Sloppy Joes and California Potato Salad

This post is about classic dishes. I was getting bored with my normal ground beef recipes and wanted to do something different. Allrecipes suggested Sloppy Joes. I’d never made Sloppy Joes before, so I was hoping for a recipe that was a good representation of what a good one tastes like. And for the side, potato salad. Although there are thousands of different potato salad recipes, many of which I’ve tasted, I had never made one of my own before. For my first attempt, I wanted to make the classic side dish but in a big way: a version that was unique and delicious. I think I accomplished both of these.

 

 

Two memories of Sloppy Joes growing up:

 

1. They were called “Sloppy Jolies” in my house because apparently I made a royal mess with them. This was the only acceptable term, and I’d bet money that it’s the one my parents still use.

 

2. The real reason I made a mess of them was because my mom hid tiny bits of onion on it and I was trying to eat around them. I was on to her tricks.

 

Current thoughts about Sloppy Joes:

 

1. It still feels weird to call them anything other than Sloppy Jolies, but I’m trying.

 

2. I like onions now, assuming they’re cooked down a bit.

So here we go. An onion and a green bell pepper.

 

 

All cut up.

 

 

I started with some ground beef in a big skillet on the stove.

 

 

A little browner…

 

 

When it was mostly done, I drained out the fat and added the vegetables.

 

 

The sauce that I made was a combination of a recipe and my own changes. I’ll post a link for it at some point. For now, this is what you need to know:

 

A bit of ketchup and also some barbecue sauce (I used KC masterpiece).

 

 

And some garlic powder, mustard, and brown sugar.

 

 

The meat and veggies are about done, so I transferred the mixture to a crock pot and added those sauce ingredients.

 

 

Then I added a touch of vinegar (not in the original recipe)

 

 

And Worcestershire sauce (also not in the recipe)

 

 

And then a healthy dose of salt and pepper.

 

 

Then I just mixed it up, covered it, and left the crockpot on low for a few hours.

 

 

 

Now for my potato salad. Here are some potatoes. I didn’t bother to peel them, just scrubbed and cut them up.

 

 

After cubing them, I dropped them in a big pot of water and let them boil.

 

 

I also put some eggs in water to boil.

 

 

Then I assembled my ingredients: garlic, Dijon mustard, rice vinegar, mayonnaise, and a can of artichoke hearts. This is looking yummy already.

 

 

While I waited for the potatoes and eggs to cook, I chopped up the artichokes.

 

 

 

When the potatoes were finally done, I drained them in a big colander.

 

 

And when the eggs were done, I drained out the hot water

 

 

Before replacing it with cold

 

 

When they were cool enough, I peeled the eggs. Here they are! I was surprised by how easy they were to peel. I guess I normally wait until they’re chilled, but this worked well.

 

 

Look at how amazingly perfect they turned out! No green tinge, just a perfect, bright, fluffy yellow yolk.

 

 

Anyway, I diced the eggs and added them to the artichokes.

 

 

Added the potatoes and mixed everything up a bit before adding garlic

 

 

Dijon mustard…

 

 

 

Rice vinegar…

 

 

Mayo…

 

 

The recipe said to use freshly shaved Parmesan. This was the best I had. A poor substitute, I know, so I only added a touch of it.

 

 

Then I mixed everything up.

 

 

Then, in a flash of inspiration, I crumbled and added three strips of cooked bacon that I happened to have in the fridge.

 

 

Then it was time to serve!

 

I put some hamburger buns in the toaster oven.

 

 

The Sloppy Jolie Joe mixture had gotten real nice.

 

 

When the buns were toasted, I spooned a little bit of the meat onto the bun and topped with the other half.

 

 

 

And of course, my California potato salad, bursting with artichokes

 

 

Impressions:

 

The Sloppy Jolies Joes were sweeter than I’d expected. I suppose adding BBQ sauce without decreasing the brown sugar is to blame. I’m not sure it was a bad thing or not, except that the flavor was more reminiscent of BBQ sauce than tomato sauce, as well. But it was good. Hubby seemed pleased enough with it to have seconds, so I guess I did all right.

 

 

As for the potato salad? I can’t praise it enough. It was SO DAMN GOOD. I was fighting the urge to snack on it all afternoon. I ate too much of it at dinner. I nibbled on it again when I was cleaning up later. I ate more the next day. Someone who does not like artichokes will not like this recipe, but someone who likes them will love it. It wasn’t too heavy on mayo, either. I plan on making it again today or tomorrow, if I can get my homework done with enough time to justify playing in the kitchen.

 

Seriously. So good.

Stuffed Shells

I first found this recipe when I was living in my little one bedroom apartment above a photography studio in an old-fashioned Pennsylvania town.

I first prepared it when I was dating this guy long-distance and he was coming to visit me for the weekend. I think I wanted to impress him.

Honestly, I don’t remember how it turned out. I just remember how little I cared about the food once that guy showed up at my door.

The second time I made it, I had taken my relationship with that guy to the next level and had moved to Maryland to live with him. I served it when he had some friends over for dinner. His friend asked for hot sauce and immediately drenched his shells in it. I’m still mad at that guy for it, even though we’re not friends with him anymore.

This was my third time. The boyfriend is now my husband and we had just moved back to New York. We’d invited my family over for dinner and I decided to make these shells for them. The nice thing about it is that it can be prepared way in advance, so all I had to do when people were over was to get off the couch and put it in the oven.

Start off with some fresh, juicy baby portabellas.

I do love that colander. All the mushrooms get diced when they’re clean.

Sure makes for a lot. It occurred to me after I was done with this that I could have saved a lot of time by doing it with my food processor. Ah well.

Yep, definitely should have used the food processor. The onions made me cry.

But the garlic was easy (I used the stuff from a jar).

First step is to sizzle all the mushrooms, onions, and garlic in a big skillet.

It’ll cook down after a bit.

When you’re satisfied with it, add a pound of ground turkey. It had been a long time since I’d used ground turkey, and I’m not sure why. It’s good, and a lot healthier than beef.

Cook it up a bit.

Don’t forget to season with salt and pepper. I tend to forget that. Not this time!

While that was happening, I had prepped some other things. Here’s some fresh parsley.

And some frozen chopped spinach. It was in a bowl because I was thawing it in the microwave.

When the turkey was cooked thoroughly, I added the spinach (after squeezing out the water) and the chopped parsley.

And then a whole bunch of cottage cheese. I think I chose a reduced fat container of it.

And finally, some grated Parmesan cheese.

When it’s all mixed in, this is what it looked like.

I waited until this point to boil the jumbo shells because I really wanted to give the mixture a chance to cool down before sticking my fingers in it. I remembered from last time how hard it was to stuff the shells when the mixture is hot.

Once they were boiled and drained, I put them next to the cheese and turkey mixture in preparation for stuffing.

As far as stuffed shells go, these were so pretty!

Am I right? I’m right, I know.

As for topping them, this is what I had: “Grandpa’s Sauce” from Wegman’s and grated skim milk mozzarella. I’d never had that sauce before, but that name is pretty effective marketing. I needed it and I’ve never even had a Grandpa to make homemade sauce before.

Covered with foil and put it in the fridge until later. I made a big mess but had plenty of time to clean it up!

Fresh out of the oven, this is what it looked like.

And once it was served up, this is what it looked like.

None of the ingredients alone stood out – no one seemed aware of the mushrooms or the turkey or the cottage cheese – but they all worked very well together. The taste just works.

Definitely too much work for a normal weeknight, but it’s certainly doable on weekends and well worth the effort.

And they make for good leftovers. Hubby had them for lunch at work and I should have frozen some for later, too. Mmmm!