Ditch the can and make your own Sloppy Joes

Aunt Sharie's Sloppy JoesLIMA — When Shelly Gross tried to make her mom's macaroni salad, something just wasn't quite right. So she took a photo with her cellphone and texted it to her mom in Alliance for help. A flurry of texts later, the salad was fixed.“That's one of the reasons I love cooking,” Gross said. “The stories later are absolutely hysterical sometimes. And it draws the family together.”Gross, who has lived in Lima for three years and works at the Lima Public Library, started cooking as a young girl. Her mom encouraged her to join 4-H, and because they didn't live on a farm, she focused on cooking projects.“And I took to it like a duck takes to water,” she said, laughing. Her second year of 4-H brought bigger cooking projects. Her mother's gardening habit also drew out a love of food.“I love baking more than anything else,” Gross said. “Everybody has some sort of comfort food ... and it's almost always something sweet ... and I like to make people happy.”Today's recipe for Sloppy Joes is from her father's sister and is a family favorite. “What's nice about this is it's a busy person's recipe,” Gross said. “You can do it on a stovetop, you can do it in the microwave, with kids running around.”And it's almost infinitely adjustable to your tastes. She reduces the sugar when making this dish for her father, who prefers it less sweet. If you like bigger chunks of vegetables, chop your veggies that way. If you don't have an onion, use dried onion instead. Her aunt adds cayenne to make her Sloppy Joes a little spicy. Try brown mustard instead of yellow. Add steak sauce or Worcestershire sauce. Tweak away.“Baking, you have to follow the recipe to a T,” Gross said. But cooking has wiggle room.“It's kind of a game, almost,” she said. “You look in your fridge and say, ‘OK, I have ketchup, mustard and beef, what can I do?”Have a suggestion for who should be featured in this spot? Email amcgee@limanews.com.