Is meatloaf a weeknight or budget meal? Do you serve it when company’s coming? Our ‘Company’s Coming Meatloaf’ is easy enough to make during the week and special enough for a nice meal too. I happen to think that guests are pleasantly surprised to be served a beloved dessert like ice cream sundaes or a comfort food such as spaghetti, macaroni and cheese or… meatloaf. Dinner guests are expecting a fancy meal and instead you serve them the unexpected! Company’s Coming Meatloaf is a meat and potato lovers dream, it looks pretty and tastes amazing! Here’s how you make Company’s Coming Meatloaf:
Company’s Coming Meatloaf
This deeply savory meatloaf frosted with mashed potatoes and melted with sharp cheddar is easy for everyday meals, pretty enough for guests!
- 1 1/2 Pounds Lean Ground Beef (80% lean)
- 1 Cup Sweet Onion (Finely Diced)
- 1 Cup Celery (Finely Diced)
- 1 Cup Mushrooms (Diced (plus more for topping))
- 1 1/2 Cup Bread Crumbs (Crushed Garlic Bread crumbs if available )
- 2 Large Eggs (Lightly whisked)
- 1/4 Cup Ketchup
- 1/2 Teaspoon Ground Thyme
- 1/4 Teaspoon Ground Sage
- Salt and Pepper
- 4 Cups Mashed Potatoes (Thick in texture)
- 2 Cups Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Finely grated)
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Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Line baking pan with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, place lean ground beef and the next 8 ingredients. Add salt and pepper, then combine, mixing llightly. Shape into a 2 inch thick rectangular shape on baking pan. Cover meatloaf with bacon slices. Bake at 375 degrees for up to 1 1/2 hours – checking after 1 hour, then fifteen minutes until bacon is done. Remove from oven to rest, scraping up meat juices from baking sheet. When meatloaf has cooled, Frost with mashed potatoes and top with finely grated sharp cheddar cheese. Run back in 375 degree oven until potatoes are heated through and cheese has melted. (Potatoes May spread, when done – simply allow to cool a bit and smooth into a pleasing shape. Decorate with reserved and sliced mushrooms – and either parsley or fresh sage leaves if available. When meatloaf has cooled down, with a long spatula you may remove to a serving platter with a long meat spatula or…decorate the rest of the baking sheet with garnishes.
Make mashed potatoes as you normally would- making sure they are firm. Also, a great use for leftover mashed potatoes. It is desirable to add garlic powder to mashed potatoes. This meatloaf doesn’t require sautéing onions, celery and mushrooms since they are diced finely. If you use a baking pan that is of a smaller size such as a jelly roll pan- it will serve beautifully. Surround with a cooked green vegetable Great meatloaf for the meat and potatoes crowd!
I believe wrapping the ground beef mixture with bacon before baking the meatloaf, adds moisture and flavor that elevates weekday meatloaf whenever you serve it! Forming the meatloaf on parchment rather than baking in a loaf pan allows any excess beef or bacon fat to dissipate. Allow Company’s Coming Meatloaf to rest for 8-10 minutes before frosting with mashed potatoes so that any juices will be reabsorbed into the meatloaf. Top with shredded cheddar cheese and run back in the warm oven to melt– then add sautéed mushrooms if desired for decoration. 
Alongside a simply dressed green salad and a good yeast bread, corn muffins or even biscuits, Company’s Coming Meatloaf is a welcome sight here at the Cottage any time! I hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!
Love y’all,
Camellia * All photographs are obviously mine.
My grandmother loved apricots- fresh, canned or dried. Mimi made an apricot casserole that wasn’t really a dessert, it wasn’t a savory casserole. What it was – is still one of my favorites! For years, I didn’t make it- couldn’t find a recipe, for sure not Mimi’s Apricot Casserole. In my collection of old cookbooks, perusing one day, I ran up on an Apricot Casserole! I knew the recipe was close to Mimi’s , yet I had watched her make it – so I knew the recipe I had found could be tweaked and what do you know? First time out? The flavors of Mimi’s classic Apricot Casserole filled me with such wonderful memories! And really, isn’t that why we all come to the table?
With all of the beautiful cakes, the decadent chocolates and luscious pies, it seems to me that Bread Pudding deserves a place on the dessert table, especially at Easter. Many holy days serve symbolic food and Bread Pudding seems to be a teachable opportunity. It’s ‘the Bread of Life broken for you…’ It’s a rustic dessert- reminding me of that oft sung hymn ‘The Old Rugged Cross’ … Bread Pudding is a dessert made by hand with love, served humbly and simply among friends and family, even stretched to feed a crowd.
