February. The month I used to find boring. Now it's the month before the month Caleb was born (November) and the month of Valentine's Day and the month that sits in the middle of winter in a place where winter doesn't really exist and everything is slightly confusing.
Valentine's Day was Tuesday. Ryan brought home flowers (red roses, traditional, fine) and a card that said — in his hand, not Hallmark's — 'The meatloaf is love. Always has been. — R'
He remembered. The heart meatloaf. The conversation from last year. 'The ring was panic. The meatloaf is love.' He REMEMBERED.
I made the heart meatloaf. Obviously. Mom's recipe, shaped into a heart, glazed with ketchup and brown sugar. Caleb ate a small piece and smeared it on his face. Ryan ate two slices. I ate one and a half.
Three Valentine's Days married. Three heart meatloaves. A tradition inherited from Mom, adapted for us, forever linked to the sentence 'the meatloaf is love.'
The column this week was about Valentine's Day cooking — not the fancy restaurant stuff, but the home stuff. The heart meatloaf. The effort of making something with your hands for the person you love. The fact that a $6 meatloaf shaped like a heart contains more love than a $200 restaurant meal because the hands that made it are the same hands that hold you.
Five thousand views. Valentine's Day posts always do well. People want to feel like love doesn't require money. It doesn't. It requires meatloaf.
Soo-Jin and Staff Sergeant Park went to dinner — Soo-Jin's version of Valentine's, which involves leaving Mia with a babysitter and eating Korean BBQ until they can't move. 'Valentine's is about eating,' she said. 'Not romance. Eating.' I love this woman.
Caleb's vocabulary is expanding: da-da, ma-ma, mo (more), nana (banana/grandma), no (his favorite), hi (accompanied by a wave that melts every person who witnesses it), and — new this week — 'hot.' He learned 'hot' because I said it every time he reached for the stove, and now he points at the stove and says 'HOT' with the authority of a person who has been told something forty times and finally believes it.
Hot. His first kitchen word. The stove. The thing that makes the food. The beginning of his cooking education.
The meatloaf was love. The baby said 'hot.' And Valentine's Day, for the third year running, was exactly what it should be.
The heart meatloaf only works if the seasoning is right — and right, in our house, means Mom’s blend: Italian herbs, garlic, a little heat, everything balanced enough to hold together under that ketchup-and-brown-sugar glaze. This is the mix I make ahead and keep in the cabinet so that when Valentine’s Day comes around, and Ryan brings home red roses, and Caleb is smearing dinner on his face, I’m not hunting through a dozen jars. It’s all right here, measured and ready, because the meatloaf is love — and love deserves to be prepared.
Italian Meatball Seasoning
Prep Time: 5 minutes | Cook Time: 0 minutes | Total Time: 5 minutes | Servings: Makes about 6 tablespoons (enough for 2–3 batches of meatloaf or meatballs)
Ingredients
- 2 tablespoons dried Italian seasoning
- 1 tablespoon garlic powder
- 1 teaspoon onion powder
- 1 teaspoon dried parsley
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
- 1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
- 1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
- 1/4 teaspoon fennel seed, lightly crushed
Instructions
- Combine. Add all ingredients to a small bowl and stir until evenly blended.
- Store. Transfer to a small glass jar or airtight container. Label and store in a cool, dry place for up to 6 months.
- Use for meatloaf or meatballs. Use 2 tablespoons of this blend per 1 1/2 pounds of ground beef. Mix directly into the meat along with 1 egg, 1/3 cup breadcrumbs, and 2 tablespoons milk before shaping. For heart meatloaf, press seasoned mixture into a heart-shaped pan or form by hand on a lined baking sheet. Top with a glaze of 1/4 cup ketchup mixed with 1 tablespoon brown sugar. Bake at 350°F for 55–65 minutes, until internal temperature reaches 160°F.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 12 | Protein: 0g | Fat: 0g | Carbs: 2g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 195mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 202 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
