Oh, I'm not done with ketchup yet!

Next time Cliff is out of ketchup, I'll try making my own, assuming I have a can of tomato paste on hand.  I found this simple recipe online.  

Fresh, Easy and Sodium-Reduced Homemade Ketchup

Makes 1 cup

1 can (5-1/2 oz) tomato paste
1/4 teaspoon dry mustard
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 cup water
1 pinch cloves
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
1 pinch allspice

In jar or bowl, combine all ingredients, mixing well. Cover and store in refrigerator for up to 1 month. Makes about 1 cup.

l found another article with believable facts about ketchup HERE.  Not a word about the Supreme Court stuff.  

Interesting Facts about Ketchup

• 97% of American homes keep ketchup in their kitchen.
• Each person eats about 3 bottles a year.  (Cliff is no doubt eating several other people's shares)
• A tablespoon of ketchup has 16 calories and no fat.
• 4 tablespoons of ketchup have the nutritional value of an entire ripe, medium tomato.
• In 1992, ketchup sales were $723 million.
• As with wines, there are good and bad ketchup years depending on how sweet and flavorful the tomato harvest.
• Most brands are made from tomato paste or tomato concentrate, boiled down in late summer when tomatoes are harvested, and used throughout the year to cook the final product.
• Ketchup made in summer is made directly from ripe tomatoes.
• Ketchup is great for restoring the glow to copper pots and pans. The acid in ketchup removes tarnish and brings out the shine.

 

Read more: All About Ketchup (Catsup) http://www.globalgourmet.com/food/sleuth/0799/#ixzz18Hns94Pu

ketchup catsup

We've been visited by good ole Anonymous again, with some interesting information on the different spellings for ketchup/catsup.  
Anonymous left a link that led me to a long and barely believable story on Wikipedia; the battle between the two spellings supposedly led to the Supreme Court.  I don't believe everything I see on Wikipedia, but who knows.  Stranger things have happened.  
None of the other links I've found weave such a fascinating tale.   You can read a fairly simple explanation from the British viewpoint HERE, and a similar story HERE.  I haven't found any other sources that mention an outlandish legal battle.  I'm not buying that one.  I remember that back when I was a kid, a few naughty children (usually boys) called it "cat-sh*t" and thought that was hilarious.  I'm glad that one didn't catch on.  
By the way, I generally buy Heinz, but Hunts will do.  Cliff does not appreciate store-brand ketchup, says it's too "vinegary".  He used to do some work for a local farmer whose wife made and canned her own ketchup, and he said that was delicious.  Personally, any old kind would do for my purposes.  
I've added a survey to my sidebar asking what brand of ketchup my readers prefer, so go on over there and participe.  
Remember I told you we were out of ketchup and milk?  I didn't want to make a special trip for two items, so since I had a very thorough list made out, I borrowed $70 from Cliff and we did the shopping yesterday.  Tomorrow he gets the $70 that would have gone into the grocery envelope.   
The only small problem is, I forgot two items:  round crackers for Cliff, and saltines for me.  Yup, we're split on what kind of crackers to use, so we keep both kinds.  Not name brand crackers, though.  We've found the store brand crackers, at less than half the price, are an acceptable alternative.  With any luck, I'll have my daughter or son-in-law pick up the crackers for us when they do their shopping this weekend.  
Ever since I started doing the envelope thing, I've had grocery money left over.  Out of the allotted $70 per week, I usually had from $20 to $30 left.  When I thought there was enough extra cash built up, we went to Sam's Club and got the foodstuffs we like from there.  
But with the garden not producing and the cow not giving milk, I'm coming very close to using all the money in the grocery envelope.  I buy more produce, for one thing.  
I buy fresh tomatoes, for instance; I get the kind that are on the vine because they come closest to tasting like home-grown; they are not cheap.  They are much more perishable than those hard plastic tomatoes sitting beside them in the produce section, so I really have to watch and use them quickly.     
I generally buy the chicken leg quarters in ten-pound bags, cook them, de-skin and debone them, and freeze them in two-cup portions.  I bag the broth from that and put it in the freezer to use in the many recipes that require chicken broth.  What with my store of chopped Thanksgiving turkey portions in the freezer, I have plenty of frozen, cooked poultry, but I've used all my broth; so I had to buy canned chicken broth yesterday.  At least it was only fifty cents per can.    
Anyhow, my point is that our grocery bill is higher.  If I go to Sam's Club now, the money will come from the general fund, an option that won't be available once Cliff retires.    
My dad had a saying when anything was getting a little difficult:  "This is where the cheese gets binding."  
Indeed.

Answering questions about the previous entry

Vicki asked, "Is Bonnie pregnant?"  
As far as we know, she is.  Had she not been bred, she should have shown signs of heat around Thanksgiving Day; we were watching her pretty closely.  Cows come in heat every eighteen to twenty-three days.  
Ms Martyr asked, "Does mastitis ever go away or does it permanently damage the udder?" 
Sometimes mastitis is successfully treated, especially if you get right on it.  Dairies treat it all the time.  Unfortunately, Bonnie contracted mastitis before she calved, so I wasn't milking her and had no idea she had a problem.  By the time she had her calf, one quarter was pretty much dry already and the other one was only giving about half the milk it used to.  The two quarters affected are on her "off" side, so they're not the ones I milked.  
It's been my experience that once a cow has had mastitis, it tends to recur in the affected quarter, even if it's effectively treated.  
Although Bonnie is a dairy cow, I really wasn't worried about milk production when I got her.  I used to have several Jerseys, and I missed those pretty little faces in the the pasture; I bought her for a pet.  The milk was, and is, a fringe benefit.  So is the beef from her calves.  Although the damaged quarters would affect her resale value, they don't matter to me at all.  And they don't cause her pain or discomfort.  
Also, Ms Martyr, as to your questions about Cliff's ketchup addiction:  No, I don't believe he ever substituted ketchup for the tomato in a BLT.  
He said what got him in trouble most often as a kid was his love of ketchup sandwiches:  He'd soak two slices of bread with ketchup and put them together, then put some ketchup on his plate and dip the sandwich into the extra ketchup before each bite.  
He says that for some reason there was a shortage of ketchup in the house when he was growing up.  Now there's a shocker.  
And Anonymous asked, "What were you drinking when you did that last entry in your blog?"  
Okay, so I'm making that up; but I'll bet somebody was thinking that very thing.  The answer is coffee.  So, ha!