crumbs (japanese style)
1 cup motzerella cheese
3 tbsp fresh garlic
2 tbsp dry oregano
1 tbsp dry basil
1 egg
2 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp fresh cracked black pepper

procedure:

in bowl add the milk and then the bread crumbs. Let sit until the bread crums absorb all the milk. In a mixing bowl add the remaining ingredients and mix just until the mixture comes to gether. Do not over mix or your meat loaf will dense and tough. Now add the milk soaked bread crumba and again mix just until they are incorporated. Place in a loaf pan and bake at 350 for about 45 minutes or until you reach an internal temp of 160.

Answer 10

Oatmeal and egg mixed with one pound of ground beef (1 egg and 1 cup oatmeal) makes a decent meatloaf, and you can poke deep dents in the top and put ketchup in them before you cook the meatloaf.

I make turkey bread stuffing with everything they put in the bird.

Boil the neck, liver and gizzards ubtil the gizzards are tender. Remove the neck (cook's treat) and cut liver and gizzards into fairly small pieces. Save the broth!

Cook 3 pounds onions in 1/4 pound of butter until transparent. Add to one 20 oz loaf of white bread with 2 eggs, giblets and broth, adding bread until a stiff consistency is achieved. Use this to stuff both cavities of the bird. Any leftovers can be baked in muffin tins and served as side dishes or as snacks or lunches.