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I love Sloppy Joes.

Perhaps I should clarify – I love real homemade Sloppy Joes.  The ones without shortcuts.

Now mind you a lot of people take shortcuts when making sloppy joes.  I’ve seen people who mix ground beef with everything from BBQ sauce to a can of Baked Beans, throw it on a bun, and call it a Sloppy Joe.  No, no, no, that is not a Sloppy Joe.  Make them if you like them but don’t bastardize the sacred name of Sloppy Joe.

Ok smarty-pants, just what do you think a sloppy joe is?  Glad you asked.

Ingredients

• 2 lbs of ground beef
• 1 pkg of celery, diced
• 2 large onions, or 4 small onions, diced
• 2 med-large green peppers, diced
• 2 cans tomato soup
• 1-2 tbsp of white vinegar, to taste
• 2 tbsp of sugar
• 1-2 tbsp of Worcestershire sauce, to taste
• 1/2 tsp of salt, or to taste
• pepper to taste
• 1 cup of ketchup
• 1 cup water
• optional secret ingredient, 1/2 chocolate bar
• hamburger buns

Method

1. Brown your ground beef, drain. 
2. Add diced vegetables and water, cover, and simmer on medium until veggies are translucent and soft.
3. Add soup, vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce, and ketchup.  Stir, simmer on low-medium for 20 minutes to allow flavors to blend.
4. Taste.  Adjust flavor if need be by adding a small amount of whatever your tongue says it needs, of the ingredients listed above.  Now would be the time to add the secret ingredient if you want.
5. Simmer with the cover off until reduced to the normal consistency of sloppy joes.
6. Spoon onto buns and enjoy!