A Christmas Story: Meatloaf Smeatloaf, Double Beatloaf
Winter nights are long and cold for some. But that just makes them perfect for family dining on delicious, homemade comfort foods.
When you think back to your childhood, what were your favorite comfort foods that were served up on some of the coldest nights in winter? Many adults remember their mothers preparing meals like chicken pot pie, broiled pork chops, and meatloaf — all popular comfort foods even today.
Special Holiday Meals
No one can forget the holiday meals from their childhood. On Thanksgiving, tables groaned under the weight of heavy platters of roasted turkey, dressing, green bean casseroles, and mashed potatoes with thick, brown gravy.
For Christmas, Mom typically prepared a ham studded with cloves and topped with sweet pineapple rounds out of a can. The juice from the pineapple formed a sweet glaze in a perfect complement to the ham.
Busy Times Mean Cutting Corners
In today’s hectic world, both moms and dads typically have to work, meaning there is less time to prepare a homemade meal from scratch at the end of the day. Too often, families rely on nutritionally-scarce fast food or processed foods for their suppers because no one has the time for slow-cooked, homemade meals.
Busy Times Mean: Enjoy Slow-Cooked Meals
One of my favorite places in Michigan is Zorba’s. At Zorba’s Family Dining, slow-cooked, homemade comfort foods never went out of style. Since 1974, their family has spent countless hours in the kitchen chopping, dicing, tenderizing, and slow-cooking our delicious comfort foods for your family dining enjoyment.
Succulent meats and vegetables and fruits harvested right at the peak of their ripeness are the ingredients we rely on to prepare delicious, homestyle comfort foods that we are proud to serve your family.
With them in mind, this is my new reason for the season. I plan to cook savory, home-cooked meals all winter long.
A Christmas Story
There are quite a few jokes that come up in my kitchen this time of year. One that never fails to get a chuckle is when I or another family member recites that famous quote from A Christmas Story, “Meatloaf, smeatloaf, double beatloaf,” as s carefully mix together the ingredients for yet another family dinner. My kids love to tease me with it! That’s why I am determined to come up with new recipes for the kitchen this December.
Still, just as it was “the Old Man’s favorite,” in the movie, so it is this patriarch’s favorite. I never get tired of a plate of homemade meatloaf with a serving of mashed potatoes swimming in beef gravy.
