This is the song I’ve had in my head:
Ma mere a coupé les poils de son nez pour faire un chapeau à la mode
la mode est passée, les poils sont usée ma mere n’a plus d’poil à son nez
It’s a song my sister came home with when she spent a summer in Belgium while she was in college. At least I think that’s where it comes from. I’ve known it for a long time, regardless where it started.
The song is about a mother who cut the hairs in her nose to make a stylish hat. The style changed and her poor mother had no more hairs in her nose. Okay, you can say it now, “She’s lost her mind.”
It did remind me of my mother and how much I miss her simple, everyday cooking. Often our dinners came from the back of a soup can – like this meatloaf. It literally takes less than 15 minutes to get it into the oven and then all you have to do is wait for it to finish cooking. Mom could cook brilliant meals but she also knew how to get a meal on the table that would feed a family of five for not a lot of money.
I chopped the onion and put it in the microwave for 3 minutes with a pat of butter because I think it helps the onion to melt into the meat during baking but my mother just added the onion raw. Then half a can of soup, some finely crushed cracker crumbs, and egg and some seasoning and it’s done. When I was looking for a loaf pan I found a meatloaf pan that I bought God knows when but had never used. Win! It’s one of those two piece ones where the fat drips through the holes into the bottom so the meatloaf doesn’t soak in fat drippings.
Every family has their own meatloaf recipe and this was my mother’s. Remember when meatloaf looked like this before it went into the oven? No, you probably don’t but this is what they looked like when I was young.
My father didn’t like any meatloaf and wouldn’t take a bite. That never bothered my mother but she always cooked him something separate to keep him happy. I really enjoyed it and it brought back nice memories of family dinners.
My grandmother always lived with us and she never spoke English. My (one-year younger) brother used to tie her apron strings to the back of the chair just to hear her curse in French. We’d all fall over laughing and she loved every minute of the attention. Little did we know when my grandmother would yell Baptême (BaTAME) and we thought she was cursing, the word was baptism. I have no idea why she said it and it makes me laugh still today whenever I say it. It just fits when you dump something on the floor.
- ½ onion finely chopped
- 1 pat butter
- 1 egg, slightly beaten
- ½ cup finely crushed cracker crumbs (bread crumbs will work too)
- ½ can condensed cream of mushroom soup (You can use the other half to make gravy)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ⅛ teaspoon pepper
- 1 pound minced (ground) beef
- Preheat oven to 185C/365F
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl until well blended and either place in a loaf pan or shape on a rimmed baking sheet.
- Bake for 1 hour