Joe's famous meatloaf

On the subject of eating, I decided one day to really give my taste buds a special surprise by making my famous meatloaf.  I honestly did come up with the recipe myself as a way to prepare ground venison.

My next door neighbor down in Du Quoin, IL, Jeff, was more of a hunter than a consumer of fine southern Illinois white tail deer.  About two weeks before each deer hunting season, he would come over with a couple of Walmart bags full of last years frozen deer.  There would be tenderloins and steaks, and usually about ten pounds of ground venison.  Venison is a very lean meat that, when prepared properly, has an amazing taste.  The tenderloins and steaks are to die for, but the ground meat is a different story.

The problem is the lack of fat that won't allow ground venison to hold together in the shape of a burger.  It falls apart on the grill unless you mix it with a more fatty meat like pork.

So, here I am with ten pounds of ground venison, trying to come up with an idea to use it.  I don't want any of you to think that I am some kind of culinary genius, but I am going to lay on you the second of the only two recipes that I ever came up with.  The first being my breakfast bowl.

The beauty of it is that you can use a lean ground beef in place of the venison, which is what I did a couple weeks ago to satisfy my craving for something I could actually taste.  Let's get started...

List of ingredients for the meatloaf:

1 lbs. of lean ground beef (or venison, which is even better)

1 lbs. of Jimmy Dean Hot Sausage

1 box of Stove Top "Savory Herb" Stuffing mix

1 egg

1 cup of water

1 medium sized onion, finely chopped

1/2 a bulb of garlic, finely chopped (I like a lot of garlic.  If this is too much for you, use less)

1 pound of bacon

List of ingredients for the garlic/mushroom cream sauce:

The other half bulb of garlic (Again, if this is too much for your taste, use less.)

1 pound of mushrooms, sliced.

1 stick of butter

1 pint of heavy whipping cream

Pre-heat the oven to 375 deg.

Line a 9X9 baking pan with the bacon, with the ends touching down the center of the pan, and the excess hanging outside the pan. 

In a large mixing bowl, combine the ground beef (or venison!), sausage, onions, garlic, stuffing mix, the egg, and the water.  Mix together by hand until thoroughly combined.

Shape the meatloaf into a 9 inch long, 6 inch wide, and 4 inch tall blob of deliciousness.  Put this in the pan on top of the bacon ends.  Criss cross the outer bacon ends over the top of the meatloaf so that the meatloaf is surrounded by bacon.  This will help keep the moisture in, to ensure that the meatloaf stays moist.

Place in the pre-heated oven for about 1 hour and 45 minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 160 deg.

In the last 30 minutes, place a stick of butter, the remaining garlic, the sliced mushrooms, in a large pan.  Cook until the mushrooms are reduced.  Add the heavy whipping cream and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat but keep it boiling - this will allow it to thicken up.  Stir frequently. This usually takes about 25 minutes.

Remove the meatloaf and slice.  Smother with the garlic mushroom sauce and enjoy.  It is a flavor explosion, especially for someone that hasn't tasted anything for a while.  

Two quick notes; (1) the garlic mushroom sauce is great on anything. Give it a try.  (2) If any of my Northwoods friends have a freezer full of frozen venison that they want to get rid of, send it my way.  I'm more of an eater than a hunter.

Tasting is about back to normal.  Chewing is adequate, with the right side doing all of the work.  Swallowing, is a different story.  Along with the loss of my voice about three weeks ago, the dry mouth/throat is now effecting my swallowing.  I can chew it up as fine as possible and swallow, but it gets stuck in my throat just below my trachea.  At least this is good in that I can still breath.

I try and try and try to get it to go down, but it is stuck.  The only remedy is to wash it down with water.

I go through 24 - 36 ounces of water in every meal.  Water is good for the kidneys, and Lord knows my kidneys can use all the help they can get with all of the meds I'm on.  The down side - I am having to get up three or four times a night to relive myself.  So much for sleeping through the night.

I'm slowly finding my new normal.  If I can get past all of the side effects, I think it will be smooth sailing.