Thursday, February 4, 2016

Pioneer Woman Sloppy Joes

I have discovered that when I'm not being lazy, I actually enjoy cooking. It's probably because Pioneer Woman makes it so easy. We're having a shindig tomorrow at work, and I'm taking Pioneer Woman sloppy joes. I chronicled the making of them tonight* to show you just how easy it is to make them from scratch.**

Mickey loves sloppy Joes, but
he hates Beverly.

Like all great recipes, you start with butter. Mark had started cooking when I got home because he is the best husband ever! He had only gotten to the "melt butter in a pan" stage and portioning out the beef, but he was working on it. He had also put out matching pajamas for us because that's how we roll. Don't hate.

It actually looks prettier than expected.

Once you start browning the burger, you get to turn your attention to something much more fun...dicing! You dice an onion...you dice a green pepper...you dice some garlic. It's a bunch of fresh ingredients that you get to chop into itty bitty pieces.***

Here, we see an onion, post chopping. The green pepper
does not know what it is in for.

Once you've added the veggies in with the beef, you can start adding the thirty-five other ingredients. Well, there's not really that many, but it sure feels like it. All these ingredients make you wonder if you wouldn't be better off just using that can of Manwich. Don't do it! This is totally worth it.****

That A1 was actually replaced with Worcestershire
sauce right before I added it. Mark was surprised
to see it, which was when I realized it 
was wrong.

Once you have all that goodness mixed up and in the pan, it's time to simmer for fifteen minutes or so. This is an excellent time to make sides. We went simple and had BBQ chips, as well as Asian Barbecue beans, which were awful. I actually spit out the mouthful I tried. I then told Mark he was a monster because he had tried them and knew they were awful but didn't warn me.***** It's like letting someone try the Beverly.

Corn...great for dusting buns and
adding to pancakes.

The other key to amazing sloppy joes is a toasted bun. Bust out your griddle or a fry pan and butter up yo' buns! Once they're toasted, they'll hold up better to the delicious sloppy joes goodness you're about to slather them in. For good measure, throw a piece of cheese on there. Everything is better with cheese.

Pictured: disgusting beans.

If you've never made real sloppy joes before, the Pioneer Woman recipe is great. It is super simple and, if I can do it, anyone can. She does have you make a huge batch, so if you don't have a family of eight, you can always halve it. Since we are partying at the branch tomorrow, it worked out for me. Seriously, someone had better eat it all.

*Actually, I did it so that everyone could see that I did it nice and clean. I didn't want anyone worried about eating them tomorrow.

**Seriously, I thought all sloppy joes came from a can. You get Manwich and add it to burger. At least, that was what I thought. After I made these for my mom, she started making them from scratch too!

***Seriously, you can just take your frustrations out on those happy little, inanimate objects. Does it make me mentally unbalanced to enjoy knifing them? I'm just a knife....knifin' around...Cut, cut, cut...

****Besides, do you really want to eat something called Manwich? It's really an odd name, when you stop and think about it. It's not the weirdest phrase I heard this week. Yesterday, Jeremy said "filet the wiener". He was talking about the proper way to serve a hot dog, but seriously...phrasing.

*****I take back that best husband comment from earlier.