Not My Grandma's Meatloaf

Growing up, my grandma wasn't really around. She and my mom had a falling out about who knows what when I was young, and she didn't make an appearance until I requested so when I was about 15, but that's a post for another day. The point is, she didn't cook. And neither did my mom. I grew up in a family where the men did all the cooking. (Probably why one of the things on my partner wish list is that they must cook.) So I don't have memories of my grandma or mom's "famous" anything. I didn't even start learning to cook until I graduated college, when I had to in order to eat. I've never made meatloaf before, but I knew I liked it, so last week I decided to try to make it. And it was GREAT. I actually made this up using 3 different recipes, based on what I had on hand. So I present: Not My Grandma's Meatloaf. I hope you enjoy it!

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/4 C milk
1 C dried bread crumbs
1 Tbl butter
1 Tbl minced garlic
1 Tbl Italian seasoning
1/4 cup minced onions
1 Tbl Worcestshire sauce
1 15 oz. can of tomato sauce, divided
1/4 tsp oregano
1/4 tsp basil
1/4 tsp pepper

Topping: 
3 Tbl ketchup
2 tsp Italian seasoning
(other half of the tomato sauce)

Instructions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Melt the butter in a skillet over medium heat, and cook the onion and garlic 5 minutes, until onion is tender. Remove from heat.

In a large bowl, mix the onion and garlic, beef, breadcrumbs, egg, sour cream, Worcestershire sauce, and 1/2 of the tomato sauce. Gradually stir in the milk 1 teaspoon at a time until mixture is moist, but not soggy. Transfer the mixture to a greased 5x9 inch loaf pan.

Bake uncovered in the preheated oven for 40 minutes. Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees and continue baking 15 minutes.

In a small bowl, mix the remaining tomato sauce, ketchup and 2 tsp Italian seasoning. Pour over the top of the meatloaf, and continue baking 10 minutes.

Because all cooking goes well with wine

nomnomnom

served with potato salad and green beans,
because I was too lazy to make mash potatoes