Before becoming a server, before attempting my first Food Network recipe, I remember being called into the kitchen to watch meat brown in a skillet, while my mom would switch a load of laundry or make a quick phone call.
Growing up, I was no stranger to the expression "You boys are going to eat me out of house and home." "You boys," my mom would say, were my dad, brother, and me, all known for our "Perrine sized" appetites. Capable of easily tearing through a couple pounds of hamburger, or an entire pot of chili, we left no choice for my mother but to find recipes that were easily doubled.
There would be many nights, my brother and I working on home work in the dining room, where the intoxicating smell of ground beef, onions, and green peppers would waft through, setting off my sloppy-joe sensors. One of my favorite childhood recipes, I was only about 12 when I asked my mom how to make it.
"It's easy," she said, "All you do is chop up an onion, a green pepper, and put it in a skillet with some ground beef." That didn't sound too hard. "After it's brown, drain the fat, put in some ketchup, and a little mustard, until it looks like sloppy joes." Par usual, mom ended her recipe with "It's really not that hard."
Most of my family's recipes are straight forward and memorable, using common ingredients and household kitchen ware. Like the sloppy joes, many are quick dinner fixes, things you can make in under an hour, after getting off of work. But they are delicious, too, and healthier than grabbing a McRib from McDonalds, or going out to some cheap chain restaurant for "microwaved masterpieces."
After moving out of the dorms after freshmen year, having a kitchen of my own, sloppy joes were one of the first things I made. Gaining inspiration from Rachel Ray and Ina Garten, I felt adventurous enough to modify my mom's classic recipe, by adding some chipotle chili powder, and some spicy brown mustard. The sloppy joes gained depth and a growing heat, becoming "grown up" sloppy joes. Living with three straight boys, I understood what my mom meant by saying "eating me out of house and home." A fresh alternative to Hamburger helper, or Ramen noodles, I was treated like I made a meal fit for Bocus d'Or.
I'm sure that with two kids, with two different sets of taste buds, making "grown up" sloppy joes might be out of the question, but even in the simplest form, sloppy joes have the power to bring back memories, a recipe that can be handed down from generation to generation.
Even living with my boyfriend in a one bedroom apartment, serving at a restaurant where elaborate dishes pass my nose every night, it's inevitable once every couple of months I will get an insatiable craving for sloppy joes. Paired with a nice Malbec or Zinfandel, I'll take sloppy joes over Smith and Wollensky's any day.
Sloppy joes
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped fairly fine
1/2 green pepper, chopped to the size of the onion
1 lb, ground beef, the leaner the better
1 tablespoon yellow mustard ( or dijon for "grown up" )
3/4 cup - 1 cup of ketchup, depending on preference
1/2 tablespoon chipotle chili powder ( optional )
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
1. In a large skillet, heat vegetable oil and cook onions and green pepper until slightly translucent.
2. Add ground beef and cook, breaking it apart, until brown.
3. Drain excess fat.
4. Stir in mustard, ketchup, chipotle chili powder, salt and pepper. Serve on hamburger buns.
