29. Meat Loaf

I wish that could be the entire post. Or “I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won’t Do That).” But did Chazz get you psyched for some loaf? A loaf of meat? I’m talking about a loaf of meat!!!! Click for more if you like loaf. LOAF!

I don’t like meat loaf. I never have. But from my experience I know that men like meat loaf. By request, my mum started making it again for my dad once I moved out. One year I offered to cook my ex-boyfriend whatever meal he wanted for his birthday, no matter how expensive or exotic. And the bitch chose meat loaf (with brown gravy just like Nannie used to make). Bor-ING! And I must say that Cleve was a bit excited for #29. I’ve actually witnessed him order meat loaf in restaurants. WTF? Anyway, why do men like meat loaf so much? I would like someone to explain to me the appeal of a brick of meat. Please, all 8 of you who read this thing, I want you to go into the comments and make me understand.

A meat monolith

So the construction of the loaf is pretty basic. The only problem was that I had to control myself from doctoring it up with oregano, basil, and lots of garlic. I had to keep reminding myself that it wasn’t a giant meatball and that it is a loaf. A bland, 1970’s loaf. I’m totally stoked by the thought of a giant meatball (who wouldn’t be? Can we somehow get a giant meatball coalition together?), but still can’t wrap my head around the loaf. Go figure.

Another loaf-related issue: I had sporadic Tuna-Cheese-Macaroni-Loaf flashbacks while working on #29. Look at the loaf close-up. Aside from the shade of loaf, that’s really reminiscent of the genetic mutation that is TCML, right?

But all in all the loaf was downright boring. Boo. What gives, Dinner is Served!? Is that all you got? DiS! answered with the bitch slap that is Green Beans in Egg Sauce (Card #91).

With this dish I got 99 problems the beans ain’t one. I love how in the recipe it says to use ‘medium white sauce.’  What in the name of all that is holy is the vaguely named ‘white sauce?’ So I consulted the bible, The Joy of Cooking. And what did St. Irma of Cooking Conundrums tell me? Bitch told me that I have to make a sauce with a roux. Damn you, Irma! Why isn’t there a short cut that doesn’t involve my carpal-tunnel ravaged hands whisking again and again and again and again and again? Sauces and gravies. Gravies and Sauces: the bane of my Dinner is Served!-related existence. Oh, I shouldn’t get all confrontational with Dinner is Served! (and poor St. Irma) but I’m in the middle of a 4 hour programming block of RuPaul’s Drag Race, and I think that all that attitude and cattiness and fabulosity transmitted over the airwaves is being cabled straight into my sequin-addled mind.

Back to the sauce! I initially had success. I had what resembled a solid Bernaise going on. And then I added the extra egg yolks. The result was a jaundiced custardy mess that glommed onto the whisk like a wad of chewing gum on a fork. There was not a damn thing saucy about my egg sauce. It was as rubbery as Alexis Mateo’s fake ta-tas. So I put the blob of ‘egg sauce’ into a baking pan, shoved the green beans into it, and baked it alongside the loaf. The results were not attractive. My Green Beans in Egg Sauce didn’t look remotely like the photo on #29. It tasted weird, too. Those fresh green beans were meant to be served simply, with salt, pepper, and olive oil or butter. The ‘custard’, consistency aside, tasted alright, but not with beans! This pairing was not meant to be (much like Alexis’ boobies).

Here is the sauce breakdown:

Smooth! Good!
Phlegm glob! Bad!
Beans shoved into custard! Compromise!
RuPaul! Fierce!

Speaking of berries, this brings me to Cold Fruit Soup. Yeah, weird, right? This is a soup that is a dessert. A dessert that is a soup. And a little bit of a gazpacho. The damn dish has an identity crisis. Needless to say, there was no way in hell the Safeway was going to have rhubarb in stock so what I did was boil unfiltered, organic apple juice with assorted frozen berries.

Ectoplasm, now in mixed berry!

I did the corn starch mixture, etc. etc. etc. and stirred and stirred and stirred. The soup/dessert (Doup? Soussert?) did thicken up in the refrigerator, but the result was kinda like not fully set Jell-O that tasted like an organic fruit juice smoothy thing. It seemed pointless. Either be juice or be Jell-O. Pick one, bitch! You can’t be both! Well, unless you’re a drag queen, I guess.

Oh, I also made a salad and baked some potato slices per #29’s instructions.

Anyway, to the left is the completed meal.  I still don’t like meat loaf. It’s a bland block of meat. At least Cleve ate the leftovers for lunch a few times. The loaf was best crumbled in a pasta bake because I was able to douse it with Italian spices. So for me, as a whole, this meal was a fail. If for no other reason just because it bored me. Everything was half-assed, like a sad lame cocktail dress on which all the hems are unfinished. And yeah, I’m looking at you Shangela. Halleloo!

Oh, and one last thing: I wanna lip sync for my life to this shit. But in the end, #29 Meat Loaf: sashay away.

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6 thoughts on “29. Meat Loaf

  1. I do like meatloaf on occasion and my husband absolutely loves it. I don’t put celery in mine and I use mustard in the mix instead of ketchup. I also use season salt (sometimes Cajun season salt), extra garlic, soy sauce, way more than a dash of Worcestershire, and lots of onion (sometimes dehydrated onion if I don’t feel like chopping). I make a sauce of ketchup and brown sugar to bake on top of it. If you hate loaves, I have put it into burger form and cooked it in an electric skillet. It is much faster. Leftovers are also great on a sandwich with some mayo! My mom always made it growing up. Her recipe came from the 70’s Betty Crocker Cookbook which is the basis for how I make mine as well.

  2. Travelling back from the future to comment on the meatloaf debate. I’m British, so I have no nostalgia for meatloaf – I love it because it’s basically, like you said, a huge meatball. It helps that I make it Jamie Oliver style, patted into a sort of Rugby-ball shape and cooked in a roasting pans, not in a loaf tin – so it cuts into round slices (round things are tastier) which are browned on all sides, and the grease runs off. I cooked it in a loaf tin once and nearly passed out because of the GREASE. I also put in garlic and various herbs and spices so it’s not bland. I do it with Yorkshire puddings and gravy :-).

  3. meatloaf is definitely generational…perhaps it will make a comeback in another generation or two. you reminded me of how much i enjoy rupaul. i hope ‘drag race’ is on demand!

  4. I don’t understand the appeal of the loaf of meat either but I think it’s possibly a nostalgia thing. The 70s involved a lot of ground meat and this meal may bring back sweet memories of childhood dinners, served around an actual table, with both parents and siblings present. No rushing to soccer or band practice. No meetings to attend or X box games to be played. Just family dinner, always served at 6pm back in the day. My mom did the meatloaf and brown gravy deal but always, always had her fabulous mashed potatoes on the side. I have to say, this was my favorite DiS so far even if it was a fail. Love the attitude:)

  5. i was never a fan of loafed meat. I would eat it when my mom made it, but if i saw it being prepared – the mixing in of the egges – i would throw up in my mouth. meatBALLS were ok though. go figure.

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