Meat Sauce Mix

This recipe comes from the Make a Mix Cookbook.
  It makes five pints of mix, and the sauce can be used for:
pizza sauce, sloppy joes, stuffed green peppers, hamburger trio skillet, Hamburger Noodle skillet, chili, tamale pie, and a couple other things as well.

Meat Sauce Mix

1/4 cup vegetable shortening (or, and I would suggest this, another fat such as lard, butter, or the fat leftover from cooking your meat)
4 medium onions, diced
3 finely chopped cloves garlic- or minced garlic to taste
2 cups finely chopped celery
2 or 3 grated carrots
5 pounds ground beef (they say lean)
5 t. salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
3 Tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
1 14 ounce bottle of ketchup
1 14 ounce bottle 'hot' ketchup
 (or use chili sauce for both these last two products.  Cocktail sauce also works, which is what I used because I scored a 7 pound can at the dented cans store, and it didn't even have an dents)

Melt shortening in a very large skillet or sauce pan over medium heat.  Add vegetables, including garlic.  Cook until onions are golden.  Add ground beef.  Stir and cook until meat is browned.  Add salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, ketchups.  Cover and simmer 20 minutes.  Drain excess fat.  Cool.  Put in five 1 pint freezer containers, leaving 1/2 inch of space at the top.  Cut through the mixture with a knife several times to remove air spaces.  Seal and label.  Freeze.  Use within 3 months.

Tamale Pie
Combine 1 pint meat sauce mix, thawed
1 cup cream style corn or drained whole kernel corn (frozen is fine, but you may want to defrost it)
1 chopped green pepper
1 tsp chili powder (I would use two)
1 1/2 cups canned tomatoes
1 cup chopped black olives
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese

Combine , except cheese.  Pour into buttered  2 quart casserole.  Sprinkle with cheese.

Make a cornbread batter (there is a recipe in the make-a-mix cookbook) and spread it over the top of the meat mixture.  Bake at 375 for 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown.  Makes 6 to 8 servings

For Chile con Carne, simmer one pint of meat sauce mixture with two 15 ounce cans of beans (anasazi, kidney, pinto, or black beans or some combination), some additional chile powder, and, personally, I would add some jalepenos and a spoonful or two of cocoa powder.

Other suggestions:
Combine with a tsp of white pepper, can of green chiles, a couple cups of refried beans, and cheese for burrito filling

You can make this stove top skillet supper with it as well.

Since we made it with cocktail sauce, which is sweeter than regular ketchup, we preferred this a particularly flavorful Sloppy Joe mix.