Delishytown

Last night I was making this meatloaf & we were out of ketchup. I can’t make meatloaf without ketchup. I was too lazy to go to the store to buy some, but not too lazy to try making it from scratch. It came out delicious! I will always make homemade ketchup from now on!

Recipe for homemade ketchup: Chop 1 small onion, smash 3 cloves garlic. Saute in olive oil. Add 1 small can tomato paste, 3/4 cup water, 1/4 cup vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar, a dash of cinnamon and 2 allspice berries, 2 cloves, salt and pepper. Reduce to simmer until all the flavors come together. Adjust sweet / sour to taste by adding a little more vinegar or brown sugar as needed.

Meat loaf: Ground beef or turkey, mixed with finely chopped veggies including 1 chopped apple, 2 chopped carrots, 2 stalks celery, 1 onion, smashed garlic, red bell pepper, bread crumbs (soaked in milk), 2 eggs. Season with Worcestershire, 1/2 tsp mustard, a tblsp ketchup, salt, pepper, dried basil and fresh chopped parsley. Form into a loaf, cover with tons of ketchup and bake at 350 for 1 hour or more.  Make enough extra for sandwiches the next day.

This basic recipe is from “The Joy of Cooking”.

I added the chocolate chips for good luck.

Heat oven to 375

Cream 1/2 cup butter with 1/2 cup brown sugar and 1/2 cup granulated sugar. Add 1 cup peanut butter, 1/2 tsp vanilla and 1 egg.

Sift 1 1/2 cups flour with 1/2 tsp baking soda and 1/2 tsp salt . Add the flour mixture to the other ingredients. Mix in by hand 1/2 bag of semi sweet chocolate chips.

Roll into 1 inch balls. Flatten with a fork dipped in sugar.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes until they just start to turn golden.

Yummmy

If you’re bored with the same old toast and eggs, try them with a side of pico de gallo. Fry up some hash browns with onions too. Yum! 

This was our breakfast today and it had a delicious spicy, fresh, wake me up flavor.

For the potatoes I used the kind that come in a bag in the frozen vegetable aisle. Start with some butter or olive oil in a skillet, add thinly sliced onion or shallots, and then the shredded frozen hash browns. Season with salt and pepper. Let them get crisp on the bottom and flip. Cook until desired crispiness.

For the pico de gallo: Finely chop seeded jalapeño, tomatoes, onion and avocado, add a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, chopped cilantro, and salt and pepper. This is a delicious condiment for eggs, tacos, burritos or just served alongside chips and guacamole. Yum!!

From Wikipedia: The term “pico de gallo” is Spanish for “rooster’s beak”. According to food writer Sharon Tyler Herbst,^[1] it is so called because originally it was eaten with the thumb and forefinger, and retrieving and eating the condiment resembled the actions of a pecking rooster.