The first thing you need to know to fully appreciate this post is that I hate raw meat.  If you’ve read some of my old posts, you’ll know that I spend quite a lot of time around dead things, so this doesn’t make much sense.  I also go hunting from time to time, so killing things for food also doesn’t bother me.  I’m not a vegetarian, so I don’t find anything philosophically wrong with meat either.  There’s just something that bothers me about un-cooked bit of dead animal.  There.  I’ve said it.

For the most part I can get through this in order to cook a steak or roast a turkey, but what I simply can’t stomach is making a meatloaf.  Not only do you have to feel cold, raw, ground beef, but you have to mix in other dellectables such as raw eggs and bread crumbs.  THEN you have to mush them all together.  I just – can’t – do it.  But Wednesday was a chilly, rainy day, and I REALLY wanted meatloaf, so I planned to either enlist the daughter to do the mushing part for me, or prayed that the husband got home before we did and he could do the mushing for me!

Luck was with me and Dr. Wonderful beat us to the house.  He was ready for food prep.  "Plop" into the bowl went the 1.7 pounds of lean ground beef, 3 duck eggs (the ducks are being generous these days), some seasoned bread crumbs, and some milk.  We sprinkled in some Penzey’s North Woods seasoning, and Dr. W. did the mush thing.  Perfect consistency!!!

Wonder of wonders, the glass loaf pan was clean and located in the proper place (daughter often files dishware in locations of her own choosing), and we were ready to mold the meatloaf!  This is where things get a little strange.

Dr. W. put the mixture into the pan and squooshed it into place.  I suggested that he even it out a little because it looked a little “loaf heavy” on one end of the pan.  Then I left the room for a moment.  I came back to this:

Not only had my husband sculpted the meatloaf, but he did it in the image of an Easter Island Head!  Every year in grade school we took a standardized test that featured a reading comprehension story on Easter Island – I looked forward to those paragraphs each year.  What a deal!  Here's the work of art without a flash:

You can really see his finer details! 

This was one the daughter had to see too.  It took some coaxing, but a promise of something exciting in the kitchen got her out of her room in less than geologic time (she is 14 after all).  Needless to say, she enjoyed the loaf man too.

You’ll be pleased to know that 1) the meatloaf was superb, 2) the mashed potatoes full of sour cream and cream cheese were the perfect consistency, and 3) the gravy had no lumps.  We ate him chin first and his forehead is in the freezer. 

I ate his nose for lunch yesterday.  No Chianti or fava beans.