Is there anything as classic as homemade meatloaf? I guess that depends on your upbringing, but for me, meatloaf is it. My mom would always make it when she was never sure what to do for dinner, and why not? It’s astonishingly easy as long as you have the right kind of meat and a thermometer.

I’ve been experimenting with tweaking classic recipes lately, including home made macaroni and cheese (which I adore) and now meatloaf. I do not often use my oven to make many dinner items, avoiding things like casseroles and roasts. Instead I rely on the stove top. Both of these recipes use the oven, and I’ve forgotten how easy it is to throw something in there and pull out dinner an hour later.

This recipe originally came from Mike’s mom, and I only changed the kinds of meat to go in and added some spices.

Curry-Spiced Meatloaf

• 0.680 kg (1.5lbs) of a mix of beef, veal and pork. I used striploin, pork shoulder and veal leg cutlets, since that is all Superstore had. And it still turned out well! Typically the cuts should be a bit fatty so the loaf remains moist.
• 2 eggs
• 1 onion, chopped finely
• 1 cup grated cheese, preferably old
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1/3 teaspoon black pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• 1 teaspoon fresh garam masala (I use this in everything now, even on popcorn)
• 1/2 cup raw carrots, grated
• 3 slices fresh bread crumbs
• 2/3 cup milk

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Grind the meat, or combined pre-ground meat in a bowl with all other ingredients. Pack firmly into a loaf pan (I used the wonder pan, and it was fabulous) and top with a mixture of:

1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tablespoon prepared mustard

Bake for 60 minutes, up to 90. Cooking time will vary depending on the pan you use, so it is important to use a thermometer – it is much easier. Pull it out of the oven when the meat is well done, or at 160°F. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes.

When my grandmother died just over a year ago, I received two wonderful things from her: a vacuum and a meat grinder. This meat grinder is probably from the early 1970s, and it works amazingly well. I hope it would warm her heart to know I was using it.

Alternate the cubes of meat going in, so you get a good mixture. Everything becomes gloppy and messy later on.

I used Edmond Fallot dijon mustard and this Old Fashioned Ketchup on the top. The ketchup was from Strathcona Country Kitchen, purchased at the City Centre Farmer’s Market. Not too sweet and kind of tangy.

Done!

note: this originally appeared on my personal blog on may 10 2009.

Mike’s sister Kim has been away for nearly a year, WWOOFing (Willing Workers on Organic Farms; you work on a farm, in return for room and board) in Hawaii, New Zealand and Australia. Shortly before she left, she made the plunge and took on the vegan lifestyle. To welcome her home, Mike made a huge vegan spread, and I made a vegan cake.

Predictably, there were a lot of lentils. Lots. The dishes were mostly Indian, except for two lentil dishes which were Ethiopian. Dishes included brown mustard seed cauliflower, okra curry, kik alicha and a variation on misir wot. To accompany, fresh roti.

Okra is SO delicious! We used fresh, but if you find it hard to get, frozen is okay.

Mmmm, fresh roti.

I bought some rhubarb stalks last week, maybe thinking I would make rhubarb strawberry muffins. Instead, I used the stalks in a vegan rhubarb coffee cake. It was my first time baking anything vegan, and I can say a few things put me off, as they weren’t my normal mode of baking. Vegan baking obviously doesn’t allow use of animal fats, so butter, milk and eggs are out. Instead, recipes tend to use things like applesauce and oil in place of animal fats. Pouring a whole cup of oil into the cake batter kind of turned my stomach, even though it’s really no different than butter.

The cake took a LONG time to bake. The recipe said an hour, but I think my choice of pan made leaving the cake in for nearly two hours necessary. When I popped it out of the pan, it looked…gelatinous and underdone. The middle started to collapse (again, possibly from pan choice or from all my cake testing during the baking) and it turned out to be more of a rhubarb crumble instead of cake.

I used safflower oil, so the oil choice was a bit healthier than a regular canola oil. The addition of flax seeds helped add texture and nutrition. The cake was pretty delicious, and far exceeded my expectations.

Very rhubarb-y filling!

Upside down view shows kind of a weird bottom, which was very moist and almost gelatinous. Baking it in a different pan would have helped avoid that, I think.

Vegan Rhubarb Crumble / Coffeecake

Adapted from KimmyKokonut.

Crumb topping

• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cardamom
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon safflower (or canola) oil

Cake ingredients

• 1 tablespoon flax seeds, ground
• 3 tablespoon water

• 3 tablespoons applesauce (I bought a jar of organic baby food applesauce since I needed so little)
• 2 cups granulated sugar
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 cup safflower (or canola) oil
• 4 cups rhubarb stems, medium dice
• 2 1/2 cups flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp cardamom

Method

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F and get out your 9×13″ pan or 2 loaf pans.
2. Grind flax seeds, and whisk with water and set aside.
3. Make crumb topping: Mix flour, sugar and spices in a small bowl and mix together (whisk, fork, fingers) while drizzling oil in. Once it becomes crumb-y, set it aside. You may need to add more/less oil.
4. In a medium bowl, mix together applesauce, sugar, molasses, oil and flax & water mix.
5. In a separate, larger, bowl, mix together flour, salt, baking soda, baking powder, cinnamon and cardamom.
6. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ones and mix until JUST combined.
7. Fold in rhubarb and pour into pan(s). Top with crumbs.
8. Bake for one hour or until a knife inserted comes out clean. (I had to bake mine for nearly 2 hours)
9. Cool on a wire rack. This would be great with soy ice cream.