Pioneer Woman’s Sloppy Joes

Last night Jack and I watched “Julie and Julia.” It was a really good movie and considering I had just finished Julia’s book about living in Paris I really enjoyed it! Jack asked if I had gotten the idea about a blog from the movie. He has no idea the number of food blogs that exist and have nothing to do with Julia Child! So I started thinking about the food blogs that I enjoy. One of my favorites is The Pioneer Woman. She lives on a ranch and blogs about her life. She has some amazing recipes and I love to read them. Lately she posted her recipe for sloppy joes. There has always been something a little subversive to me about sloppy joes. As a child, here was a meal that you were actually allowed to be messy! Now that stuff in a can is pretty good, but I have always thought that it had to be pretty easy to make them myself. So last weekend I found this recipe and lo and behold I had everything I needed already in the kitchen! All except green bell pepper, but I’m not a big fan of those anyways so I just left it out.

I browned the ground beef in my favorite skillet

Added the onions and garlic.

The spices and brown sugar                      

Then added the rest of the ingredients and heated.

Extreme close up!

How’s that for dinner??

Of course my little camera hog had to have his picture taken too! He really loved his sloppy joe!

And then I did this! Pulled out my food mill and ground up some of the mixture

 

So I made this! Sloppy joe baby food! Nell loved it and ate it well. We are currently eating all kinds of foods so it didn’t seem like a stretch to just share this meal with her too!

  

Here’s the Pioneer Woman’s recipe! I actually cut this recipe in half for our family so do however much you want! We had none left and Jack had two sandwiches!

2 Tablespoons Butter
2-½ pounds Ground Beef
½ whole Large Onion, Diced
1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced (I left this out)
5 cloves Garlic, Minced (I used three)
1-½ cup Ketchup
1 cup Water
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
2 teaspoons Chili Powder (Next time I think I’ll use a little less. It had a kick to it!)
1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
½ teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes (more To Taste)
Worcestershire Sauce To Taste
2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (mine had gone bad so I left it out)
Tabasco Sauce (I left this out too)
Salt To Taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste

Add butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Drain. Add onions, green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft. Add ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste, Worcestershire, and Tabasco if desired. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.