THE Famous Family Meatloaf

For just about forever (or for as long as I can remember) we have used the same meatloaf recipe. It came from my sister's childhood cookbook (and yes, I am the mean little sister who swiped it and kept if for herself ;0) ). It is fantastic and super easy. It even transitioned with us when I started using ground turkey instead of ground beef.

 It is a staple recipe in this house and I just realized after all this time that it was never posted here. If I should ever lose this book, I'd be devastated since it's out of print and my favorite meatloaf recipe would be gone with it. So, without further ado, here it is!

Ingredients

1 egg

1/2 cup tomato sauce (I use ketchup most of the time)

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs or cracker crumbs (I've used both of those, broken up herbed stuffing or even oatmeal in a pinch)

1/4 cup chopped onion (I just chop up half an onion and throw it in there...maybe the whole one if it's small)

2 pounds ground beef (as stated before, I use ground turkey)

2 teaspoons salt (sometimes I use garlic salt)

1/8 teaspoon pepper

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2. Break egg into a bowl, add tomato sauce and beat until fluffy.

3. Add bread crumbs, onion, meat, salt and pepper. Mix well with hands.

4. Place mixture in a lightly greased loaf pan and pat into shape.

5. Bake 1 hour and 15 minutes or until done (sometimes mine doesn't take that long).

Gayle's Fat-in-a-bowl

Okay, I know the name sounds so NOT appealing BUT this is sinfully good. My sister started making this and didn't know exactly was it was called, so she called it so lovingly fat-in-a-bowl because basically that's what it's made of!

Ingredients

2 bricks cream cheese
1 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup raisens

Mix all ingredients together well and chill in refrigerator. Serve cold with buttery crackers like Ritz or Townhouse.

Amber's Italian Gringo Lasagna

This concoction I came up with at the spur of the moment in an effort to use up some of the chili I had made.

Ingredients:

1 batch of Foster's Famous Gringo Chilie
1 package of lasagna
4 cups colby/jack cheese

1. Make your chili and boil the lasagna until al dente.
2. In a 9x13 pan layer as follows: lasagna, chili, cheese. This usually makes 3-4 layers. Do whatever you are happy with and that won't overflow in your oven. This is kind of the dump method, not real rocket science!
3. Top with chili and cheese. You will have a lot of chili left over. Freeze or make freeto pies another day, take your pick!
4. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

If you'd like to change it up a bit you could layer with corn tortillas as well. Haven't tried it yet but am planning on it in the near future.

Foster's Famous Gringo Chili

This is the recipe to my Dad's multi-award winning chili. Make it as mild or as hot as you like. It's never disappointing!

3 lbs. Ground Beef or Ground Turkey
2 Onions
3 Packets of McCormick Chili Seasoning (pick your level of warmth)
1 cup Water
1 pint Salsa
3 cans Stewed Tomatos (chopped or sliced)
3 cans Dark Kidney Beans

1. In a stock pot on high heat. Brown ground beef and onions together. Add any additional seasonings you might like for your meat.
2. Add chili seasoning and water. Cook for 5 minutes.
3. Add salsa. Cook for 5 minutes.
4. Add tomatos. Cook for 5 minutes.
5. Add kidney beans. Bring to a boil then turn off heat and let sit until ready to serve.

Key to this recipe is to make sure chili does not scorch. If it does, it more than likely cannot be salvaged.