Sloppy Joes

I’ve been told, but I can’t remember who told me (lovely aging process) that my mom made the best Sloppy Joes ever. No one seems to have the recipe or if they do, they’re not sharing. I don’t know where I came up with my Sloppy Joe recipe, but it surely isn’t rocket science when it comes to putting it together.

I have had Sloppy Joes by others that is more like spaghetti sauce or chili in its consistency (although not my spaghetti sauce or chili). Their Sloppy Joe is soupy. I want to shout – put some oregano in this will ya! or where’s the cumin and chili powder for crying out loud? This one Sloppy Joe I had caused the bun to be totally soggy to the point of not being able to pick it up. There’s nothing good about tomatoey soggy bread (soggy bread with gravy, yes, but gag me with the tomatoey soggy bread). Just my own personal preference.

Sloppy Joes should definitely be sloppy, hence the name. But sloppy in the sense that the meat gently falls out of the bun. Not sloppy sog-the-bun. Sloppy Joes need to be eaten with your hands, not a fork.

The pictures of my Sloppy Joes were made with one pound of ground beef. Brown and then drain. Add brown sugar (about ½ cup), squirt in a little catsup, bbq sauce and a tiny bit of mustard. Cook until it’s the consistency you want (but remember, not too sloppy). Just enough sauce to make it juicy. You can throw in some onion flakes if you want, but usually these four ingredients is all I use.

Scoop some onto your bun. Your bun will have just a slight bit of juice soaked in… like my picture here.

You can take a bite or two and watch crumbles of Sloppy Joe fall out of your bun, but this can easily be picked up with your bun like you pick up corn with mashed potatoes. Notice my picture of the crumbles of Sloppy Joe and notice the next picture where it’s picked up by the bun?

Remember, no juicy soupyness for Sloppy Joes.

P.S. I will be totally humiliated and mortified if I find out my mom made soupy Sloppy Joes.

Ingredients:
Ground beef
catsup
bbq sauce
mustard
brown sugar

Rating & Type: EE/B

Meatloaf

One of the first meatloaf recipes I recall making was when I was pregnant with my first born. It came out of a microwavable recipe book, but I can’t remember the name. The book is long gone as this was over 28 years ago.

My sister lived with us then. I invited her boyfriend (who eventually became her first husband, he has since passed away) over for dinner. Russ was very polite and ate what was served, probably not knowing meatloaf was on the menu as he hated meatloaf – that is until he ate mine. (Yeah, I’m patting myself on the shoulder.)

He wanted to know what I did to make it taste so good saying that he didn’t like other meatloaf’s that he had eaten. I rattled off the recipe thinking I didn’t do anything special - just followed the recipe.

Since then I’ve tried other recipes, but I always go back to this one that I know from heart, although I change it a bit by throwing other things in when I feel like it, like cheddar cheese, which was not in the original recipe. I’m not sure if I have the original recipe exact, but here’s what I recall:

1 pound ground beef
1 small onion cut up or onion flakes
some Worcestershire sauce
1 – eight ounce can tomato sauce
1 piece of bread crumbled up
1 egg
¼ tsp savory leaves, crushed a little
salt/pepper

Topping: Mix catsup and Worcestershire sauce (can’t remember the portions, maybe ¼ cup catsup to 1 Tablespoon W sauce). Most of the time I just use catsup, but the original recipe called for this.

Mix all the ingredients up and place in loaf pan and bake for about an hour at 350 degrees. Since this was a microwavable cook book, you were to cook this on high in the microwave for about 10 minutes. If I’m in a hurry, I’ll precook the meatloaf and then put it in the oven because I think everything tastes better in the oven versus the microwave. You can either put the topping on right away or wait until the last portion of the cooking process. Different variations of mine have been to add some shredded cheese; one time I didn’t have any bread and used bread crumbs; one time crushed up crackers; sometimes I sprinkle in garlic; or if I don’t have tomato sauce, I’ll squirt in some catsup or tomato juice; you could probably crush up a whole tomato or puree the tomato.

I don’t know about you, but I like the ends of the meatloaf where it’s a little more well done and kind of crunchy. Trying to make meatloaf a little more appetizing, I've used DeMarle’s decorative bundt type pan, which I discovered makes the entire top crunchy. The pan creates a nice shape. You can decorate it with catsup and it looks pretty cute. The only down fall is the crunchy part is on top when it comes out of the oven and when you flip it out of the mold, the part that shows is unbrowned and looks unattractive, so I have to put it back in the oven (with some catsup on top) and cook it until it becomes more brown. Or just flip it back again, but then the top isn’t going to be as decorative, but will be crunchy - if that matters.

One time I made a meatloaf that had boiled eggs and olives shaped inside of it so that when you sliced the meatloaf you could see the circle of eggs and olives. My brother-in-law squawked when my sister made it after I had told her about it. He said he didn’t like his meat staring at him when he ate. Guess it looked too much like a face.

I usually make mashed potatoes with my meatloaf, but scalloped potatoes work well and a vegetable and voila, complete dinner.

Maybe we could all share our favorite meatloaf recipe and take a vote on whose taste the best? Any takers?

Ingredients:
Ground beef
egg
bread or bread/cracker crumbs
onion
spices
tomato sauce/juice or catsup

Rating & Type: FE/B