War Guilt cooking

Mood:  hungry
Now Playing: @ Joe’s, let’s eat, beanery
Topic: cooking

A key plot element in THE WAR GUILT CLAUSE develops when the twins, along with Mary Cady, invade Shadow Lawn, Woodrow Wilson’s retreat in Long Branch, New Jersey. Joseph Tumulty, Wilson’s personal secretary, is annoyed at the intrusion and shoos the youngsters into the Shadow Lawn kitchen where Mama Leona rules.

Mama Leona gave the boys and Mary the onceover, and decided they could use more than cookies. “When’s the last time y’all ate?” she asked.

“This morning,” said Ted. Now that the subject had come up, both Ted and Ed realized how hungry they were.

“We could eat a horse,” said Ed.

Mama Leona laughed, “Horses we don’t have, but I got some nice meatloaf I could heat up. How does that sound?”

Ted gulped; his stomach juices were suddenly flowing.

“We like meatloaf,” said Ed.

Mama Leona and her kitchen are a figment of Max Blue’s imagination, but her meatloaf lives in the Blue kitchen, thanks to the imagination of The Luminous Liddy.

Liddy’s Meatloaf

Begin with a meatloaf mix of ground beef, veal, and pork, 1/2 lb, beef, 1/4 lb veal, 1/4 lb pork.

1/4 cup minced onion, 1/2 cup bread crumbs, 1 Tbsp minced parsley, 1 Tbsp salt, 1/3 cup tomato sauce, 2 Tbsp Parmesan cheese, 2 tsp ground black pepper, 1 large beaten egg.

Mix everything together in a bowl – here comes the fun part – with your thoroughly washed hands, take hold of the gummy mix and knead it, relishing the feeling of the sticky stuff as it runs between your fingers until you are convinced all the disparate parts are now a palpable whole.

Place the mix in a loaf pan and place in a preheated 350 degree oven for one hour after which a meat thermometer inserted into the loaf should read 170 degrees.

Thank you Mama Leona, and thank you Luminous Liddy.