Sloppy Joes #1 and Garlic Potato Wedges

And skittles vodka! Oh snap, I went there. Okay, so maybe that isn't food and maybe it's bad for you. But our friend Garret mentionned it and I had been eyeing it online for sometime. Skittles vodka, basically, is take plain vodka, pouring it into 5 different bottles, taking a big bag of skittles and adding each seperate flavor to the bottles. The candies dissolve overnight and then you filter out all the gross white solid crap that gets left behind. What you have in the end is a sweet yet very strong liquor that, well.. I guess it would be okay for shots, but I think it would be better used in place of straight vodka in mixed drinks or something. Anyway, first I'll cover that then move on to the food. Also, I did this last week but have been too lazy to post, hurrhur.

The place I got the recipe for from is this cute little site, Mix That Drink. If you're interested in the process, they have far better pictures than I do of the processes. Also, I love the little bottles they use, I might order some.

I'm tasting the rainbow already, baby. You take your skittles. You tell yourself "Don't eat any, they're for the vodka.". You tell the whining man in the background that he can't have any either and that that does not in fact make you a "meanie". Then you sneak one of the super malformed ones that are rock hard and probably won't dissolve well. There's a double rainbow joke in here somewhere.

Add your colors to 6 oz of vodka each. Now, that doesn't look like a lot of vodka in each but I can assure you that it killed half of that huge bottle in the first picture. Don't they look neat?

Anyway, you shake them a bunch, blablabla let dissolve overnight. You can read the recipe yourself at the other site. Anyway, the filtering was really crappy and I did the first two in a very wrong way. Do not not use a funnel. You need it. Things went much smoother after. And while the website says 4 coffee filters, after finding they just were too much, I used 2 at first, then after about half the liquid had gone through and was starting to get stuck, I poured what was left in the filter into 2 other ones and it went smoothly.

If you were wondering what the stuff left behind looks like.. ew.

There, a nice and brightly colored booze. I don't know if they will be worth all the trouble I went through, and I'm told that sugar + alcohol = hangover. So, I suppose we'll see how insane things get when the skittles vodka finally gets broken out. WOOOO PARTYYY!

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaanyway, now on to the ACTUAL COOKING.

I love sloppy joes. Well, I actually dislike how sloppy they tend to be, but I love how they taste and that is reason enough to go to the effort. And I like potatos. And I had never tried to make my own fries in the oven, so oh my god it's KITCHEN ADVENTURE TIME! Are you all ready?! *rides a rainbow into the kitchen*

First, the fries. I don't know if I would make them again. I enjoyed them but Sean said they were too "something". I get that a lot. "It's too.. something." I think he lacks the culinary brain to figure out what part he doesn't like. Also they were a bit odd to prepare but that's mostly because I don't have big enough bowls and my microwave is too small and blabbity blah. They were pretty good though, I enjoyed them.

I think I'm going to start posting instructions and pictures, followed by the recipe so that anyone who wants to copy and paste it for printing or anything can actually do so easily.

Garlic Potato Wedges (original recipe here)

Cast of characters: Garlic Powder, Kosher or Sea salt, Pepper, Cornstarch, Cayenne Pepper, Olive Oil, 8 cloves of garlic and 3 russet potatos.

Mince or press your garlic into your oil. Looks a little like lemon zest!

Cut your potatoes into 12 wedges each. Cut in half, then each half in half, then each half into 3. Don't mind the green pepper, that's for the sloppy joes, and it just HAD to be included. It's a well documented fact that bell peppers are attention whores.

Now is when the recipe gets a little weird. Next, you remove 5 tablespoons of oil from the bowl of garlic and oil, and toss it onto your baking sheet. Then you toss the potatoes with the remaining garlic and oil in the bowl.

After that (I have no picture because it was weird and awkward and I had to do it in multiple batches due to my tiny little microwave) you cover the microwavable bowl in plastic wrap and cook for 6 minutes or so, shaking the potatoes around halfway through to distribute. You're basically cooking them a little bit. Next time I would probably just parboil the wedges first then toss them with the garlic and oil.

While those are cooking, mix your salt, pepper, cornstarch, cayenne pepper and garlic powder in a bowl.

When your potatoes are done, sprinkle mixture over top and toss to try and evenly coat everything.

