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Monday 20 January 2014

Sloppy Joes




Living in this fast-paced modern world is challenging for most cakers. Why, just yesterday, I had to return my VHS copy of On Golden Pond to the video store. Then I had to go the Regis Salon at the mall to get my tips frosted. Then I had to go to bowling. All this before 5pm! The last thing I had time for when I got home was forming beef patties.

Thank god for Sloppy Joes. You get all the goodness of a hamburger with a fraction of the effort. Even the condiments are included in the mixture! Just remember to tie a tea towel around your neck. They don’t call them "sloppy" for no reason. I’ve got the stained coveralls to prove it.

These call for Campbell’s Chicken Gumbo soup, which may take some cakers out of their Cream-of-Mushroom comfort zones. But there’s a world of condensed soups out there, just waiting to be added to ground meat. As Proust said: The only real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.

1 pound ground beef
1 tablespoon chopped onions
1 can chicken gumbo soup
2 tablespoons mustard
2 tablespoons chopped celery
2 tablespoons relish
2 tablespoons ketchup
Mushrooms (optional)

Brown ground beef and onion in fry pan. Add remaining ingredients. Serve on toasted hamburger buns.

Source: St. Luke’s United Church Cookbook

14 comments:

  1. I hope the onions and celery are available to buy pre-packaged! You're surely not expecting me to have fresh vegetables just lying around the house? I'm really taking to this new way of life -do I need to get cable TV?

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    1. You really should get cable TV. It's really something. Just make sure you get one of those new fangled remote controls. Getting up off the couch to change the channel is THE WORST.

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  2. Okay, I'm Italian, but I love sloppy joes.

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  3. Pull out the bib -who doesn't love Sloppy Joes!!? I'm gonna make these on the weekend in my slow cooker while watching Short Circuit ( on VHS of course). Perhaps after that I'll listen to Duran Duran on the ghetto blaster I purchased at Sears ( I'm really not joking!)

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    1. As far as I'm concerned, Duran Duran and Sloppy Joes go together like ghetto blasters and Sears.

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  4. MMM love sloppy joes....I just can't afford to make them very often. I can remember back in the day when you could buy hamburger for 99 cents a pound and chicken breast was expensive and a rare treat. Now the regular price is hamburger is around $4.29 and the chicken is on sale for 99 cents. Funny how things change so dramatically!

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    1. You're preaching to the choir, Polly. I can't believe how expensive meat is getting. Especially ground meat. And that's made of noses and ears and stuff. I can't imagine how much a steak costs these days.

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  5. The version where I grew up was more of a bbq sauce soaked deal. It wasn't bad, but strangely sweet. Where I live now, they have a "Loose Meat" sandwich that is almost identical to this if you skipped the soup, and added some vinegar. Personally, loose meat sounds a bit scandalous.

    I am closing in on 50, and in all my years have never seen tinned chicken gumbo soup. Clearly, I need to get out more.

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    1. Chicken Gumbo can be a little tricky to find. It's not the most popular type of canned soup, that's for sure.

      Whenever I hear "loose meat sandwich," I think of the diner that Roseanne opened up on the TV show. I always wondered what loose meat was. And now I know.

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  6. Would you believe that I've never had a sloppy joe? I think you above post explains why - my parents were such prudes, that they refused to let we child cakers have loose meat. I mean whatever other explanation can there be? Really ,who does have time to form meat patties?

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    1. Do you know how long it takes to form meat patties? Like, 5 minutes. Do you what else you can do in 5 minutes? Make 3 different caker crafts.

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  7. Is it me, or is the color a bit...off?

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    1. The Sloppy Joes were a little yellowish. I was expecting them to be redder, but maybe I've been tainted by Manwich all these years. But there's a lot of yellowy stuff in these - mustard, gumbo, sunshine.

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