Satisfying a Craving with a Hope Market Meat Loaf

As much as I love the Saturday farmers markets, I have fully embraced the Hope Farmers Market on Sundays. I find that it fits in well to my "lack of plan" Sunday mornings - I can aim to be finished piddling around the house around 11ish and meet a friend or two to wander the market and look for new treasures.

I also find it reassuring that if I forgot to pick something up on Saturday that I can get it at the Hope market. During a recent cool snap, I was craving comfort food and meat loaf in particular. Unfortunately, I had neglected to pick up any meat from the Saturday markets, so I was grateful there are several meat purveyors participating in the Hope market.

I decided to use a ground meat combination of Thunder Heart bison and Loncito's lamb. It was perfect. The bison is lean and the lamb has a nice fat content, not too much/not too little. I served it with sautéed beet greens and steamed asparagus - a perfect week night dinner.

Maybe after your overdosing on turkey this week, you should cuddle up with some Hope farmers market meatloaf. See you at the market on Sunday!

Hope Market Meat Loaf
1 pound ground bison
1 pound ground lamb
1 small onion, finely chopped (make sure your chop is fine so you don't get big chunks of onion in your meatloaf)
1 cup bread crumbs
1 cup chopped fresh tomatoes (or tomato sauce if tomatoes are out of season)
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
(If you like a little spice, add a tsp or two of Tabasco)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan.

In a large mixing bowl, combine all the ingredients together until well mixed.

Place the mixture into the loaf pan. Bake in the center of the oven until the temperature reaches 160°F in the center of the meat loaf, about 55 minutes. To check the temperature, insert a meat thermometer into the center of the loaf after 50 minutes of cooking. Remove the thermometer if you need to return the loaf to the oven.

Remove the pan from the oven and pour off any excess fat (there won't be a lot using the lamb and bison). Let the meat loaf stand for 10-15 minutes before serving.