About halfway into her notebook, I found what I decided would be the first recipe from Grandma. To be honest, I had doubts when I read through the ingredients (Chicken Gumbo Soup in Sloppy Joes???), but it actually was pretty good! My comments in the recipe are in italics.
Hidden Sloppy Joes
Ingredients
- 1 lb ground beef
- 1 medium onion, chopped
- 3 Tbsp ketchup
- 2 Tbsp yellow mustard
- 1 can chicken gumbo soup
- 2 boxes cornbread mix (At this point, I deviated a little. Grandma had a note on the opposite page to try the recipe with cornbread instead – since MM loves cornbread, I immediately changed it up.)
- 2/3 c milk
- 2 Tbsp butter, softened
- 2 eggs
Directions
- Cook beef and drain Gma’s recipes can be somewhat succinct. She missed the fact that the onion should be cooked with the beef here.
- Stir in ketchup, mustard, and soup. Heat to boiling and simmer 5 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease bundt pan generously. I’d suggest using vegetable oil for this – drizzle a little oil into the pan, then use a paper towel to coat the pan.
- Mix the remaining ingredients and beat vigorously for 30 seconds. A hand mixer works best here, and it might take around a minute to fully combine.
- Spread about 2 cups of the batter into the bottom of the pan, and up about 2 inches on the side and center.
- Spoon the beef mixture evenly on the batter, then drop the remaining batter by the teaspoonful on top, about 1/2″ apart. Spooning the beef onto the batter ends up taking care of spreading the batter up the sides of the pan. I also used a teaspoon cookie scoop to do my best spreading the rest of the batter around.
- Bake about 25 minutes. She doesn’t say if it should be turned out onto a plate or a platter, so I didn’t. Instead, I just sliced into it and served.
I don’t know that I’m going to update this recipe – it’s actually very tasty. The only thing that I might tweak in the future is the amount of filling. With that much of the breading around the meat, it’s just a little too dry for my tastes.
Overall, a good first recipe from Grandma’s Notebook. Thanks, Grandma!!
(Quick note – if you’re looking for some amazing Peanut Butter Cookies, look no further than BraveTart’s Honey-Roasted Peanut Butter Cookies. Hands down, best PB cookies EVER. I mean, look at this:
Wow!!)
My mother’s sloppy Joe recipe has Chicken Gumbo Soup in it. It must be an old time thing.