Mother made sloppy joes with a few variations, depending on exactly what she had handy, but her standard sloppy joe meat was an easy-peasy quasi-recipe, modified here in amounts, a lil in process, and with a couple of my fav additions. Still easy-peasy.
Take a pound of hamburger meat. Crumble it in a medium hot pan and brown it. Chop an onion–coarsely–while it’s browning. Drain it (more or less; I drain it “indifferently” nowadays). Set it aside and mince a couple of cloves of garlic (or just do the garlic while the meat’s browning, along with the onion). Sautée those juuuuust to clarity and add the meat back. A few tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce (I dunno how many; just until it’s enough for your taste), about 3 tablespoons of prepared mustard and enough ketchup to sop up the mustard *heh*.
I like to sautée about half a bell pepper (green), coarsely chopped, along with the onion and garlic.
Let it simmer to come together, and. . . sloppy joe time! Serve on toast or fav bun.
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Another comforting food. . .
Mother’s “French” salad dressing:
Base: mayonaise (although she used Miracle whip, since that’s what my Dad preferred); add a wee a tad prepared mustard; a wee bit more ketchup. Stir to combine. Finished.