After writing my post about Leftover Oddments Soup and mentioning the best leftovers possible – meatloaf sandwiches – all of a sudden I just had to make meatloaf. Imagining that sandwich with soft white bread, mayonnaise and a thick slab of meatloaf had me rushing to the market to buy the ingredients. In fact, I have had such a sandwich for the last two days, first with lightly toasted sourdough and today with plain soft egg bread. Today was definitely the winner. So satisfying. Such a trip down comfort food memory lane.

My Mom used to make meatloaf in the 1950’s, but it was a simple recipe with hamburger, chopped onions, an egg, a squirt of ketchup and mustard, and crushed saltine crackers. We usually had it with baked potatoes and canned spinach (which I loved). She probably learned to make this during WWII when cooks were stretching their meat with a number of additives, such as bread, rice, oatmeal and vegetables.

Cooked mixtures of minced meat go back to Roman times, but the meat had to be chopped laboriously by hand. Meatloaf in its modern form didn’t appear in cookbooks until the invention of the meat grinder in the late 1800s. Early recipes called for veal, which was cheaper than beef and meatloaf was the mainstay of American cuisine during the Great Depression. Variations of meatloaf appear in many countries, many with hard-boiled eggs tucked inside. One theory is that American meatloaf had its origins in scrapple, a mixture of ground pork and cornmeal served by German-Americans in Pennsylvania since Colonial times.

The little cousin of meatloaf is the meatball. I actually kept out enough meat mixture to make two big meatballs, which I’m planning on using with a pasta recipe. A meatball is just a small meatloaf, really, isn’t it? While I was surfing the net for meatloaf info, I ran into a couple of websites about the world record for the biggest meatball on the planet. I figured maybe the size of a basketball? Oh no, these babies were 200 pounds, 222.5 pounds and 400 pounds. And, in my opinion, they look like big meatloafs to me.

When I was at the market the other day, I saw some Flanken Style Short Ribs in the meat case. I was thinking about how I have been touting myself as this stone carnivore and I don’t have one meat dish in my recipe index yet. So I bought the long, thin cross-cut ribs and decided to marinate them in a Korean-style Bulgogi sauce and cook them on my grill pan. I was really looking forward to the taste of the sweet-salty grilled beef for my lunch.

This marinade can be used for any beef cuts you are planning to grill, either on a grill pan or outdoor barbeque. I have marinated thin slices of steak on bamboo skewers and then grilled them either for an appetizer or main dish. I have never used it for chicken, but I bet it would work for that, too. Summer is coming and this is a great recipe to have on hand.

Today I also wanted to use up some leftover rice (I LOVE leftovers) from Thai take-out that I had in my freezer. I chopped up half an onion and sautéed it in some butter until it started to brown and was soft. Then I added the thawed-out rice and stir fried until it was heated through. A little salt and pepper and it was done. There is something so wonderful that happens when you cook onions in butter. They sizzle and get soft and sweet. So good.