March is coming and with it, our third wedding anniversary. Three years since the courthouse in Jacksonville. Three years since the pulled pork and the Spotify playlist and the red velvet cake Mom baked at 6 AM.
In three years: two PCS moves, one deployment, one baby, one book, one pandemic, one broken mixer, and approximately 2,190 dinners at 1800. The math of a marriage, measured in meals.
Ryan and I don't celebrate big. We never have. The Italian restaurant where he proposed is 2,500 miles away. The courthouse where we married is on the East Coast. Here, in the desert, we celebrate the way we celebrate everything: with food, at home, with Caleb asleep in the next room.
I'm making dinner. Not going out — MAKING. The anniversary dinner will be: Soo-Jin's Korean short ribs (because they changed my cooking), Mom's scalloped potatoes (because they're elegant and comforting), a salad (because Ryan pretends to care about vegetables), and a slice of red velvet cake (because our wedding cake was red velvet and the tradition holds).
The cake will be made by hand. Because the mixer is dead. Because Grandma Carol made cakes by hand for sixty years. Because sometimes the loss of a convenience reveals what was there all along: your hands. Your strength. Your ability to cream butter and sugar with a wooden spoon and determination.
Three years. The book is done. The boy is two. The desert is home for now.
And the meatloaf is love. Still. Always.
Mom called. 'Happy anniversary, Rachel. Your father says congratulations.'
'Tell Dad we're eating his favorite — short ribs.'
'Korean short ribs? For an anniversary? What happened to a nice steak?'
'The short ribs ARE nice, Mom. They're nicer than steak.'
'I will never understand your generation's obsession with Korean food.'
'You make them every month, Mom. Soo-Jin's recipe. I SENT it to you.'
'...They're very good. But steak is classic.'
Donna Abernathy: secretly loves Korean short ribs, will never admit Korean short ribs are better than steak, makes them monthly from a recipe her daughter sent from California.
The woman. THE WOMAN.
Anniversary dinner. Short ribs. Three years. Three square feet.
The ring was panic. The meatloaf is love. The short ribs are everything in between.
The short ribs are Soo-Jin’s, and they’re the showpiece—but the meatloaf is where this whole love story actually lives. Three years of dinners at 1800, two PCS moves, one deployment, and somewhere in the middle of all of it, meatloaf became the word we use for the thing that holds everything together. This Wild Rice Meat Loaf is the version that earned its place at our table: the wild rice adds a nutty chew that makes it feel intentional, elevated, like something you’d make for a person you’ve chosen on purpose, over and over again. It’s not the star of the anniversary plate—the short ribs have that honor—but it’s the one I keep coming back to when I want to say something I don’t have words for.
Wild Rice Meat Loaf
Prep Time: 20 min | Cook Time: 1 hr 10 min | Total Time: 1 hr 30 min | Servings: 6
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 lbs lean ground beef (85/15)
- 1 cup cooked wild rice
- 1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion
- 1/3 cup whole milk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 2 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1 tsp kosher salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 tsp dried thyme
- 1/3 cup plain breadcrumbs
- 3 tbsp ketchup (for topping)
- 1 tbsp brown sugar (for glaze)
- 1 tsp apple cider vinegar (for glaze)
Instructions
- Preheat the oven. Heat oven to 350°F. Lightly grease a 9x5-inch loaf pan or line a rimmed baking sheet with foil and coat with nonstick spray.
- Cook the wild rice. If not already cooked, simmer 1/3 cup dry wild rice in 1 cup salted water for 45–50 minutes until tender. Drain any excess water and let cool slightly before using.
- Mix the loaf. In a large bowl, combine the ground beef, cooked wild rice, onion, milk, egg, garlic, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, thyme, and breadcrumbs. Mix with your hands or a wooden spoon just until combined—do not overwork or the loaf will be dense.
- Shape and pan. Transfer the mixture to your prepared pan or baking sheet and shape into a compact loaf roughly 9 inches long and 4 inches wide.
- Make the glaze. In a small bowl, stir together the ketchup, brown sugar, and apple cider vinegar until the sugar dissolves. Spread evenly over the top and sides of the loaf.
- Bake. Bake uncovered for 60–70 minutes, until an instant-read thermometer inserted in the center reads 160°F and the glaze is caramelized and slightly sticky.
- Rest and slice. Let the meat loaf rest in the pan for 10 minutes before slicing. This keeps it from falling apart and lets the juices redistribute. Serve thick-cut, alongside scalloped potatoes if you’re feeding someone you’ve chosen on purpose.
Nutrition (per serving)
Calories: 310 | Protein: 27g | Fat: 13g | Carbs: 19g | Fiber: 1g | Sodium: 490mg
About the cook who shared this
Rachel Abernathy
Week 256 of Rachel’s 30-year story
· San Diego, California
Rachel is a twenty-eight-year-old Marine wife and mom of two who has moved five times in six years and learned to cook a Thanksgiving dinner with half her cookware still in boxes. She married young, survived postpartum depression, and feeds her family of four on a junior Marine's salary with a freezer full of pre-made meals and a crockpot that has never let her down. She writes for the military spouses who are cooking dinner alone in base housing and wondering if they're enough. You are.
