Homemade Garbage Plates

What you need:

For the Garbage Plate Hot Sauce:

• 1 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 to 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 lb. ground beef
• 1 cup water, plus some, just in case
• 1/4 cup tomato paste
• 1 Tbsp. brown sugar
• 1 tsp. ground black pepper
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1 tsp. chili powder
• 3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
• 1/2 tsp. cumin
• 1/2 tsp. allspice
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground cloves

For the Garbage Plate Assembly:

• 2 lb. ground beef, formed into 8 patties
• 8 slices American cheese
• 4 cups macaroni & cheese (we used the boxed stuff)
• 4 cups home fries (I did 4 or 5 russets with skins)
• 1 yellow onion, diced
• Mustard
• Hot Sauce
• 1 loaf Italian bread
• Softened butter for bread

Directions:

1. For the Garbage Plate Hot Sauce: in a large skillet, saute onion until soft. Add garlic and cook for 1 more minute. Add meat and constantly stir to break it up as finely as possible.
2. Once the meat has browned, add water and tomato paste. Simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add sugar and remaining spices. Stir well and simmer for 30 minutes. Add water, if needed. You don't want it to be soupy, but you don't want it to dry out either.
4. While your sauce cooks, cook your hamburger patties and top with cheese slices. Cook macaroni and cheese. Cook your home fries. I got "precooked" Italian bread from my deli, so I finished baking it, so it was nice and warm for the butter to melt on it when I sliced it.
5. To assemble the garbage plate: on one side of each plate, add 1 cup of macaroni and cheese. On the other side, add 1 cup of home fries. Place two cheeseburgers on top of those in the center of the plate. Top burgers with mustard and diced onion. Then ladle plate sauce into center of the plate. Add a few dashes of hot sauce and serve with warm, buttered Italian bread.

Recipe slightly adapted from The Spiffy Cookie