Cracker Barrel Copycat Meatloaf

My mother, like me, was in a meal rut. You could count on her to make the same meals within a 2-3 week period. Some of her favorites, or mine, were her scalloped potatoes with ham and goulash. Some side dishes, which I didn’t like, were rice in cold milk smothered in cinnamon and sugar and peas and carrots 🤢. I remember sitting at the dinner table in the dark after everyone else had left trying to eat peas and carrots. After a while, I’d be really quiet and sneak over to the sink and gently put them into the garbage disposal. They never said they caught on.

My mother wasn’t that big on cooking. It was just enough to get something on the table after a day of being a kindergarten teacher. Now my Dad loved to cook, but he didn’t do much of it until us kids flew the coop. I think Mom told me his “what do you want to be when you grow up” answer was to be a chef. But life happened and he ended up in the Korean War learning how to be an electrician and that’s what he ended up doing for Ohio Bell Telephone Company. He was a big shot in Boy Scouts and got to cook for the boys on camping trips. Otherwise, after he retired, like moi, he experimented with recipes. One of dad’s favorites was trying to copycat Cracker Barrel’s meatloaf. Which I also like to make. If you do try it, let me know if you like it. Serves 9 Total Time: 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Ingredients:

2 eggs
2/3 cup milk
32 ritz crackers, crushed
1/2 cup onion, chopped finely
1/4 cup celery, chopped finely
1/4 cup bell pepper, chopped finely
1 1/2 lbs ground beef
4 oz cheddar cheese, shredded
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/2 cup ketchup
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon yellow mustard

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350F

In a medium size bowl beat the eggs with the milk and add in the crushed crackers, mix well. Add in the vegetables, ground beef, cheese, salt and pepper, combine then shape and put in an ungreased loaf pan.

Bake for 30 minutes. While baking combine the ketchup, brown sugar and mustard in a small bowl. After the 30 minutes is over remove the meatloaf from oven and spoon on half of the ketchup mixture, bake 10 minutes. Remove again and spoon on the remaining ketchup mixture and bake for 5 minutes. Serve. Yum Yum!