Mom Photographer and The Gang

Failures in the kitchen – as much as I hate them they happen. They happen less often than they used to but still… From time to time there is a day when nothing good want to come out from my pots and pans. Of course there is more failures when I cook “American” food and almost no failures when I cook something Polish but that doesn’t count since my husband is not very fond of Polish cuisine.

Chili is one of those dishes that I had to learn to cook for my husband. He always talks (or used to) about his mom’s chili that it was really good from what he remembers. Once she gave him the recipe and I made it. We both liked it but the next time I made it I changed a few things and it was even better.

I just can take a recipe from mother-in-law and call it good. You know how that works. It got to be mine and it has to be better. That’s how it works in here. My kitchen my recipes 😉

Anyway, last time we went grocery shopping I bought all the stuff for chili and grabbed additional 6 oz can of diced tomatoes with chilies. I have to idea why I did it, but I did. I though it might be good to add some new flavor to it.

Whenever I make chili I make a huge pot of it. I freeze it or we eat it for a week 🙂 That’s why I like chili. Everybody likes it, especially my daughter, and I don’t have to cook for a few days after that. Win win.

So the next day I cooked all the tomatoes, cooked the meat and after all I remembered that there is that can of tomatoes with chilies. I think I didn’t even add that whole can, just a half of it. I stirred it, cooked a little bit longer and tasted…  my mouth got on fire!!! I mean, real fire, and when it happens to me I know that my husband will be burning twice as much as me. When he saw my angry and disappointed (and red) face he said: “Oh wait, it can’t be that bad let me try, maybe I can eat it”…, and he tried, and he said “NO. I’m sorry I’m not gonna”.

So, here I am sending that entire pot of chili down to the drain. The only thing it was left was the meat. I SAVED THE MEAT!!! Ground turkey mixed with Italian sausage.

The same night we ate pasta for dinner.

I don’t know why but when I looked at that saved (thank gods) meat I thought about sloppy joe. The weird thing is that I have never made it before and I can’t even recall if I ate it in the past (probably no). Anyway, that idea stuck to my head and it stayed there until the next day. I knew I don’t have buns to make it with and I don’t know how to make the meat sauce. I asked my bloggy friend Polish Mama on The Prairie and she gave me a few ideas which I’m gonna use the next time. This time I didn’t have half of the ingredients and lately my whale-like lovely lazy self is much too lazy to go to the store just to pick one or two things. As a pregnant woman I’m not only a brain damaged but motivation damaged as well. I could go hungry for days just give me water, milk and buttermilk these days and I’m happy as a clam.

Anyway, following my husband recommendations, because it’s him who would mostly be picky about it, I made the sauce from ketchup, brown sugar and soy sauce and I baked the buns, and this is one more reason why I love my bread maker.

Want the recipe!? 🙂

Here it is:

2 cups milk (any kind)

1/4 cup olive oil or butter (melted)

2 Tbsp. honey

2 eggs

2 tsp. salt

1/4 cup bread flour

5 cups whole wheat flour (plus more if needed)

2 Tbsp. active dry yeast

egg wash

sesame seeds

If made by hand or in a Kitchen Aid:

Heat up milk until very warm. Take of the heat. Mix in sugar and dissolve, add yeast, cover and wait about 10 minutes until the mixture rises and is bubbly.

In a separate bowl mix the bread flour and about 4 cups of bread flour, olive oil (or butter), honey, salt. When the yeast mixture is ready pour it over the flour mixture and knead. Add eggs. If the dough is very sticky add more flour. At the end the dough should be a little tacky to the touch at the end, so don’t add too much flour or overknead it. 

Cover and let the dough rest for up to 1 hour.

After that knead it a few times, shape into a balls and flattened them a little on the top. Brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Let the buns rest for about 20 minutes.

Bake in 350 F for 18-20 minutes.

If made in bread maker:

Put the ingredients to the maker in this order:

Room temperature milk, olive oil (or melted butter), sugar, salt, honey, eggs, bread flour and whole wheat flour, yeast. close the lid and set on the “dough” setting. During the second “kneading” open the lid to check if the dough needs more flour. If it does add 1/2 cup. After a few minutes check again. Keep adding flour until the dough is smooth and stop sticking to the sides of the container. When it’s done take it out and shape into balls just like above. let the buns rest for 20 minutes. brush with egg wash and sprinkle with sesame seeds. bake in 350 F for 18-20 minutes. 

My Sloppy Joe

For the next two days we ate the rest of the buns for lunch with some veggies and homemade ricotta.

D.E.L.I.C.I.O.U.S.

So not being very happy about the disaster with chili I was happy with my first ever sloppy joe. Now I need to work more around the sauce but other than that I think I’ve found a new dish that will be served at our dinner table quite a bit.

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• Simple Sloppy Joes (hungryhugheys.wordpress.com)