Cooking At Home: Namesake Recipes

Though I've written recipes for quite a few of the products you can buy at Kowalski's, there are no items in the store with my name on them and only three or four recipes on kowalskis.com that actually bear my name. For the most part, my job as Culinary Director is to create recipes with mass appeal, which means they're usually pretty classic. If a recipe carries the name "Rachael," though, it's – well, to put it simply – it's because it reflects the way I make it.

Such is the case with this recipe for meatloaf. I use the typical egg and panade (milk and bread mixture) to keep it light and moist, and I season my meatloaf in a fairly traditional manner, with flavors of onion, garlic, salt, pepper and parsley. What takes the recipe into "Rachael" territory is the addition of fragrant oregano and earthy cumin – not in aggressive amounts, but enough to add a perceptible yet somewhat indescribable dark pepperiness and a subtle, nutty warmth. It may not be for everyone, but that's what makes this recipe distinctly "Rachael."