Dinner in, and a ketchup recipe

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We are big ketchup addicts at this house. When I make homemade fries I like to pour the ketchup on so that the potatoes look like they are swimming (or drowning) in a sea of red. It grosses my husband out but what can I say? His loud eating and slurping of breakfast cereal grosses me out so I guess we're even.

Anyway, does anyone else think it's alarming that high fructose corn syrup is in everything that we eat? I'm guessing so since I have seen a lot of advertisements lately playing up the use of real sugar instead of HFCS. I have seen ketchup with sugar at the super market and health food store but we were making supper the other night and realized *gasp* no ketchup. No one was volunteering to go to the store so my husband suggested that we try making our own.

It sounded like a great idea to me (anything to avoid Wal-Mart) so I got online and looked for recipes. I have certain criteria when looking at recipes online.

1. It needs to be as few ingredients as possible

2. It needs to be stuff that I already have in my pantry (or easily substituted for something I have)

3. I like when I am familiar with all the ingredients or techniques (it isn't any weird thing I have to look up, or speak another language to understand)

4. And the prep-time to finished product needs to be fast (I have two hungry redheads and even hungrier husband who all get cranky if they don't eat)

So, with all this in mind I found this recipe for homemade ketchup (I think it was from allrecipes.com):

6 oz. can tomato paste

1/4-1/3 c. water

2 Tbs vinegar

1/4 tsp dry mustard

1/4 tsp salt

1 pinch cloves

1 pinch allspice

1 pinch cayenne

1/4 c. brown sugar

put it all in a bowl and whisk it up.

Did this homemade version pass the test with my picky eaters? Did it trump the allure of the sugar rush that is high fructose corn syrup?

Yes! Everyone loved it!!

Try it for yourself sometime.