Then, pour potatoes out onto your garlicy oil covered sheet pan. Your kitchen will be smelling amazing, by the way. Oh garlic, you are the greatest of all. I bow down to you. Arrange in a single layer.

And then you bake them at 440 degrees F, turning once about halfway through baking, for 30 to 40 minutes until nice and golden brown.

Here's the recipe!

• 8 garlic cloves, minced
• 6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 3 russet potatoes (about 8oz each), each cut into 12 wedges
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse sea salt or kosher salt
• 1 1/2 teaspoons black pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

1. Preheat oven to 225°C/440° F.
2. Combine the garlic and oil in a large bowl, warming it until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.
3. Transfer 5 tablespoons of the oil (leaving the garlic in the bowl) to the baking dish, coating it well.
4. Add the potatoes to the bowl with the garlic mixture and toss to coat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and microwave on high power until the potatoes are translucent around the edges, 3 to 6 minutes, shaking the bowl to redistribute the potatoes halfway through cooking.
5. Combine the cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the hot potatoes and toss well to coat.
6. Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake, turning once, until deep golden brown and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes.

Honestly, I think the reason these fries were less of a star was because of how damn flavorful the sloppy joes were. They definitely took the prize that night. Next time I make them, I will try another recipe and see which is better, and this one is going to be hard to beat. And soooo easy.

Your buddies: Ground beef, onion powder, green pepper, garlic, ketchup, chili powder, ground mustard, worcestershire sauce, salt, pepper, tomato paste, and hot sauce if you think it needs any. Not pictured because I'm a dingus: water, brown sugar and red pepper flakes. Oh and a little bit of butter. Though you probably don't need it with all the grease from the beef.

First, you brown your beef. And then you drain it. Still with me? I know, this is complex stuff, but I'm here to help. Then you add your diced pepper and garlic. And you COOK THEM. For several minutes even! Until the pepper starts to get nice and soft.

Now comes the really hard part. And then you add everything else in. And you mix it up. And cook it. OH MY GOD LOOK, YOU'RE MAKING SLOPPY JOES HOLY CRAP.

Now, I would recommend waiting to add your salt, pepper, worcestershire and hot sauce until you have all the other stuff mixed in and then taste it. I found mine to be just spicy enough with the chili and pepper flakes so I didn't add any hot sauce. But I found it a little sweet so I added a fair amount of worchestershire, about 4 teaspoons worth, but I love the stuff. Not so much salt, and a bit of pepper. Here's the recipe!

Sloppy Joes (as adapter from Pioneer Woman. I'll give you her recipe but I halved it because it is so huge and serves an insane amount of people)
Serves 8!

• 2 Tablespoons Butter
• 2-½ pounds Ground Beef
• 1 teaspoon Onion Powder
• 1 whole Large Green Bell Pepper, Diced
• 5 cloves Garlic, Minced
• 1-½ cup Ketchup
• 1 cup Water
• 2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
• 2 teaspoons Chili Powder (more To Taste)
• 1 teaspoon Dry Mustard
• ½ teaspoons Red Pepper Flakes (more To Taste)
• Worcestershire Sauce To Taste
• 2 Tablespoons Tomato Paste (optional)
• Tabasco Sauce (optional; To Taste)
• Salt To Taste
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper, To Taste

Add butter to a large skillet or dutch oven over medium high heat. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Drain most of the fat and discard.

Add green pepper, and garlic. Cook for a few minutes, or until vegetables begin to get soft.

Add ketchup, brown sugar, chili pepper, dry mustard, and water. Stir to combine and simmer for 15 minutes, adding salt and pepper to taste. Also add tomato paste, Worcestershire, and Tabasco if desired. Taste and adjust seasonings as needed.

Serve on buns with or without cheese! Hooray, dinner is served! Man it smelled good in here.

The wedges look pretty good, huh? They were tasty. This was a lot of food for 2 people though. I wish Sean was a bigger eater so I didn't always have so much left behind that only I had to eat. I also couldn't stop munching the leftover sloppy joe mix cold right out of the container. It's good, beware.

You know, I wonder how many pictures I'm allowed to put in these posts. I notice in a lot of other blogs, they upload their pictures elsewhere, but I've been uploading mine right to the post. I wonder if there's a limit to how many I can put per post, or per month. I guess I'll find out if they all suddenly disappear!