This Is What Goes With Homemade Meatloaf

Homemade ketchup of course! This is a Fall ritual around our house. When the garden is giving up the last of the tomatoes, peppers and celery and a cool crisp day is forecast, it is ketchup making time. People are sometimes surprised to hear that I make my own ketchup. I make all of my own condiments. I even make Worcestershire sauce. None of these originally came from stores. Way back when, they were all made in home kitchens.



I start my ketchup by sauteing onions and garlic until translucent and then I throw in chopped tomatoes and celery.


I add black peppercorns, cloves, celery seeds, a cinnamon stick, smoked paprika, a bit of hot sauce and fresh bay leaves.


This simmers until all of the liquid is released from the tomatoes and it starts to look very soupy.


Now it is time to bring out the food mill. I place mine over a big pot.

The mix is scooped into the foodmill.


Then you process it until you squeeze all of the juice and paste that you can get out of the vegetables. This is not my favorite part.


So I make the Blog Tech do it. He is a good ketchup maker.


After you have discarded all the solids, you begin to add everything that flavors your ketchup.


I add brown sugar, apple cider vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, tamarind paste and S & P. I do this all to taste so I am not giving you measurements. I don't know how else to make it except by taste.


This mixture cooks for hours and hours until it begins to thicken. During this time I keep tasting it for flavor. At the very end, I added a bit of liquid smoke. Sometimes I add it and sometimes I don't. It just depends on my mood.


I have my sterilized jars waiting. I do not put this in a water bath because it is given away and eaten within days. Most of the time the jars seal anyway.


So once I've made meatloaf and ketchup there are a few more things which must be served with it. Homemade white bread for leftover meatloaf sandwiches is a must.


I made 3 meatloaves and 3 loves of bread.


We make our sandwiches on lightly toasted bread.


But before the meatloaf is used for sandwiches, you have to eat it warm served with really good mashed potatoes with a few lumps.


And mac and cheese!


I make Baltimore mac and cheese.


It is made with a cheesy bechamel sauce with Old Bay Seasoning.

This is our first official taste of Fall.

And Abby and Sean if you are reading this......all of this is coming your way!!!


***Thank you all so very much for all the comments about poor dead Misch!!! As a pet owner we should all be so lucky to have pets that live healthy lives for 20 years.