A tale of two sloppy joes.

Someone messaged me today asking for a recipe or two. Can I tell you, it made my day? I have heard about this love language thing, and my love language is food. No question. I love food, I love cooking, I love eating (if it is good...or if it is mediocre and I don't cook...or anything my Grandma Dahl makes).

Let me tell you something about Kyle. He also loves food. He says he loves good food, but that is debatable. I have seen him eat three of the crappiest prime rib slabs in one sitting. He loves Swiss Steak, and his mom has a recipe, but it has ketchup in it. Ketchup! (Nothing against my MIL, I LOVE HER!) I thought I would make Swiss Steak good. Fresh ingredients, better steak...Kyle hated it. He wanted the ketchup steak. Blah.

I kept my weird husband in mind the other day and made some sloppy joes. I found a good recipe on pinterest and messed with it a bit. I made a pound of gourmet joes and a pound of crappy, regular sloppy joes straight from the store-bought mix. I was totally ready for the man to complain and not eat the good stuff.

 

Here's the kicker...He loved the good stuff.

 

 

Since Picky McGee liked the gourmet joes, I thought I would share the recipe.  *A dear friend of mine mentioned the other day that she doesn't have a lot of the stuff I mention in my recipes. I will offer alternatives. Yeah, you know who you are.*

 

 

This probably took 30 minutes, start to finish using fresh beef, probably a little longer if you use frozen.

 

Here's what you are going to need:

 

2 pounds ground beef

2 T olive oil

1 C diced onion

1/2 C finely diced green pepper (I used Anaheim pepper)

1/2 C shredded carrot (use a small holed shredder if you can)

1/2 C finely minced celery

2 finely minced garlic cloves

1 6-ounce can tomato paste

1/3 C brown suger

1/2 T brown mustard

2 T balsamic vinegar (I used cherry balsamic and it was so good)

***you can substitute Worcestershire sauce, or add some extra**

1 C Campbell's Tomato and Chipotle soup (Or one 14 oz can of pureed tomatoes, I recommend the soup)

2 T smoked paprika (any kind is ok, but I only use Pride of Szeged. Find some)

2 t chili powder

1/2 t oregano

2 t salt

1/4 t smoked black pepper (you can use regular)

 

water

bread for serving

 

Brown the meat! Remove the meat from the heat and drain the liquid and fat. Let the fat rise to the top and save about one tablespoon of the fat and all of the liquid for later use.

 

(I like to use two pans when cooking, you don't have to. You can sauté the veggies while you cook the meat, or use the same pan once you remove the meat.)

 

Over medium heat, add olive oil to a pan and cook the onions, carrots, and celery for four minutes. SALT YOUR VEGGIES! Add garlic and sauté for one more minute. Add tomato paste and cook one more minute.

 

Add remaining ingredients, including cooked beef, reserved liquid and fat. Stir to combine.

 

Cook over medium heat for 10-15 minutes, stirring often. Add more water if necessary.

 

Seriously, though, stir. The sugar content in this recipe is crazy...it will burn and be gross.

 

I am not going to lie, this is a sweet recipe. Kyle added a ton of Texas Pete's to his sandwich, I would recommend the same. But he puts that crap on everything.

 

Do try this. I am really a fan of making everything from scratch. I used all good ingredients...with the exception of the tomato soup. I was about to open a can of tomatoes from last year's garden and I saw that sitting in the pantry and it just called to me. Don't use beef that is too lean, you will have chewy, gross sandwiches.

 

Fall means sloppy joes. You need to make these.