Time: 25 minutes

Serves 4

Music Selection: Eagles – Take It To The Limit

Sloppy Joes are Fall comfort food. It also is a hearty dish and to fully enjoy it, you need to take your time and live in the moment of every bite, every sound, every aroma… you need to “take it to the limit one more time”. I find that sloppy joes also are very individual – in our house, we have the plain meat on bun, the version with sweet pickles and cheese, and the one with a runny egg on top… find your version and soak in the sweet tunes of the Eagles.

Ingredients:

1 ½ lb ground beef

2 Tbsp oil

½ large onion, diced

½ green bell pepper, diced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 ½ cups ketchup

1 cup water

2 Tbsp brown sugar

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp dry mustard

1 tsp smoked paprika

½ tsp dried chili pepper flakes (optional)

2 Tbsp worcestershire sauce

2 Tbsp tomato paste

Salt/pepper

Large buns, like Kaisers (one per person)

¼ cup butter, melted

1 tsp garlic powder

Cheese slices (cheddar or Monterey jack)

Sweet pickle coins (optional)

Mustard (optional)

Directions:

In large pot, cook beef, garlic and onions with the oil.

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When the beef is brown and the onions are soft, add in the ketchup, water, bell pepper, brown sugar, chili powder, dry mustard, smoked paprika, Worcestershire sauce, tomato paste and optional chili pepper flakes. Mix well and let simmer, until it thickens to a consistency you like.

In the meantime, add the garlic powder to the melted butter. Cut the buns in half and lay on a baking sheet. Brush the garlic butter on each bun half. Then broil for a minute (watch carefully) or two, until the edges start to brown.

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Now to load these buns: Take a bun, and if you like mustard, you can brush some mustard on the bottom of the bun. Next, take a large scoop of the meat and place on the bun. Now, top with cheese. If you want the cheese melted, you can stick it under the broiler or in the microwave for 20 seconds. (It is well worth the extra 20 seconds). Then, if want to add some sweet pickles, it is ready to eat. We like ours as open-face sandwiches, but you can put the bun top on it, too.

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For dinner, we like to eat these with a green salad or potato salad.

For breakfast – yes, for breakfast – we like a medium soft poached egg, that has a light sprinkle of smoked paprika, on top!