Homemade Sloppy Joes March 6, 2007

I love Manwich Sloppy Joes. I don’t know what it is that makes them so delicious, but I could eat them everyday. That being said, I decided to make my own, at home sloppy joe mix, convinced that it couldn’t be as good as Manwich. The end result, the at home sloppy joe mix was pretty good, but still hard to beat the yumminess of Manwich that comes out of a can.

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp olive oil
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
4 Tbsp brown sugar
1 ½-cup tomato sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
½ tsp allspice
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
4 buns

Add oil to a skillet and cook beef over medium high heat until fully cooked. Combine sugar, allspice, and cayenne pepper and sprinkle over the cooked beef. Reduce the heat to medium and add in vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, Dijon mustard, and garlic, cook for 5 minutes. Add tomato sauce and paste. Stir to combine. Reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Serve. Makes 4 servings.

Screwdriver Steak Salad January 23, 2007

During our return from our honeymoon, husband and I discovered the duty free liquor store at the airport. It was amazing, the same brands we have in the States but at a fraction of the price. We decided to purchase a few bottles, we couldn’t pass up these bargains. One of our purchases was Absolut Peppar Vodka. Neither of us had tasted it, but we figured we’d give it a try. We got it home and excitedly opened it up, curious to what this vodka was going to taste like. Needless to say, it didn’t taste good. We tried several different concoctions, Bloody Mary, Peppar Tea, straight, but nothing could save this vodka. But I can’t just waste the vodka by throwing it away, so it has been demoted to a cooking vodka. It makes a pretty good vodka sauce. But husband has been craving steak, so I came up with a Screwdriver Steak Salad.

Ingredients:
¾ – 1 lb strip loin steak, sirloin would work too, but the strip is a bit more tender
4 cups lettuce
1 carrot, chopped
1 tsp ground peppercorns

Marinade:
½-cup Absolut Peppar Vodka
¾-cup orange juice
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

Dressing:
½-cup orange juice
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
dash hot sauce
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
3 Tbsp olive oil

Mix together the ingredients for the marinade. Place steak into a resealable plastic bag and pour marinade on top. Place in a pan to catch any possible leakage and place in the refrigerator for 1 to 8 hours. Cook the steaks to your liking (husband likes his steak rare inside, so I cooked his over medium heat about 2 minutes on each side). Once cooked, slice against the grain into thin strips. Place on top of salads.

To make dressing combine the juice, mustard, hot sauce, salt, and pepper. Once mixed, slowly drizzle in the oil while mixing swiftly. Toss the dressing with the salad and carrots. Then sprinkle ground peppercorns onto lettuce. Serves 2.

Black Bean Burgers January 20, 2007

I cook a lot with black beans, they’re easy to use, plus they are really quite healthy for you. When I look for black bean burger recipes, I only find recipes that are made solely out of black beans, but I really wanted one that incorporated beef, so I created mine own.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
½-cup blacks beans, rinsed
1 chipotle in adobo sauce, seeds removed and chopped
1 tsp salt
4 hamburger buns
2 Tbsp sour cream
2 Tbsp ranch dressing
2 Tbsp salsa

Mash the black beans and add in the beef, chipotle, and salt. Form into four patties and cook over medium heat, 3 to 4 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, combine the sour cream, ranch dressing, and salsa. Once the burgers are cooked, place on buns and top with sour cream dressing. Serve.

Tomato Basil Burgers January 10, 2007

Husband really likes hamburgers, but if I made him a regular hamburger all the time, I would get really bored. That is why I like to throw some extra fun ingredients into the beef. He gets a yummy hamburger and I get to try out a new hamburger recipe, it is the best of both worlds. Sorry there isn’t a picture of the burgers, they got gobbled up before I got a picture.

Husband has a food rating system, how many times would he be willing to eat said food in a 5 day week, husband said that he would eat these burger 4 out of 5 days.

Ingredients:
1 lb ground beef
2 Tbsp fresh or dried basil
8 sun dried tomato pieces, chopped
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
4 Tbsp mayonnaise
2 Tbsp blue cheese, crumbled
4 buns

Combine the beef, basil, tomato, salt, and pepper and form into 4 patties. Cook over medium heat on a grill or in a skillet, 3 minutes on each side. Meanwhile, mix together the mayo and blue cheese. Once the burgers are cooked, place on buns, top with blue cheese mayo mixture and serve. Makes 4 servings.