Tonight it’s a modified meatloaf recipe, done on the charcoal grill of course.

The results were fantastic. Pitch perfect spice, sweet, and savory. Here is the recipe:

TGM MEATLOAF

Ingredients for the ‘meat mixture’

• 3 pounds of ‘meatloaf blend’ from the store (beef, pork, and veal). Try to get a little more beef in the mixture than the others.
• 3 small onions, nice and sweet varieties, chopped medium
• 5 cloves of garlic, diced small
• 4 large eggs
• 1.5 teaspoons dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons soy sauce (I used this instead of Worcestershire sauce)
• 4 teaspoons good coarse grained Dijon mustard
• 3/4 teaspoon hot pepper sauce
• 1 cup plain Greek yogurt (I like the Greek stuff because it’s unsweetened)
• 1 sleeve of Saltine crackers (about 40 of them)
• 1 cup chopped parsley leaves

Chop onions and garlic, and saute in a bit of olive oil until translucent. (Start the onions first, then after a couple minutes sprinkle the garlic on it. Try to not let the garlic go to the bottom of the pan and burn.) Once done (5-10 minutes) place in a bowl and cool in the fridge.

In a medium bowl, whisk eggs and add thyme, pepper, soy sauce, mustard, and yogurt. Whisk together and smell it — doesn’t it smell good?!

In a separate larger bowl, pull the three meats into little bits and mix together followed by hand blending all meats together. Pour egg mixture over the meat (use a rubber spatula to get it all out). Add sautéed onions and garlic. Mix and blend all together by hand (get your hands wet first and make sure you don’t try to answer your cell phone during this stage). Crush the saltine crackers, and add crackers and parsley. Mix further by hand. Place mixture in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

Fire up the grill, offset heat. Take a sheet of heavy duty tinfoil and put in on an upside down baking sheet (you’ll learn why soon). Take the cool meat mixture out of the fridge and with wet hands free-form the loaves (or better yet use little tinfoil loaf pans and press the meat into shape, dumping it onto the tinfoil. That’s what I do). Find some good barbeque sauce and brush over the loaves, then cover in bacon.

On the grill, slide the tinfoil off the baking sheet (see, that’s why it’s upside down) and place opposite of the coals (off set grilling … really roasting). Curve up the edges of the tinfoil to catch most of the grease. Cover and let it be for 45-60 minutes.

You want the internal temp to end up around 150-155. Keep an eye on it while you enjoy a glass of wine or three.

If the grease is building up and you want to drain it, three things to keep in mind: 1) Easy to do by poking holes in the tinfoil. 2) You have a good chance of a grease file flaring up so don’t stand with your head right above the grill. 3) You’re going to have grease to clean up later but that’s relatively easy.

When internal temp reaches 155 slide it onto a baking sheet and bring inside. Tent loosely for 15-20 minutes while finishing side dish prep and drinking more wine.

Idea wine pairings with this dish include Cotes du Rhone (the Grenach/Syrah blends in general are incredible with meatloaf) because you want something medium bodied but with a little spice. Another good choice, on the more geeky side, is Zweigelt from Austria.