Sloppy, Sloppy

I don't know if I'm turning into my in-laws (you have to know a family story to get that reference), but today I thought a lot about food.

Mostly, I thought about recipes, and what I could find in one of the cookbooks that I have (its one I got from my mother for my birthday; its basic, but thats okay, cause thats the kind of cook I am). I had already listed out what I wanted to make for dinner tonight; this was just to see what else might pop up from reading that. Once I find whatever's in there, I'll digitize it and give the cookbook away to the local college for their book sale.

But I was also thinking: if I go to the CIA one week baking boot camp, I wonder if I could then start an informal school locally to teach kids how to bake? It'd be really basic things, mostly munchies (like the cookies I made two days ago) but also some things that'd be suitable for Christmas and such. Perhaps even a couple of baking-impaired mothers might want to attend... you think?

Food, overall, is going to be a problem for me, come about two weeks from now. From what I gather, I won't really be able to chew very much -- no biting at all for at least two weeks, and more likely 4-6 weeks -- as the bone graft takes root in my jaw. I'm thinking I ought to look for some liquid alternatives, like 'breakfast shakes' and the like that I can make at home. Many of those are for the health food and granola group, but not all. Gotta look.

As for dinner: I had said I would make Sloppy Joes, and thats what I'm doing, but instead of our standard (brown beef, drain, add chili sauce, done), I'm making this recipe, which I'd found on the web some time ago:

Sloppy Joes
Estimated Time: 30min


2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 1/4 lb ground beef
1/2 ea Spanish onion, diced
2 fl oz ketchup
1 c water
1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper, to taste
1 c sauce, tomato, about 1 can
3 tbsp red wine vinegar
2 tbsp granulated sugar
1/2 tsp salt, to taste
1/2 tsp black pepper, to taste
4 ea kaiser rolls, extra as needed


1 Heat oil in a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Stir in beef and onions and cook until liquid has evaporated and meat begins to brown,
about 15 minutes.

2 Stir in ketchup, water, Worcestershire, mustard, cayenne, tomato sauce, vinegar, and sugar. Simmer, stirring occasionally until mixture has a thick, stew-like consistency, about 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

3 While the meat stews, split rolls open and toast. Serve the mixture on the toasted rolls.

We'll see how it turns out.
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Update: not bad. I changed the recipe (not this copy) to double the ketchup, halve the cayenne. And I never did put the black pepper in, which I think was a good move. But we'd make it again -- pretty easy to do.