Comfort food – stuffed meatloaf and egg nog bread pudding

My mom grew up in the midwest and she loves midwest comfort food – meatloaf, mashed potatoes, corn, salad and bread pudding. So, last night she made meatloaf and bread pudding. Busaba, Bev and Ian supplied the potatoes, salad and bbq’d corn.

But, unlike some of the food in the midwest and especially traditional midwest meatloaf made with ketchup (gross!), mom’s meatloaf and bread pudding are excellent.

Janet’s meatloaf recipe starts with a standard lean ground beef and ground pork mix. She does 50-50 pork to beef, and last night it was 6 lbs of meat total. I should note that this recipe makes 2, 3 lb loaves, so it feeds a lot of people. To the meat she adds 2 diced and browned onions, 1/2 head of sauteed minced garlic, 1/2 cup of bread crumbs she makes herself, oregano, salt, pepper, and 4 eggs. For the stuffing, it’s 1/2 lb. of shredded mozzarella, thin slices of good deli ham, and lots of blanched spinach. She rolls the meat around the filling and shapes the loaves. On top, she puts 1/2 strips of thick cut bacon and cherry tomatoes cut in half. Then, she bakes the loaves at 350 degrees F for about an hour, and then broils the top to brown it at the finish.

Here’s a closer look at some slices:

It’s absolutely stunning, isn’t it?  And, I can’t believe I just called meatloaf stunning.  At any rate, it was delicious.  Mario Batali, eat your heart out!

Even though we were all stuffed, we had to eat Janet’s famous bread pudding. Whenever she makes this, people ask for the recipe. It’s so utterly simple, yet it pleases every time.  She calls it her Egg Nog Bread Pudding.

Here is her recipe (yield: 9 small pieces, from an 8×8 pan):

3 eggs
3 egg yolks
3/4 c. white sugar
2 c. half and half
1/4-1/2 cup light rum (amount depending upon your taste)
1 tsp vanilla
nutmeg to your taste
1 loaf good crusty bread

Beat eggs and egg yolks. Add in cream and then beat in sugar a bit. Add rum, vanilla and nutmeg. Mix all together, then, cut the bread into 1 inch squares and soak in the egg-cream mixture for 1/2 hour to an hour. Bake at 350 until done, which was about 35-40 minutes last night, plus a quick broil to brown the top at the end.

She always pairs it with a good vanilla bean ice cream, although last night we forgot the vanilla at our place, so we used Busaba’s haupia. It was still delicious!