{"id":106458,"date":"2020-10-22T13:00:04","date_gmt":"2020-10-22T17:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/valorguardians.com\/blog\/?p=106458"},"modified":"2020-10-22T11:18:43","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T15:18:43","slug":"thursdays-are-for-cooking-101","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/?p=106458","title":{"rendered":"Thursdays Are For Cooking"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"how<\/p>\n

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Well, it is Autumn and Winter does not fall far behind. For those who think they should not go to Cracker Barrel for a bit of good ol’ down-home cooking, I’ve got news for you: you can make your own Cracker Barrel stuff at home.<\/p>\n

In this case, it’s the copycat version of Cracker Barrel’s meatloaf, which is really rather good. I prefer my grandma’s stuffed meatloaf, but that’s because in the winter, after running around outside in the snow and making three snowmen in the yard, something like that with mashed potatoes and veggies on the side, with a tossed salad and a good dessert was all you needed to feel full. The stuffing, like you’d use with a turkey at Thanksgiving, was always good, because it was filling.<\/p>\n

So here is Cracker Barrel’s classic down-home recipe for meatloaf.<\/p>\n

It comes from Mashed.com:\u00a0 https:\/\/www.mashed.com\/185776\/the-best-cracker-barrel-meatloaf-copycat-recipe\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Cracker Barrel meatloaf copycat recipe directions<\/p>\n

Prep Time: 15 minutes<\/p>\n

Cook Time: 1 hour<\/p>\n

Servings: 8<\/p>\n

Ingredients:<\/strong><\/p>\n

2 lbs of 80\/20 ground beef (or 70\/30 if you can find it)<\/p>\n

1 large yellow onion, finely diced<\/p>\n

1 cup green bell pepper, finely diced<\/p>\n

2 large eggs<\/p>\n

1 teaspoon kosher salt<\/p>\n

1\/2 teaspoon black pepper<\/p>\n

1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained<\/p>\n

1\/2 cup crushed Ritz crackers<\/p>\n

1\/2 cup ketchup<\/p>\n

Directions<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

1 – Preheat the oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil and set aside.<\/p>\n

2 – In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, onion, pepper, eggs, kosher salt, black pepper, drained diced tomatoes, and crushed Ritz crackers.\u00a0 Using your hands or a large wooden spoon, mix the ingredients until they’re well combined but not overmixed.<\/p>\n

3 – Pick up the beef mixture with your hands and form it into a large, tight ball. Transfer the beef ball to the prepared baking sheet. Press down on the top and pinch in the sides to form it into a large loaf. Pat down the top and sides until it’s a uniform shape.<\/p>\n

4 – Bake the meatloaf for 30 minutes. Remove the meatloaf from the oven and spread the ketchup over the top and sides using a pastry brush. Bake for an additional 30 minutes, until the center reaches 165 degrees Fahrenheit.<\/p>\n

5 – Let the meatloaf stand for 10 minutes before slicing.<\/p>\n

A couple of hints here:<\/p>\n

1 – A really good meatloaf is made with a fattier beef at 80% lean\/20% fat, not the lean stuff like 10% fat\/90% lean beef that you can get nowadays. It makes the meatloaf juicier and tastier.<\/p>\n

2 – It’s also a bit juicier if you put a foil tent over the meatloaf after you spread the ketchup (or BBQ sauce) on it. But that’s a personal choice.<\/p>\n

3 – Ritz crackers are more easily crushed than soda crackers\/saltines. Just put them into a plastic bag and run a rolling pin over them until they are small crumbs.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  Well, it is Autumn and Winter does not fall far behind. For those who think … Thursdays Are For Cooking<\/span>Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":653,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[485,11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-106458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cooking","category-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/653"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=106458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106458\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=106458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=106458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=106458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}