Catch up on my favourite standby recipes... Part 1

"Red" Sauce

This sauce began as a pork chop recipe from the "i hate to cook book", when i was a young wife and mother.  It has morphed over the years to the following:

2 tablespoons dry mustard (Keens is our brand)
2-4 tablespoons brown sugar, depending on your preferred sweetness
2 tablespoons chili powder
Some hot sauce to taste
2 tablespoons vinegar - any will do...

Whisk this together.  Then blend in
2 cups ketchup - i buy the cheap no name brands for this
1 cup water

Simmer, stirring occassionally, for one hour. Taste for spice and seasoning, adjust if necessary.

This can be used as a glaze, baking sauce, dipping sauce, bbq sauce.  Its good with any pork or chicken recipes.  Particularly good with pork chops and onions poured over as a baking sauce, served with rice on the side.

This seems like a very simple recipe, but its absolutely delicious, and very versatile.  Leftovers can be  placed in an airtight container, and will keep for several weeks.

Dinner club menu

The theme| Diners, Drive ins and Dives!

We love Triple D in our house and are often inspired by the recipes we see.  So we decided our next hosting of the dinner party club would be a menu based on, or inspired by, recipes from it!

we had a blast!

details to follow later, but here's the menu:

Mushroom ravioli with butter, sage and garlic sauce, on a bed of lemon dressed argula

Mom's sloppy joes, on fresh sourdough buns from CobsBakery

deep dish pumpkin pie with real whipped cream

Fruit, ice cream, etc etc.

And the most important ingredients:  good company!!