Sloppy Joe

And I don't mean my dad! Zing!*

Sloppy Joes are something everyone seems to eat as a kid, but hardly ever as an adult. And when they do eat it, it's the Manwich sauce from a can. My recipe for from-scratch sloppies came purely by accident: I had two recipes, and somehow combined them in my head without realizing it. So after finishing cooking I discovered the mistake, but it was too late, and it tasted great anyway! And was quick. Suddenly I've become master of the 20 minute meal. Suck it, Rachel Ray!


Here's what I put in, in no particular measured amounts (Sorry, thats just how I roll):
1 lb Ground Beef
1 Onion, chopped, cooked with the beef
Ketchup
Bottled Chili sauce
(Almost the whole bottle, then about the same amt of ketchup and add more to taste)
Dash or so each of:
Garlic powder
Allspice
Salt n Pepa

You could probably add more stuff to make the flavor more complex or something else chef-y, but sometimes simple is just fine, as with this.

*My Dad's name is Joe.

Home Bye-ing

Yesterday, after driving past a cute house for sale, I went online to look for it. Not a bad deal: 3 Br, detached garage, pool. Then I started browsing all the houses for sale for that realtor. I'm not sure why, because as That Guy pointed out bluntly, "We don't have jobs." Sucks to put things on hold because of a silly thing like that. Not that we were trying to buy a house before, but it's possible eventually!

In other news, I have done exactly zero baking lately. The most cooking I've done is homemade mac n cheese and easy chicken dishes. Perhaps I will post an oldie but goodie on here for your perusal. In the meantime, here is preview of a project I am working on. It is a photo of the farm across the street; excuse the power lines. We get some really nice sunsets over there, and they shine right in our living room windows every day. It's nice to fix dinner and watch the sunset.

Slow News Day

Not much blogging going on around here, because not much bloggable activity is going on. With the economy what it is, it's tough times everywhere. We will return to good posts soon.

Awesome on Wheels

Roller Skating Gene Kelly. Seriously cool.

Munching on Scones

I love baked goods. All kinds, but ones that come in portable sizes are the best. It's so easy to grab a cookie or biscuit or cupcake and just munch on it, and not feel too bad about eating it, unlike when you make banana bread and eat half the loaf in one sitting, but only cut it once so you can still say you had "a slice." I'm not even that picky...I gladly use Bisquick mix on a regular basis to make pancakes and one biscuit at a time; I have even used it to make scones (a recipe I made up myself, and turned out reasonably well). Scones pretend to be both a biscuit and muffin, so they are great for breakfast, or snack, or dessert, or all three if you are me.

These are easily the best scones I ever made (not that I have made too many as yet, but I'm trying to make a point). Cherry-oatmeal, slightly modified because the original recipe was for cranberry. They are moist and hearty, with just the right amount of crunch on the outside. You can taste every bit of the oats too, but it is not overpowering. I think I will try other variations of add-ins such as peanut butter and chocolate chips. These are now my favorite treat that is not what it is pretending to be (that position was formerly held by the bastard child of English muffins, the crumpet - hey crumpet, you know what you did!).

This recipe can be found at Joy of Baking.

Cheep Tix, Part 2

After my grousing about prices the other day, we ended up getting cheap tickets to a Yankee game from Stub Hub. $25 for $60 seats, and they were a great view, totally worth it.

We arrived very early, so that we could walk around and see the stadium a bit, and were not disappointed. The new digs are as extravagant as they say, with lots of space to walk around and sights to see. The line for Monument park was relatively short, so we went to check it out (the Yankee stars aligned for the field photo below, nice view from there.). The main entrance hall (see photo) is gorgeous, and wide open. Sort of reminded me of a train terminal or something, but it didn't exactly have that feel. There are photos of old time players and great Yankee moments all around. That Guy kept getting ahead of me because I would randomly stop to look at things and he'd keep walking. Next time, we will make it there early again and go to the museum.

In contrast to the sweet deal on seats, drink prices are out of control. Nine dollars for a bottle of Budweiser? C'mon! It cannot possibly cost that much for them to get it. The drafts at least come in a keepsake cup and are "only" $10.

We were bummed that the lead catcher for the Yankees, Jorge Posada wasn't starting, but he did come in the seventh inning to pinch hit, and later hit a home run in the 9th. Hip hip Jorge!*


l to r: Me in our seats, the awesome Yogi Berra in Monument Park, the Great Hall where you enter the stadium.


Huggins and Ruth monuments, view of batting practice from Monument Park.

Old Yankee Stadium, or New Yankee Stadium?

*Shhh...don't tell anyone: I'm actually an Orioles fan.

DMV of the Unemployed

The other day That Guy and myself ventured into beautiful downtown Passaic, NJ, to visit the unemployment center. You are supposed to go to a class and learn how to write a resume and interview for jobs. They threatened in the paperwork that it would be two hours long, and if you don't attend, you don't get benefits. We went down there, only to be 45 minutes early, because we weren't sure where it was and left plenty of time to get there. That Guy had to talk to a counselor-type person about benefits, so we did that with the extra time. There were two counselors available to answer questions: Spanish speaking and English speaking. He got to cut the line in front of some Spanish guy. Yay for non-English speakers! Wait, no...what? Damn.

Anyway eventually we sat in the little classroom waiting to begin, and the first thing the lady said (well, second after "good afternoon") was if you were promised your job back eventually, you can leave. Hell yeah! While we weren't officially promised this, I was told something vaguely similiar. Good enough for me; we really don't need help on resumes anyway.

Pretty much the whole experience was a waste of time. One of those pesky things you have to do once in a while to keep things going the way they should, like bribing your local police force so they don't shut you down for not having a liquor license.