Do You Bake? - YYC: September 2015

Last night I made a meatloaf that tasted like it came from the gods themselves. I'm not a big fan of meatloaf, if I wanted to slather ketchup on some ground beef I would get a bunless burger. I just never really understood the appeal. That changed last night. I had our Make It and Go Meatloaf kicking around and decided I would make it for supper. It's a crockpot mix but is easily converted for the oven. I decided I would mix the meat, mix, eggs as per directions on the box. Tried to google a sauce recipe that did not use ketchup. Found a post on chowhound where someone commented that their mom would stuff meatloaf with cheddar and top with bacon. Making it like a giant bunless bacon cheeseburger. I figured that was a better idea than ketchup so I set out to do so. I then decided it needed sautéed onions and mushrooms. Because hello, what's a bacon cheeseburger without mushrooms and onions?

While making the onions the thought occurred to me that I had not made beer caramelized onions (recipe is my general guide, I rarely measure I just toss and splash and taste haha) in practically forever and I assumed the sweetness of beer caramelized onions would compliment the bacon perfectly. I was right. The mushrooms I beefed up with a tsp of the beefy brown gravy mix I had customized and a splash of water once they were nearly done. I then layered the whole thing, meat, onions, meat, mushrooms and shredded cheddar, meat, bacon weave and cooked in a 350 oven for about an hour until meat thermometer gave me the ok to eat ;)