With Halloween this weekend I wanted to share my recipe for Sloppy Joes. This was a Halloween favorite as a child and I made them every year for my kids to eat before Trick or Treating. You remember as a child eating Sloppy Joes. My mom made them out of a can of Manwich. She would serve them open face over toasted buns. You had to eat them with a fork and butter knife. To this day I love them. I can taste them, smell them. Something so simple yet so fulfilling. My mom was not that into cooking. Yet there are a handful of dishes that I loved. She made chicken fried steak that any southerner would love and liver and onions (yes I said liver) that to this day I miss. It is amazing that I miss the simplest dishes. A can of Sloppy Joe sauce and I am back in my mommas kitchen. (don’t worry she doesn’t know Mr Internet so she has no idea I am talking about her ) [Read more…]

When I was asked to do fall recipes for my buddy Adventures of a Military Family 8, I was thrilled! I have a ton of wintery recipes. Growing up the first part of my childhood in the snowy mountains, my family ate foods rich in gravy or stewed. I didn’t know it at the time but my grandmother was cooking for a large army. Every meal was at least ten hungry adults. My grandmother had a way of making cheap meals taste elegant. This happens to be right up her alley. The nice thing about this meal is the crackpot does most the work. You do a little prep. It cooks slowly all afternoon and then you pile it on some mashed potatoes and add a veggie. [Read more…]