Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Cookbook review/ Sloppy Joes

I picked up the Pioneer Woman's new cookbook at Costco the other day. I just couldn't help it. I've read her blog for years, I have her first cookbook and I just felt like I needed to have it.


I posted this pic on Instagram earlier this week and both Jude and Nicole requested a review. I decided right off that I would pick something new each day from it and review it here on my blog.
First impressions of the cookbook: There's a lot more food in it than the first one. That's a good thing. I like food. However, just like the first one, if you've been reading her blog for a significant amount of time, you will recognize many of the recipes. That's not necessarily a bad thing. I mean, you can't expect her to come up with a slew of brand new recipes, when her M.O. has always been to showcase recipes she uses in her daily life. Anyway, I think there's a nice mix of familiar recipes and new ones. Enough new ones to make everyone happy, I think.
The first recipe I tried was Sloppy Joes. I don't have any pics of this because I wasn't thinking far enough in advance at that point ;-)
Sloppy Joes is listed under "lunch". I would never put this much effort into lunch unless I had company so we ate it for dinner. Not that it took much effort at all. It was very easy and I had everything I needed in my fridge and pantry.
The original recipe serves 8 but I don't need that much so here is the recipe with my adjustments. I'd say it serves 5 to 6.

Sloppy Joes
1lb ground beef
1 bell pepper, diced
1/2 yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1 Tbsp brown sugar
red pepper flakes to taste
Worcestershire sauce to taste
Tabasco sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste
Kaiser rolls or burger buns

Brown the meat, drain the fat. Add the onions and peppers and garlic. Add the ketchup, 3/4 cup water and mix. Add in the brown sugar and all the other seasonings. Stir and let simmer for 20 minutes. Serve on buttered, toasted buns.

Verdict: For as simple as this was...it was dang good! Everybody really liked it. Even Pete who often is the toughest critic. Will definitely make again.

Up next: Grilled corn guacamole and BBQ chicken pineapple quesadillas.

1 comment:

nicole said...

that sounds good! i will have to give that a try...because that is one meal my kids all love.