FAVORITE MEAT LOAF

I have tried many meat loaf recipes throughout the years. They were all good, some better than others. This is my all-time favorite. It comes from one of my church cookbooks, and most of those recipes are wonderful. I think meat loaf is a comfort food, especially for fall and winter. But it is also good to take to pot lucks any time of the year. It usually disappears really fast, and is good cold.

2 pounds ground beef
1 cup dry bread crumbs
2 eggs, beaten
2 cups milk
1 pkg. onion soup mix
          or   1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 teaspoon each pepper, celery salt, garlic salt, and dry mustard
1 teaspoon salt (if using the soup mix, I don't add more salt)
2 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

Mix all thoroughly. Put in ungreased loaf pan. Mix equal amounts of catsup and mustard; spread on top of loaf. Bake at 350 for 1 1/2 hours.

Sometimes I use this topping:

6 Tablespoons brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 cup catsup

The last time I made this I did two batches, and used panko bread crumbs as that was what I had on hand, plus what was left of a can of regular seasoned bread crumbs, and finally had to add some quick oatmeal to the mix. It all worked well. Use whatever you have in your pantry.

I mixed these two batches up and then divided each batch in half to freeze. I wrapped in aluminum foil and then put in freezer bags, and froze unbaked. I will sometimes bake a meatloaf and slice it up, then freeze the individual slices for a quick meal option.