I have somehow made it through my entire cooking career (vast as it is!) thus far without a single recipe from Ree Drummond, The Pioneer Woman herself.  How is this possible?  I have no idea.

Let’s ameliorate this shizz!

The Pioneer Woman has a bacon-wrapped meatloaf recipe entitled, “My Favorite Meatloaf.”  I love this; the fact that her favorite meatloaf prominently features bacon rocks my world and reassures me that she is, in fact, a real, meat-eatin’ woman (vegetarian friends, I still love you, we can be bros.  But srsly meat is delicious.  Let’s work on that together).

As with almost all of the bacon-related recipes I’ve made for Bacon Week, I went ahead and halved this meal from the original recipe, resulting in the most adorable little meatloaf you’ve ever seen (above picture).  It still feeds 4 and is plenty heavy enough, what with all the meat up in there.  Mostly I was just concerned about having more meatloaf than I could consume by myself in a reasonable amount of time.  PROBLEM SOLVED – WITH MATH (algebraic!).

Ree’s recipe called for additional spices that I actually completely forgot to include (I am the best), but it turned out not to matter in the slightest.  Truly, bacon is the only flavoring you really need.  The one thing she did do that I wish I’d paid closer attention to was to bake the meatloaf on a rack or in a broiling pan to let the bacon grease drip away from the loaf.  Now, normally I’m all about soaking things in bacon grease, but when you’re essentially already eating a log of meat wrapped in more meat, sometimes that much grease can be a little overwhelming.  I mean…I’m still going to eat it…but for future reference, bake it on a rack. 😀

Attempting to continue my “Game of Thrones” theme, I think of this recipe as “A Meal with Melisandre”.  She seems (from what I’ve read so far) to be the type of lady who’d drink a glass of red wine but also keep a knife right next to her plate, ready to stab you in the eye.  I was hoping to get more red into the theme, but feel like I failed…I think I need a little more food photography practice. 😀

I hope everyone’s Bacon Week is going wonderfully!  Watch (Facebook, G+), share, and bacon-ate!

Bacon-Wrapped Meatloaf

Adapted from The Pioneer Woman
Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1lb ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 cup italian bread crumbs
• 2 tbsp freshly chopped parsely
• 4 strips bacon
• 3/4 cup ketchup
• 1 tsp dry mustard
• 1 tbsp brown sugar
• Tabasco (or Texas Pete, etc) to taste

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350F.
2. Dump the beef, eggs, cheese, bread crumbs, and parsely into a medium bowl.
3. Mush them together with your hands until everything is evenly mixed.
4. Shape the meat into a loaf and place it in a pan.
5. Gently wrap strips of bacon around the loaf, tucking the ends underneath.
6. Make the sauce by mixing together the ketchup, mustard, brown sugar, and Tabasco.  Spoon and gently spread the sauce on top of the meatloaf to keep it moist.
7. Bake for 45-50 minutes; make sure the center is fully-cooked (if possible, bake in a broiling pan, or put a rack over a regular pan to let the grease drip off the loaf)!
8. CONSUME!