Recipe of the Week: Sloppy Joes

Sloppy Joe sandwiches are one of those foods you either love or loathe.  It is a sure bet my sides will hurt from laughing when I watch SNL's "Lunch Lady Land" skit with Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, which - in a twisted way - celebrated this humble and much-maligned school lunch staple of the 60s and 70s.  Remember?

"Sloppy joe.
Slop, sloppy joe.
Sloppy joe.
Slop, sloppy joe.
Come on.
Sloppy joe.
Slop, sloppy joe...."

Of course, if you haven't seen the skit, that won't make sense.  If you're not a fan of Adam Sandler's brand of low-brow humor, you won't laugh when you do see it.   But I have to consider it one of Chris Farley's most memorable characters (but not as good as the motivational speaker who lived in a van, down by the river.)

I digress.

Where were we?  Ahhh yes.  The sandwich.

I am not a fan of the MSG-laden canned concoction found on store shelves (although I confess I've bought the stuff in a pinch.)

This version - which I adapted from Once-a-Month-Cooking with a few changes - is fast, easy and delish - as long as I have chili sauce on hand, I can count on it as a go-to meal when we're scrambling for something to throw together.  (OAMC gives make-ahead freezing instructions, but do we need to make it ahead of time?)

Sloppy Joes (aka Joes to Go)

Ingredients:
1 pound lean ground beef
1/2 cup finely chopped onions
1/2 cup finely chopped green pepper
1 tablespoon minced garlic
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup chili sauce
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon white vinegar
1 tablespoon prepared mustard (or more, to taste)
1 8-ounce can tomato sauce
Hamburger buns

Directions:
Brown ground beef, onion, bell pepper and garlic.  Drain.  Add additional ingredients and bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Spoon on buns to serve.  (Toasted buns are best.)  Makes 5-6 sandwiches.

Sloppy Joes. Is it plural or possessive: Joe's or Joes?  Either way, they're a fast, inexpensive and fun meal for families on the go and a trip down memory lane for those of us who grew up eating the cafeteria version.

Happy cooking!

Keeping a home

"A woman's place is in the home."

Growing up in the '60s and '70s, even in a conservative, traditional family, I was surrounded by enough feminism to reject that statement (and the verse in Titus 2 that is its basis) as sexist and demeaning. And let's face it - those words were usually uttered to "put women in their place" by men who didn't truly understand their role or the role of women.

So I grew up, got married, and a few years later we had baby #1. And then I went back to school. A few years later, we had baby #2 and I had two B.S. degrees (finance and accounting) and a handful of plum job offers to choose from. I eagerly joined the workforce and charged into 70-hour workweeks and jetting off to exotic locales like...Kansas. And Iowa. And western Texas. And eastern Kentucky. (Apologies to those living in rural areas: your states are lovely in a pastoral sort of way, but visiting pipelines and coal mines isn't exactly glamorous.) But I found my niche in the HR field, and I enjoyed the challenges of my job, at least most days.

At long last, baby #3 came along, along with yet another rung on the career ladder. The juggling act became more precarious as I tried to have it all, be it all, do it all. A nanny helped a lot: she cleaned and laundered and chauffeured my munchkins around during the day, and I took the reins at night, trying to make sure we had wholesome meals and family time squeezed in between ball games, church and school functions.

Finally, eleven years ago, I stood at a crossroads: career? Or home? I took the road that is less-traveled these days: to stay at home.

It was counter-intuitive: oldest son was entering high school, middle son was in middle school and the baby was off to kindergarten. At a time when most women would be plunging back into the workforce, I quietly exited it.

For over a decade, my days have been filled with chauffeuring kids to and from school, ball, church and friends. I have been blessed by a chance to work from home, in a field I have no formal training in but an abiding love and passion for (gardening), and have been able to weave work and family together to form my days (and nights) for many years.

Even still, for many years I didn't consider myself a "keeper of the home" and our house showed it. Yes, I cleaned and organized and (haphazardly) decorated it, but my heart wasn't in it. I didn't see this as "my place" in life.

Finally, this move has opened my eyes. We have a lovely new house to call home. And for the first time in my life, I find myself embracing the idea of being a keeper of my home. Throwing myself into managing my home and everything that goes on inside it, and enjoying the simple pleasures of folding freshly laundered clothes or mopping the floor.

Yes, it is possible to get pleasure from blessing your family with a well-tended home. I don't know why it took me this long to figure that out.

And lest my working friends think this is a condemnation of your choice to pursue a career outside your home, it definitely is not. I think it's possible to tend your home and have a career.  Been there, done that, got the frequent flyer miles to prove it. I admire and love each of you for proving it is possible every day.

My only wish and prayer for all of us is that when we find ourselves at the crossroads, and we are faced with that choice, that we can choose the one we really want to pursue at that stage of our lives. And that our choices bring peace and contentment to us, and blessings to our families.

Happy Monday,
Terry

Tying Up More Loose Ends: Week 2

After my success at hanging a blind (it's the little things that mean a lot, isn't it?) I decided I would shoot for tying up at least a couple if not several loose ends every week - ideally one a day, but some of these "ends" are going to take longer than a day and some weeks have other stuff crowding the schedule. (I'm pretty sure there are enough undone and almost-done things around here to keep me busy every day all summer long.)

During the past week, I managed to finish the following tasks:

Saturday.  I scraped the ceiling in the old house's laundry room. It was only ten years overdue. Okay, we'll cut me some slack and call it four years overdue since that's when I scraped the bonus room and it was the next-to-last room to be scraped, and promised I'd move onto the laundry room next.

It took me under two hours, start to finish. Honestly, in the last four years, I couldn't spare two hours to scrape the blasted ceiling and a couple more hours to paint it??? I have made myself a promise that I will focus on the success and I won't beat myself up over these loose ends, but that was definitely a hall-of-shame project. It's done, and the new owners - whoever they might be - can enjoy the house popcorn-free.

Bonus:  Also on Saturday I rearranged an alcove in the new garage so I can use my wire shelves from the old house and store my canning supplies and other stuff that's coming out of the attic.  As I swept and tidied, guess what I found behind the water heater? The missing wand to the wood blind we just hung. So now to replace the replacement with the original, and take the other wand back to the old house.  Confused yet? Me, too.

Monday.  I can't take full credit for this one, but I did help. A little.  My brave menfolk - all three of them - took turns climbing into the fiery furnace (aka attic) and handing down boxes and tubs.  No one could stay up there long - it was simply too hot.  Sidenote:  Two attics are NOT double the fun.  The Christmas and other seasonal stuff is now tucked away in the new walk-in attic (God bless the genius architect who first designed a house with an attic you can WALK into instead of climb into.)  The canning jars are now on their new shelves in the garage, along with the ice cream freezer and even our turkey fryer/low country boiling pot.  (Forgot we even had it!)

Unfortunately, the rest of the stuff is now one ginormous loose end.  The old house's garage looks like a scene from "The Hoarders" with six piles o' stuff:  one for each member of our family, plus one designated for a garage sale.  The next step in the process is for the individual piles to begin shrinking as everyone culls through their stuff and moves things to the garage sale pile, or to the trash.  But when theory meets reality, they are often complete strangers, unknown to each other.  Sigh. I'm sure the piles will eventually go away.


Tuesday.  I patched all the nail holes and did a final clean sweep of the old house before the painters arrived.  I can finally say the house is really and truly ready to be painted.

The rest of the week was spent on getting several work-related tasks and volunteer loose ends pushed to the finish line, in between playing swim taxi to and from practice.  I'm hoping next week I'll have a little more time to tie up a few more loose ends, because I do believe I am on a roll.

Happy end-tying!