Enter to Learn…

This side of the entrance for my Alma Mater, Brigham Young University, reads  “The World is Our Campus.”  We liked to joke that it really was “The Campus is Our World.”  On the other side of the entrance a similar sign reads “Enter to Learn, Go Forth to Serve.”  I thought about clever ways to distort this second motto for the purposes of this post, but I didn’t want to be irreverent to its true intent.  
Regardless, I learned a lot about a lot of things while at BYU, and not all of it was from my studies.  It was a truly wonderful time for me where I made new, great friends.  I was very unlike all of them, being from back east, speaking with a New York accent and being in the western United States for the first time in my life.  They accepted me and helped me in ways they will never know.  I came out of my shell and started to grow up.  Like most young adults, I could finally figure out who I was and who I wanted to be.   I wanted to be a good cook, for one thing, so I started to seriously compile recipes.  I even bought myself this recipe holder at the BYU Bookstore.  If a roommate made something great and shared it, I wrote the recipe down.  If we wanted to cook something (typically for a group of guys we invited over) one of my roommates would call her mother for a special recipe and I would keep a copy.  I have frosting recipes from Kelly and Cathryn, a recipe for breakfast crepes from Laura Leigh, recipes for a peach dessert and fudge from Tracie, an oatmeal cake recipe from Shauna which actually earned me 2nd place at a contest later and a couple of great recipes I still use today from Julie. 
Tonight for dinner we had sloppy joes.  The recipe is from Julie’s mom and really is tasty.  Way better than that canned manwich stuff that I have used for camping trips.  The secret to the homemade recipe is to let it simmer for 1-2 hours.I highly recommend this recipe.  We three enjoy it.  I personally enjoy opening up my recipe box and saying hello to an old friend by seeing her name on the card.  My college roommates taught me many great things.  Thank you, dear friends.
Note:  If you ever want to see Curt enjoy a good story, ask him about the time I was in a hurry and accidentally grabbed cayenne pepper instead of chili powder.  We literally ate sloppy joes in tears due to the heat!
Julie’s Sloppy Joes
1 lb hamburger meat
1 tsp salt
1 medium onion, chopped
1/2 green pepper, chopped (optional)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tbsp dried mustard
3/4 c ketchup
1/3 c water
Brown hamburger, onion, green pepper with salt, pepper and chili powder.
Add vinegar, sugar, mustard, ketchup and water.  Cover and simmer on very low for 1-2 hours.  Serve on hamburger buns.  Makes about 8 sloppy joes.



Pictures show first, browned meat, second, after just adding all ingredients, and third, after simmered for 1-2 hours.  If too watery after simmering, uncover and boil off liquid for a couple of minutes.