"Cooking on Wheels" - "Sloppy Louies"

Date I made this recipe: September 7, 2009

Cooking on Wheels by Arlene Strom; Foreword by Helen Bryam Schwamborn
Published by: The Bond Wheelwright Company
© 1970
Recipe: “Sloppy Louies” – p. 107

Well, after spending a few hours making my Polish Peach Cheesecake on Labor Day, I wanted something less labor intensive to make and this simple recipe did the trick.

I bought this book on www.Oldcookbooks.com because the cover art and the title cracked me up. I didn’t realize until I got the book that the back cover contains a photo of the author in her trailer kitchen. I must say, she looks pretty happy cooking in a teeny-tiny kitchen!

We were not trailer people in my family; to our chagrin, our father refused to buy a Winnebago at the height of their popularity in the 70’s (go figure, they only cost a fortune!) and so we stayed in motels. Believe me, this was fine with me and my mother as we were not enamored with the great outdoors and so the alternative – tent camping – was out of the question. Still, I’ve always wanted to take at least one trip in a motor home just for the experience – maybe some day.

So in honor of Labor Day and the thousands of people who actually did hit the open road for one last vehicular adventure before school started up again, I made this easy recipe. I’ve heard of Sloppy Louies but just didn’t quite know what to make of the main ingredient, chicken gumbo soup (and still don’t). They were okay but I prefer the much sloppier and more BBQ-Y Sloppy Joes. Call me picky.

Wheel or not, you just can’t beat a quick and easy recipe to wrap up the end of summer so run out, get the ingredients and just get cracking!

“Sloppy Louies” – yield: 4 servings
1 pound ground beef
1 can chicken gumbo soup
1 tablespoon prepared mustard
1 tablespoon ketchup
Onion salt to taste

Brown ground beef. Add remaining ingredients and simmer over low heat for 30 minutes. Serve in hamburger buns.