Sloppy Joes

No Mannwich in this house! Tonight I made homemade sloppy joes. Mmmm…

This is an original recipe, straight from Grandma, and tonight I didn’t make any changes. I do, sometimes, add brown sugar instead of white, and a little prepared mustard for tang. Tonight was the straight traditional recipe.

Sloppy Joes

1 lb. ground meat (I use turkey nowadays, but grew up using hamburger)
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped green pepper
1/4 cup chopped celery
1-8 oz. tomato sauce
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tbsp. vinegar
1-2 tbsp sugar (if you like a sweeter sloppy joe, add the 2)
1 1/2 tsp. worchestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper

Directions
Brown the meat. Add the onion, pepper, and celery, and cook until veggies are tender. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Cover, and let simmer 20 minutes.

A good, toasted bun with a little healthy margarine or olive oil brushed on it makes this way more than just a childhood favorite.
I served mine with steak fried and peas, because, well, I like steak fries and peas.
DH likes a little melted cheese on his, but I passed on the cheese for mine.

Enjoy!

Baked Potato Soup with a Smoked Salmon Twist!

Tonight I made Baked Potato Soup — but instead of adding your usual bacon/cheese combination, I decided to use up a pound of smoked salmon we had.
Surprisingly, it was DELICIOUS! I had read that you can substitute smoked salmon for bacon, and its actually true!

This is the original recipe: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Baked-Potato-Soup/Detail.aspx
And here’s how mine turned out…

First, my changes:
– Made it for 8 servings (versus the original 4 servings), so we’d be sure to have leftovers
– Added 1 lb. smoked salmon
– Left the skins on my potatoes — I like them that way
– The original recipe called for hot sauce…hate the stuff, so I left it out

I did have bacon and cheese for garnish, because I was concerned I wouldn’t like the salmon flavor. Honestly, you could do without them.

Baked Potato Soup with Smoked Salmon
6 bacon strips – diced
2 small onion – chopped
2 cloves garlic – minced
1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons dried basil
1 teaspoon pepper
6 cups chicken broth
4 large baked potatoes – cubed
2 cups half-and-half cream
1 pound fully cooked smoked salmon
Shredded Cheddar cheese
Minced fresh parsley

DIRECTIONS
In a large pan, cook bacon until crisp. Drain the bacon, reserving 1 tablespoon drippings. Set bacon aside. Saute onion and garlic in the drippings until tender. Stir in flour, salt, basil and pepper; mix well. Gradually add broth. Bring to boil; boil and stir for 2 minutes. Add the potatoes, cream, and salmon. Heat through but do not boil.
Garnish with bacon, cheese and parsley.

Prior to garnish:

After DH got ahold of the toppings:

Welcome!

This is me…creating a blog. Interesting…never figured I’d do this!

First recipe coming tomorrow — Baked Potato Soup with Smoked Salmon! *crosses fingers*