Meat Loaf with Sweet and Sour Sauce

Meat loaf is often a forgotten and ignored main dish because far too often there is so much filler added to the meat that it loses it's meaty texture. Not so with this favorite recipe from Marcia Adams' book, New Recipes from Quilt Country. The meat is firm textured and topped with a wonderful, mild, sweet and sour sauce. This recipe uses two pounds of meat for six people, which is a lot of meat, so I cut the recipe in half and we still have three meals from the loaf. Blessings...

Recipe:

Sauce:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 tsp. prepared mustard
2 tbsp. cider vinegar
1/2 tsp. grated or ground nutmeg

Meat Loaf:
2 eggs
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup minced fresh parsley
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. black pepper
1 cup cracker crumbs (I use dry bread crumbs)
2 pounds lean ground beef

1. In a small bowl, combine all of the sauce ingredients and mix thoroughly; set aside. There will be 3/4 cup sauce.
2. Beat the eggs slightly in a large bowl. Add half the sauce, the onion, parsley, salt, pepper and crumbs. Crumble in the meat and mix lightly with your hands.
3. Pat the mixture into a loaf shape in a 9 x 13-inch baking dish. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes, then pour the remaining sauce over the top of the loaf and bake the loaf 10 minutes longer.
4. Remove the loaf from the oven and allow to stand for 5 to 10 minutes before slicing.

Yield: 6 servings or more