Meat loaf

When I go to a pot-luck dinner and see meat loaf, I'm never quite sure what to do:  Depending on the cook, meat loaf can be a wonderfully delicious comfort food, or it can be unpalatable.  You just never know.  
This morning when Cliff was lying in bed sipping his coffee, I said, "I have a pound-and-a-half of hamburger thawed.  I can make chili, or beef-and-bulgur casserole, or meat loaf.  You choose."  
He likes all the above, but I was pretty sure he wouldn't choose chili because we have it fairly often in the winter.  I was betting on the meat loaf.  
And that's what he started to say, until he remembered what beef-and-bulgur casserole is and began to waver.
"Cliff," I told him, "You don't have to decide this instant.  I won't be starting dinner for three hours."  
As I headed to the kitchen, he called after me, "Would we be having mashed potatoes with the meat loaf?"  
Silly man.  Don't we always?  
So he made the choice I knew he would: meat loaf.  
I was tearing up enough bread to make two cups of crumbs for the meat loaf when I suddenly recalled something I used to do when I was a kid.  
Growing up, I was never denied access to the kitchen.  Mother never told me, as I used to tell my children, "It isn't long till supper; you'll spoil your appetite."  
So sometimes I'd get a nice, fresh slice of bread,

  remove the crust from around it,

roll the crust up like a cinnamon roll, and pop it in my mouth, sucking on it until it disappeared. 
Then I'd take the soft, white bread that remained,

compress it into a dough-ball, and pop it in my mouth.  Sorry about the blurry pictures, but I'm not going to destroy a slice of bread just to redo the pictures.  The bread you see above is already incorporated into the meat loaf that's in the oven.   
I don't know why I'm telling you this; isn't it funny the random memories that are stirred up in the kitchen?  
The meat loaf recipe I use is not from my oldest Better Homes and Gardens cookbook; that version wasn't as good.  This is from a BHG cookbook I acquired in the late seventies, and I notice they've repeated it in the newest edition, too.  

MEAT LOAF

(tested and approved by Cliff)

2 eggs

3/4 cup milk

1/2 cup fine dry bread crumbs or cracker crumbs, or two cups soft bread crumbs

1/4 cup finely chopped onion

2 Tablespoons snipped parsley

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon ground sage

1 1/2 pounds ground beef 

Sometimes, since my food processor already needs to be washed after making the crumbs, I'll throw a small carrot or sweet pepper in there and pulverize it, and add it to the mix.  Vitamins, you know.  I didn't do that today.  

topping:

1/4 cup ketchup

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 teaspoon mustard

Combine eggs and milk. Stir in crumbs, onion, parsley, salt, sage and 1/8 teaspoon pepper. bake in 350 degree oven for 1 1/4 hours. Spoon off excess fat, spread topping over meat and cook for 10 more minutes.