Meatloaf and "Pleasantville"

Meatloaf gets a bad reputation if you ask me and I’m not sure why. It’s one of those down home comfort foods that I love to have after a really bad day or as weekend family meal. I have a simple glaze recipe that will take any meatloaf to the next level. A serving of garlic mashed potatoes on the side and you’ve got one hearty and tasty dinner. Here’s what you’ll need to serve about 6 people:

For the Meat Loaf

2lbs of Ground Meat (I use ground Chuck)

½ cup of Seasoned Panko Bread crumbs

2 large eggs

¼ cup of half and half

2 tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce

1 medium onion

1 clove of garlic

2 teaspoons of Kosher Salt

1 teaspoons of fresh black pepper

1 teaspoon of fresh chopped Rosemary

¼ cup of freshly chopped parsley

¼ cup of ketchup

For the Glaze

1 tablespoon of butter

1 medium sized Shallot

1 ½ cups of Ketchup

¾ cups apple cider vinegar

¾ cups of brown sugar (light or dark)

Canned Chipotle pepper (optional)

Mashed Potatoes

4-6 large Red Potatoes

2 cloves of garlic

6 tablespoons of butter

½ cup of heavy cream

Fresh Parsley

A friend of mine turned me onto the idea of making a glaze for my meatloaf rather than just using ketchup like my family and I have done in the past. He said just mix some brown sugar and apple cider vinegar into the ketchup and it’ll make a fantastic glaze for your meatloaf– boy was he right! I made a few of my own touches to his recipe and I’m pretty sure you could spread this stuff on cardboard and it would taste good. I start by sautéing one diced shallot in a tablespoon of butter in a small saucepan for a few minutes on a fairly low heat. Once my shallot is cooked, I add a ¾ of cup of apple cider vinegar, ¾ cup of brown sugar, and 1½ cups of ketchup. Stir that all together and bring to a simmer. You can stop here and have an awesome sauce to go with your meatloaf but I love the combination of sweet and spicy flavors so I add a little canned chipotle to the glaze. Chipotle peppers are something I always keep on hand. They have a great smoky and spicy flavor to them. Add as much or as little as you want here, I add very little at first and then give it a taste. I don’t want the chipotle flavor to take over the glaze, just enough to give it that tiny kick. Remove from the heat and set the glaze aside for now.

The Meatloaf itself couldn’t be easier. With meatloaf you can really use any kind of ground meat that you like. For the most part I usually just used ground chuck but you can use a mixture of ground chuck with ground pork and/or ground veal as well. Start off by sautéing the onion in a little bit of olive oil over medium heat. Cook the onion just until it’s starting to turn golden brown. Add the garlic and stir constantly for one minute – garlic burns really quickly! Once the minute is up, stir in the salt and pepper, remove from the heat, and set aside to cool. In small bowl, whisk together two eggs with the half and half and the Worcestershire sauce. Gently mix together the onions, egg mixture, ground meat, ¼ cup of the glaze, and ¼ of ketchup, the fresh herbs, and bread crumbs together. Careful not to mash up the meat too much or else we’ll have a dense meatloaf – we just want everything to be combined. Form your meatloaf with your hands on a large baking sheet covered in parchment paper. Brush a little bit of the glaze on top of the meatloaf and bake in the oven for about 45 minutes to an hour depending on the size or until the inside temperature is 160 degrees.

For my mashed potatoes I like to use red potatoes because you don’t have to peel them. Just give them a good rinse and cut any rough spots out. Dice the potatoes into same size pieces so they cook evenly and crush the two cloves of garlic. Boil both the potatoes and the garlic with some kosher salt in a pot filled with water until the potatoes are tender when you pierce them with a fork. Drain the potatoes, add the butter and heavy cream, whip together, and season to taste with salt and pepper and fresh chopped parsley. Plate your meatloaf with a drizzle of glaze on top next to a nice helping of mashed potatoes and dinner is served.

Now that dinner is set, time to kick back and watch a great movie to go with it. How many of us have watched the classic TV sitcoms from the 50’s and early 60’s like I love Lucy or Leave it to Beaver and thought about, “how great would it have been to live in a world like that”? In the 1998 film Pleasantville, Tobey Maguire plays a young teenager named David who wants noting more than to live in the seemingly perfect world of his favorite television show Pleasantville. One night while David and his sister Jennifer, played by Reese Witherspoon, are arguing over who gets to watch TV - they accidentally break the remote. Seconds later, a strange TV repair man appears at their door step. After learning of David’s love and knowledge of the Pleasantville show, he gives him a special remote control which he claims makes him feel like he’s in the show. Still at a disagreement over who gets to use the remote, David and Jennifer soon find themselves transported from their living room into the roles Pleasantville's Bud and Mary Sue Parker.

Trapped inside a black and white 1950’s world, David and Jennifer have to find a way to get home without disturbing the perfect world around them. It’s not as simple as it seems, especially with Jennifer not sharing David’s respect for the simple black and white world. Influences from the modern day world take their toll on the town and strange events keep occurring that none of Pleasantville's residents have ever seen. While some citizens of Pleasantville embrace the changes brought upon them, others will do anything and everything to cling to the simplicity that they've always known. William H. Macy, Jeff Daniels, and Joan Allen co-star in this creative script that shows us that not everything is as perfect as it seems. If you haven’t seen this movie I think you’ll really enjoy it! Let me know what you guys think of the Meatloaf and Pleasantville!

Check out the trailer for "Pleasantivlle"