Day of Lovers

Happy Day of Lovers! 

Clara drew this yesterday and said,  Daddy.  Daddy.  Pretty accurate drawing of Daddy, if I do say so myself.

Funny story about Valentines Day

If you were ever to go to the cemetery where quite a few of my relatives are buried you will find about 5 or 6 (maybe more) headstones that read either "John Valentine" or "Valentine John".  Not exactly sure what the story behind the original name is but I am told that the name was passed down from father to son to grandson etc because we live in a family of jokesters.

Every year, without fail, this is what I think of on valentines day.

John Valentine and Valentine John. 




Now lets get to the food.

Hey ladies & gents, want to show your other that you love him/her?  

Make em this.

Buffalo Chicken Sloppy Joe's

I based this entire recipe off of this one here.  

*  I'm missing a part on my food grinder so I ground up chicken breasts using my food proccessor.  If the chicken is somewhat frozen it will grind easier.

• 2 lbs ground chicken
• 1 carrot grated
• 2 M onions, chopped
• 2 stalks of celery, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, minced
• salt and pepper
• 2 tbsp of red wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire
• 1/2 cup Franks Hot Buffalo sauce * we like spice.  I felt like it needed more.
• 1 c water or chicken stock (I used water)
• 2 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp corn starch (mixed with 2 tbsp cold water)

1. Put chicken in a deep skillet and cook over MH heat for 5-7 minutes.  Make sure you break up the chicken while it cooks to keep it crumbly.
2. After about 7 minutes add the onion, garlic, celery, carrot, salt and pepper.  Cook for another 5-7 minutes.
3. In a separate bowl whisk together the red wine vinegar, Worcestershire, hot sauce, tomato paste and chicken stock/water.  Add to the chicken mixture, coat well and let it cook for 3-4 minutes longer.

At this point the Mister and I felt like it tasted good but didn't have the right "sloppy joe" texture.  This is why I added the cornstarch mixture which fixed that problem instantly.  I served this on hot dog buns, because that was all I had in the house.

This recipe is good but I feel like it could definitely use some tweaking.  

Have you ever made anything like this?  How did yours turn out?


Happy Valentines Day, Loves!