The Pudding and Sauce are enriched and softly scented- a very comforting combination. Wrapped in orange zest, cinnamon, vanilla and freshly grated nutmeg, the classic Bread Pudding is then dusted with unrefined cane sugar. Who would disagree that plain old broken bread is elevated to an entirely new life, beautifully sweet and dear. Just in time for Easter with its gloriously easy Southern Creme Anglaise… Here’s how you make – Classic Bread Pudding with extra easy Southern Creme Anglaise!
Also, you may choose to omit the Bourbon and use pure Vanilla Extract ( one of the notes in bourbon), if you do, add Rum or Almond flavoring, adjusting the quantity to taste. The ‘sauce’ is wonderful on its own as well, if high quality ice cream is used. The Orange Zest adds a crisp citrus note for Spring; and it’s worth noting that spices played a role in the Easter Story as well. This classic bread pudding has an abundance of eggs which are also plentiful now. Eggs are symbolic in holy celebrations. And, I omitted the butter except for buttering the baking dish, if you prefer- melt a few tablespoons and pour over the pudding right before baking. If you don’t have access to raw cane sugar, use sanding sugar, you’ll definitely want the glisten when you pull the puffed and golden Classic Bread Pudding from the oven! Here’s wishing you a beautiful meaning filled Easter!
Mimi never knew her pimento cheese won an award, it would have thrilled her, yet I don’t think she’d have been too surprised. Anyone who ever tasted one of her Tea Sandwiches would have agreed. Her recipe for Pimento Cheese was highly prized. Mimi kept a bowl of pimento cheese made up most of the time. My job was to grate the sharp cheddar cheese, in a little cheese grater with a handle which I turned in amazement. It’s still one of my favorite kitchen tools.
The grated cheese was as fine as angel hair- Mimi’s Pimento Cheese was devilishly spiced, I’m not sure she ever wrote down the recipe but I can still see her now, conjuring up a mixture that’s pure Southern Soul in a bowl. It’s only sharp cheddar cheese, a jar of pimentos and mayonnaise- the spices make Mimi’s Pimento Cheese memorable. Cayenne, Red Pepper Flakes and what we call Pepper Sauce, the brine from a jar of hot peppers that we use to spice things up and even pour over turnip greens or blackeyed peas. Pepper Sauce is one of those secret ingredients that even now, mostly only real southerners know. Go to a local meat and three in small towns across the South and you’ll see a small bottle of pickled hot peppers with a hole in the top of the bottle- a shaker if you will. The bottle’s not there for anyone to actually eat the peppers- no, it’s for the brine, the ‘sauce’ . Pit masters add pepper sauce to their barbecue sauces, old wisened cooks hardly even think about adding pepper sauce to their cooking. Pepper Sauce isn’t the same as ‘hot sauce’ that fiery red hot sauce shaken over… well, lots of things. Mimi added several drops of hot sauce to her Egg Salad but never in her Award Winning Pimento Cheese! So! Here’s how you make it! 
Now- this is important- don’t buy diced pimentos, buy pimentos. And don’t get fancy and add roasted red pepper. Okay, not if you want the Award Winning taste. You may add an extra small jar if you like, though one will do. Just partially drain the jar of pimentos, leave them in the jar, fill up the jar with the pepper sauce, add the cayenne pepper- screw the lid of the jar back on the pimentos and gently shake before adding to the grated cheese and mayonnaise.
Tomato Soup is iconic, especially when it’s homemade and if you use fresh tomatoes or … like I did last summer, I halved small Roma Tomatoes, then just a quick freeze in a single layer on a sheet pan, bagged and kept them in the freezer, for such a time as this! Camellia’s Tomato Soup is almost as easy as opening a can and my oh my! Far more delicious! Served simply with a grating of Parmesan Cheese or any Cheese you please served with crisp oyster crackers or the equally iconic Grilled Cheese, you have an easy delicious meal!
Soups are wonderful in the Fall and Winter, even Spring is a wonderful time of year to make Camellia’s Tomato Soup. It’s an easy full flavored soup too. Let’s face it, who wants to spend hours in the kitchen, any time of year. Still. You can’t beat warm spicy tomato soup for colds and seasonal allergies. Here’s how you make- Camellia’s Tomato Soup!
Camellia's Cottage 