American Sloppy Joes From Our American Au Pair

The teenagers’ favourite hobby is teasing our American au pair Bethany. One of their ploys involves claiming that Americans eat road kill all the time and demanding she cooks some for them.

She’s a very patient young woman. Note to others, an au pair who has four younger siblings will not be phased by much.

Nonetheless, after the intensity of my husband’s absence, Bethany deserved a break. So she whizzed off south to our house at Jervis Bay this week.

Life is such a game of two halves here at Casa Catastrophe.  Our FIFO husband/dad (that’s fly in, fly out) works a 28 day rotation in the Middle East.

This means he’s away for 31 days and home for 25 day, and he doesn’t work at all when he’s home.

But when he’s on his 28 day rotation, he works 12 hours a day or more, every day. I’d freak out.

Our Intn’l Man of Mystery works in an office in a city in Kurdistan, not out in the desert on the oil rig though, so that’s something.

Anyway, our au pair Bethany has been with us since late October, and she works a lot when hubby is away. So do I, by the way.

So now he’s home, Bethany has zoomed off for a few days of R + R at Jervis Bay, then she’ll be back and is helping another family out in the school holidays.

Then she’ll be back and we have hubby away for the whole month of May, and then Bethany will fly home on June 3rd.  Waahhhhh….

I think I might send a couple of the kids with her.

The teenagers in the house are mad for Bethany’s non-roadkill American meals, she’s cooked us mac n’ cheese, pumpkin pie and now the delicious Sloppy Joes.

Would your kids like these?   The recipe is from a website Bethany found, but I’ve altered it to suit Aussies.

Ingredients

  • 1 onion, finely diced
  • 1 carrot, grated or finely chopped
  • 1 clove garlic
  • 500g minced beef
  • ½ cup tomato ketchup
  • 2 cups tinned diced tomato
  • 1 tsp Worcestshire sauce
  • 1 tbs red wine vinegar
  • 2 tbs brown sugar
  • pinch ground cloves
  • pinch cayenne pepper
  • round brown rolls (or white hamburger buns)

Instructions

  1. Heat olive oil in a frying pan on medium heat. Add the carrots and sauté for 5 minutes.
  2. Next, add the onion and garlic and keep cooking for 5 minutes more.
  3. Then add in the mince and brown it, until fairly well browned. You might need to do it in two batches.
  4. Mix browned mince and the vegetables. Add the ketchup, tomato sauce, Worcestershire sauce, vinegar and brown sugar to the pan. Stir to mix well.
  5. Add ground cloves, thyme, and cayenne pepper. Lower the heat to medium low and let simmer for 10 minutes. Adjust seasonings to taste.
  6. Serve with toasted hamburger buns. We like to use brown rolls, well, I do, the kids would much prefer white hamburger buns!

 We’d heard of sloppy joes before, but hadn’t tried them. 

Have you tried a sloppy joe?

What’s your favourite American food?