1. Debbie and I agreed that, as hosts of tonight's family dinner, we'd keep it simple tonight. When Adrienne, Josh, and Jack came to visit, we fixed Sloppy Joes to eat upon their arrival and decided to serve them for family dinner along with some fried corn and potato chips. Around noon or so, I browned the ground beef along with the chopped onion and red pepper, drained the mixture, put it in the crock pot and added the other ingredients -- tomato sauce, ketchup, mustard, Worcestershire sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic, salt and pepper, and chili powder. I also added some Montreal steak seasoning and I left out the red pepper flakes. Before long, the Sloppy Joe mixture bubbled away in the crock pot and was ready to eat around 6:00. The recipe is here.
2. It felt good to vacuum the living room and other rugs in the house. Charly sheds fur and I just liked getting it cleaned up. With the cooking and vacuuming done, I settled into the Vizio room and watched Rafael Nadal and Daniil Medvedev play an epic tennis match in the U.S. Open championship. I wish I could write intelligently about tennis, but suffice it to say that after two sets and on into the third set, it looked like Nadal would capture this title in straight sets. But, suddenly, in the third set Medvedev turned things around, played some astounding tennis, seemed to have Nadal confused and a little tired, and he won the third and fourth sets.
Now.
Get this.
In 1949, seventy years ago, Pancho Gonzales dropped the first two sets of the U. S. Open championship to Ted Schroeder, but stormed back to sweep the last three sets and capture the U. S. Open Title.
No one has dropped the first two sets and gone on to win the U.S. Open since.
So, Medvedev was poised to achieve an historic accomplishment if he could win the fifth set.
But, he didn't. Yes, he pushed Nadal to the brink of defeat, but Nadal fought and grunted and wailed his way to a 6-4 win in the fifth set and, exhausted, won the title, his fourth U. S. Open and 19th major.
I missed much of the fifth set, but, for the first time in the history of family dinner, Paul and I came to the table a little late so we could watch the very end of this epic match.
Am I ever happy we did.
I love to watch championship tennis and thoroughly enjoyed witnessing this extraordinary match.
3. Christy, Everett, Carol, and Paul all seemed pleased with our simple dinner. Christy recalled how the Silver King PTA used to raise money by selling Sloppy Joes from under the grandstands at Ferd Stadium in Smelterville during Frontier Days. As I remember it, those attending the rodeo and the demolition derby were the primary customers and I definitely remember putting in shifts at the booth, no doubt with Mom. I had a meaningless argument within myself as to whether we sold Cragmont or Shasta (It Hasta be Shasta) soda. I think we sold Shasta and I think it was during this time that I had my first Shasta Creme Soda and really liked it!
Christy remembers that the Sloppy Joes we sold included Chicken Gumbo soup in the recipe. Once she mentioned it, I remembered that, too, and I silently wondered all though dinner just what Campbell's Chicken Gumbo soup would add to the Sloppy Joe mix I had made.
I have no answer.
But, whether or not it's the recipe the Silver King cooks used, Campbell's Kitchen has posted a Chicken Gumbo Sloppy Joe recipe and it's right here.
(Do I want to try it? Not really.)
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