Barbecue Hamburgers (aka Sloppy Joes)

Don't you love it when a sound or smell or taste takes you back to a specific place and time?  This is one of those recipes.  When I was a kid, my grandmother used to participate in the Utah Shakespeare Festival and I loved the end of the season because she would always make and bottle her own yeast-fermented root beer a few weeks before, and on the last day she would make a huge batch of her "barbecue hamburgers". 
(Everything with my grandma sounded a lot more glamorous than it really was.  Kind of like when I'd stay at her house and she would wake me up at 5:30 to go to the church house and "stretch" with her and her friends.  "Stretching" was this super intense old lady aerobics.  As a fat kid, I didn't appreciate her trying to trick me like that.  Back to these burgers though). 
Barbecue hamburgers was her fancy way of saying "sloppy joes".  Either way, these are a crowd pleaser and every time I make them I'm transported to Cedar City in the mid-'80s, helping my grandma load all those bottles of homemade root beer into the back of her Caddy.

The recipe says this makes enough for 12-15 people, but that's a lie. This is the exact amout that feeds my family of 7, with no left overs.

Recipe altered slightly from my grandma, LaVeve Whetten

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1 cup diced onion
1 1/2 cups ketchup
1 tbsp vinegar (I've used both white and cider vinegar in this and both are just fine)
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp paprika
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp chili powder

Heat about 1 tbsp oil in a heavy pot over medium heat. Add onions and ground beef and cook until the meat is browned.  Mix remaining ingredients and pour over the meat and onions.  Simmer for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.  Served over warmed hamburger buns (we do some condiments like cheese, lettuce, pickles tomato, etc).  This could easily be made ahead, stored in the fridge in an airtight container, then heated in a stock pot before serving.

Sweet-n-Spicy Chicken Lettuce Wraps

"Why don't we eat like this every night?" my husband asked me tonight.  I asked what he meant.  He said that tonight was the perfect homemade meal.  It was satisfying, fresh, flavorful, and healthy.  I admittedly took mild offense, because I'm a really good cook and we eat homemade foods most nights.  Also, admittedly, I've been in a cooking rut lately and have been cooking lots of the same things over and over, so I got over mild offense pretty quickly.  He wasn't kidding though.  This meal was really outstanding.  It came from a Food Network show I've never seen before, and just happened to stop on as I was folding laundry.  When I was finished folding, I immediately packed up my toddler and went to the store to purchase ingredients to make this.

This would be an incredible dish on a warm summer night, but it was so refreshing in the middle of winter, on the Monday just after a snow storm.  It was like a little vacation on a plate.

Recipe adapted from Melissa D'Arabian of "Ten Dollar Dinners"

Ingredients

For the Filling
1 1/2 lbs chicken breast, chopped (I did about 1/4-1/2 inch pieces)
2 teaspoons vegetable oil
8 oz white mushrooms, chopped
3 green onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced, pressed or grated with a microplane
One 6-ounce can of water chestnuts, chopped
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar

Sweet-n-Spicy Sauce
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons seasoned rice vinegar
2 tablespoons honey
2 teaspoons sriracha (depending on how hot you like it - this amount is still edible but has a nice kick)
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
1 teaspoon sesame oil

For serving
1 head iceberg lettuce, rinsed, core removed, and peeled into layers
1 cup shredded carrots
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1 cup bean sprouts

To make the filling: Heat the oil in a saute pan over medium heat.  Add the chicken and cook until no longer pink.  Add the mushrooms, garlic, green onions, and chestnuts, and cook until the mushrooms are tender.  (When they were almost done I noticed lots of liquid, so I used a spoon to remove some of the liquid).  In a small bowl, combine the 1/4 cup soy sauce, 2 tbsp vinegar, and brown sugar and whisk to combine.  Pour into the hot pan and cook, stirring constantly, about one minute.  Turn off heat and make the sauce.

To make the sauce:  In a medium bowl, combine all of the sauce ingredients and whisk until well-combined. 

Serve the lettuce wraps by placing a lettuce leaf on a plate.  Spoon about 1/2 cup of the chicken filling onto the lettuce.  Top with bean sprouts, cilantro, and carrots.  Drizzle some of the sauce (to taste) into the wrap.  Roll and enjoy.  These are so messy, but SO worth it.  We served them with Asian Rice Salad, and my husband and kids even added the rice into their wraps.

Low Brow Carbonara

I'm not fancy.  I enjoy awesome food with specialty ingredients, but if I want to cook fancy foods I have to drive 20 minutes to the nearest gourmet grocery store to buy "the good stuff".  I don't have the time for that.  The other day I was talking to a friend of mine (who also has 5 kids) about something new I could make for my family.  She and her sister both chimed in unison, "Carbonara!"  Apparently in their family they have a recipe that everyone is a huge fan of.  They told me some of the ingredients and kind of gave me the method, but I pretty much took their twist of adding sausage and coupled it with everything I've learned from the Food Network to come up with this gem.  Normally, this is made from pancetta (Italian bacon that is salt cured instead of smoked...not found at my local market) and fancy hard Italian cheeses.  I made this with what I already had in my fridge...hence my kind of ghetto version of a classic.

Ingredients
1 lb pasta (I used penne piccolini, but I think it's typically made with spaghetti)
4 slices bacon
4 oz Italian sausage (your favorite heat level)
1 cup heavy cream at room temperature
2 large eggs at room temperature
1/3 cup parmesan (the cheap kind from the green can works like a charm...remember...low brow)
1/2 tsp granulated garlic
Salt and pepper to taste
1 cup frozen peas

Cook the pasta according to directions.  While the pasta is cooking, dice the bacon and put it in a skillet over medium heat.  Cook the bacon until it is crispy, and remove it with a slotted spoon.  Place it on a plate lined with a paper towel and set aside.  Remove the sausage from the casing and cook it in the bacon grease, breaking it up as it cooks. Once the sausage is cooked, remove it from the pan and set it on the paper towel-lined plate with the bacon.  In a large bowl, combine the cream, eggs, cheese and spices and whisk until well combined.  Drain the pasta, reserving 1/4 cup of the pasta water.  Put the pasta back into the pot it was cooked in, and add all the ingredients to the pot (toss in the meat, then toss in the creamy egg mixture, then toss in the peas).  Pour in the reserved pasta water and toss it all together.  The heat from the pasta will cook the eggs and you'll be left with this luscious sauce that will coat the noodles.  Garnish with extra cheese.