Happy Birthday, Mellie!!!

I just barely made it before midnight.......................Happy Birthday, Mellie!!! I hope you are enjoying your Zune! I can't believe that you are already 15.....just think, next year you will be driving! Since I have been such a slacker with my blogging, I never got around to posting a photo of Ethan with his braces. Well here he is:

I forgot to take a before photo, and he wasn't very excited about me taking any photos. His mouth was pretty sore when I snapped this shot. He didn't eat much except yogurt for 2 days...poor guy!

Speaking of slacking......I have been in total fantasy land reading my first Sookie Stackhouse book. Wow is all I can say! This vampire series ain't for the kiddos:-) I have been engrossed since I started reading it, and will have to watch "TrueBlood" at some point. Besides reading, I have been digging through my recipes to get myself out of a cooking slump. I stumbled across my old handwritten recipe for homemade sloppy Joes this week! I can remember us making them with Mom when we were little. I used to make them all the time for Ron, and he actually seemed excited when I mentioned making them for him.

Sloppy Joes

1 pound ground beef (I used ground buffalo)

1/4 cup chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped green or red bell peppers

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon chili powder

1 1/2 cup tomato juice (I use an 8 oz can tomato sauce and 1/2 can water)

6-8 hamburger buns

Brown meat in skillet. Add onions & peppers and saute until cooked. Add remaining ingredients except buns and simmer for 15-20 minutes on low heat. Spoon onto split hamburger buns and serve. Now I might be a wierdo, but I sometime put a slice of American cheese on mine.....so I guess I eat "cheesy sloppy joes" ~lol