Recipe: Zombie Meatloaf

Zombie Meatloaf

Serves 8 to 10

Use a food processor to whip this up in a snap. Follow the steps below and you won't need to rinse the food processor bowl in between steps. After each step, empty the contents of the bowl out and set aside.

Process enough bread to make:

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs

Process until finely chopped then set aside:

1/4 cup parsley with
2 cloves garlic (more if expecting vampires)

Process each separately until coarsely chopped (not too fine, mixed texture is good), then place together in large mixing bowl:

3 stalks celery
3 carrots
1 onion

Melt in a large frying pan over medium flame:

1 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon olive oil

Add the celery mixture and sauté until soft and onions are translucent. Remove from heat to cool.

In the large mixing bowl, mix in the remaining ingredients below, adding the parsley and garlic and the breadcrumbs. When the vegetables have cooled, add them to the mixture.

Note: the only way to really mix this up well is to use your hands—squoosh, squoosh!

1 lb. ground turkey
2 lbs. lean ground beef
1 lb. ground pork sausage
1/2 teaspoon thyme
3/4 teaspoon oregano
3 eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons Worcestershire Sauce
3 teaspoons lemon juice
2—3 tablespoons heavy cream

Shape the meatloaf into a Zombie on a large baking sheet or pan with low sides; placing a sheet of aluminum foil in the bottom helps for easy clean up. Lightly grease the surface before adding the meatloaf.

Apply ketchup decoratively before baking.

Bake in a preheated 350 degree F oven for 1 hour to 1 hour, 10 minutes. Let cool before decorating.

Decorate the Zombie with any of these materials:

ketchup
mustard
fresh parsley
red, orange, and/or yellow bell peppers
other decorative foods like slivered blanched almonds,
olives, cherry tomatoes, etc.

Hints:
The meatloaf will give off lots of juices as you cook it. For a crisper presentation, we used a separate, clean baking sheet, covered it with parchment paper, then carefully used a large spatula to transfer the cooked Zombie to the clean sheet. The appendages (legs and arms) broke at the joints, but that's not important and can either add effect, or be covered up with ketchup.

If not serving immediately, cover the whole tray and place the Zombie in the refrigerator to avoid contamination (remember: keep hot foods hot and cold foods cold to prevent food poisoning). You can reheat it on the same sheet with the parchment paper. Then decorate just before serving.