Those Meatloaf Moments

Some people start sweaters; I start stories, so here's a yarn for you...

It all began with a super sale at Macey's. (For all of you non-Utahans, this is a grocery store, not the department store). The sale on ground beef that week was so super that it was already cleared out when I got there. Luckily, they were busy packing up more in the back for the gathering crowd. When the butcher wheeled out his silver cart, I grabbed 3 family-size packs and zoomed my car cart with the kids outta there!

This was going to be great! I had enough meat on my hands to freeze Ziploc baggies full for future meals, plus make a triple batch of my mama's meatloaf--plenty for us and my friend with a new baby who had just broken her foot.

Now, you've gotta know that my mama's meatloaf isn't your ordinary-Leave-It-To-Beaver-kind of meatloaf. We're talkin' Cheese Ribbon Meatloaf with a special sauce on top.

So, a few days later, the rows of Ziploc baggies were snugly zipped in our chest freezer, and every bread pan I own came out of the oven. This was going to be the biggest Sunday meal on a weeknight we'd ever had!

Then, I took a bite.

Two words barked at me loud and clear: wet dog.

While I sat in utter disgust and disbelief, Myles, the man of solutions, brought in a different loaf for us to sample. It couldn't ALL be bad, right?

Well, we never found out. Before the next loaf even made it to the table, it slipped out of his hands and splattered ALL over the floor! That special red sauce spelled special from the highest cupboard to the lowest floorboard.

Our eyes popped like the meatloaf out of the pan.

And then the giggles came. First, a simmering from the girls, then a bubbling from me, until we boiled over into a roar. We would've fallen off our chairs and rolled on the floor, but we didn't want to get messy.

Before I could take a deep breath and exclaim, "I can't believe this!" I noticed Myles wasn't roaring.

He was Googling: "wet dog ground beef"

Turns out, it's real. Thousands of other people have complained about it. Food scientists have written dissertations about it. From what I can understand, some beef goes through a radiation process in order to kill things like E. coli. The wet dog smell and/or taste does not mean the meat is bad, but can be a side effect of the radiation process. Even though it wasn't going to hurt us, there's no way I could stomach it. I just had to persuade Myles that it was OK to throw it ALL away.

I was sad about the mess, the wasted time, the wasted money, and our lack of future meals, but sure counted my lucky stars that I hadn't shared it with my friend with the new baby and the broken foot yet!

I also smiled to myself, remembering a prequel to this Meatloaf Madness and had to call my mama...