Sloppy Joes

Please don't let my awful phone photo dissuade you from trying this recipe. They are hands down the best barbecue I have eaten, let alone made myself.

Ingredients:

1 lb. ground beef
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 chopped green bell pepper
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1 tsp. prepared yellow mustard
1/2 cup barbecue sauce of your choice (I used Sweet Baby Ray's)
1 cup ketchup
salt and pepper to taste

In medium skillet, over medium heat, brown ground beef, onion and green pepper. Drain.

Stir in garlic powder, mustard, ketchup and barbecue sauce. Mix thoroughly. Reduce heat and simmer 15-20 minutes. Add salt and pepper.

This is also a great recipe to throw in the crockpot. Make as directed above and transfer to crockpot on the lowest setting. Add 1/4 cup water.

No Sloppy Joe is made here at my house without this song being hummed.

Lunch Lady - Adam Sandler

Are you, YOU?

Michael Jackson's latest release, Hold My Hand, (featuring Akon) got me thinking about the diverse interests and likes the world consists of. How the old cliche, "One person's garbage, is another person's treasure." does ring true. Opinions make the world go round; how we view life, the people we surround ourselves with, God forbid, our parents, and our very DNA all determine what's on our playlist, the car we drive to the clothes we wear.

I have never gone with the flow or pretended to like something just to fit in or make myself look good to someone else. I am a very serious LOVE or HATE woman in all aspects of my life. I like what I like and while others may influence that to some degree as they help open up my world a bit, I have no problem sharing those likes/dislikes no matter the reaction.

I have always loved MJ. I grew up listening to the Jackson 5 and wore out more than one cassette of Thriller as a preteen/teenager. I am not a huge fan of any mainstream music, but Michael's music always made it into my day. I had the "glove", jacket, T-shirts and posters. I did the moonwalk with no finesse whatsoever. I sang at the top of my lungs that Billie Jean was not my lover. I cried when I watched, This is It.

I won't even pretend one iota that I knew MJ to any degree, media coverage or not. Was he a very very odd man, yes. Did he put himself in situations that caused much ado about serious subjects, yes. Towards the end of his life, he did not look one itty bitty bit like the Michael Jackson I grew up admiring. Does any of this change the talent, the sheer natural talent this man had a songwriter, singer, dancer and all time Pop icon of my time? Nope.

With all of today's false fluff and entertainers trying to be so different (yet all looking like a bunch of complete idiots), I miss the old days of true talent. I miss Michael Jackson, I truly do.

Michael Jackson, the true King of Pop

I'm bad...