Montana Brews and Homemade Ketchup

The morning before we left Montana, I ran to the grocery store and bought sixty bottles of assorted Montana beers that you can't get in Illinois (lucky for me, it was 8:03 when I checked out, as you can't buy alcohol before 8 am...). There was ample room in the minivan to transport our goods, so the bottles traveled with us from Montana to Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico (where we left a few), then back northeast through Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. This previous weekend we invited a few neighbors over for a Montana-themed happy hour to share our bounty:

Because we like a theme, Sean and I also made a few appetizers with Montana-y flavors. I found smoked trout at our local grocery store, which we served with crackers. I baked up this incredible brie in puff pastry using huckleberry jam and huckleberry syrup we brought home with us. And Sean grilled up mini buffalo burgers that we served on slider buns with homemade ketchup on the side. The homemade ketchup was a last-minute addition to the menu; we often watch videos on the chow.com channel on our Roku streaming device, and it was something they featured. It's delicious - not quite as smooth as bottled ketchup, but spicy and rich and oh so good. The recipe calls for canned tomatoes, but this would be a great one to file away for late summer when you've got lots of juicy ripe tomatoes in the garden (be sure to peel them first in that case).

Hope you enjoy it!

Party favors

From left: baked brie, buffalo sliders, smoked trout

Homemade ketchup

Homemade Ketchup

Adapted from chow.com

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*** NOTE: This makes a lot of ketchup. I halved it and still had plenty left over. The original recipe says that it lasts 3-4 weeks in the fridge.

• 2 28oz cans of pureed tomatoes
• 1 1/2 cups onions, minced or grated (I pureed in the blender)
• 2 Tbsp yellow mustard
• 1/4 cup light brown sugar
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• 1/2 tsp ground allspice
• 2 Tbsp dry mustard
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp celery seed (I used 1/2 tsp of celery salt)
• 2 tsp garlic powder

1. Add all the ingredients to a large pot and mix well. Heat over medium until boiling. Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least two hours or until desired consistency is obtained.
2. Remove from heat and allow to cool to room temperature. Funnel into ketchup bottles or other tall container for easy serving.
3. Note: You could use whole tomatoes and roughly chopped onions and puree the mixture with a hand blender in the pot.