Comfort Food - Kind of... (well, maybe if you squint real hard)

Here's the dilemma: a winter storm is on its way here, I am craving good, old, honest-to-goodness comfort food, and most of the food items on that list are off limits to me thanks to my sadist-doctor. So I came up with a compromise. I would make a meatloaf and have corn and a salad as side dishes. Now, if I had my druthers, one of the sides would have been either mashed potatoes or a nice home-made macaroni and cheese dish. But alas; the fates are apparently mad at my general direction, so... on with the veggies.

Here we have the ingredients for the meat loaf. As my husband had taken my car to the dealership today for its regularly scheduled tune-up, I was forced to drive his car (my old car) to the grocery. Remember, there is a major storm heading our way, so everyone and his brother are at this particular grocery store today. And they are all IN MY WAY... Er, anyway... Unfortunately, this grocery store also caters to mainly lower-income families, so higher-end ingredients are scarce.

I have to admit that the recent ground beef recalls concern me and that I have avoided buying ground meat as a result. Thus, in order to appease my worried mind, today I purchased very expensive ground beef and ground lamb. I would have bought ground veal, but this particular store doesn't carry this sort of high-falutin product.

At any rate: the ingredients are, in no particular order: one pound 92% lean ground beef, one pound ground lamb, 2 large eggs, 1 cup bread crumbs, 1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese, 1/2 of a finely grated carrot, 1/2 of a celery rib, minced, 3 tablespoons grated onion, 1 grated garlic clove, 1/2 teaspoon freshly cracked black pepper, 1 teaspoon kosher salt, 1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence, 1/2 cup catsup and 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar.

Please, please, de-bling before plunging very clean hands into the mixture.

Pour some more balsamic vinegar on top of the formed meatloaf before baking.

After about 1 to 1 1/4 hours in a 400 degree oven. I insert a probe thermometer into the thickest part of the food and set the alarm for 160 degrees. Once that temperature is reached, I pull the food out of the oven and cover the meat with aluminum foil and allow to rest for about 10 minutes. As Alton Brown would say, "Your patience will be rewarded."*

*Sorry, Alton. I am not worthy to walk in your shadow.