Thursday, December 6, 2007

Dressing up my mail box and a recipe

We all have the same drab mailboxes here in the mobile home park where I live. Standard size, black mailboxes attached to a light pole that has a round, white, heavy plastic globe covering the light.  Each light has a "magic eye" so they turn on at dusk and go off in the morning light.  But come the holidays, most of them perk up a little.  There's a lot of plastic soldiers like mine and there are also some plastic snowmen.  It's kind of an unspoken rule, if you move out, you leave your soldier or snowman behind for the next resident. I found mine in one of the storage sheds when I moved here over 6 years ago.  I also use a red plastic bow so that's it's not ruined by the weather.

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Now for a recipe that takes only 1 pound of ground beef~what a deal huh?

Baked Bean Quickie

1 pound ground beef, 1/4 cup chopped green pepper, 1/2 cup minced onion, 1/2 cup diced celery, one 8 ounce can of tomato sauce, 1/2 cup water, 1 minced clove of garlic, 1 teaspoon dry mustard, 1/2 teaspoon thyme, 2 tablespoons wine vinegar, 1/2 cup brown sugar and finally one (or two) can(s) of S & W or B & M Pork & Beans.

Brown the ground beef & drain (I put mine in a colander & rinse with hot water), then saute onions, green pepper & celery until tender and transparent. Then place all ingredients in a 2 quart oven proof bowl, mixing well and bake for 45 mins to 1 hour at 375 degrees. Serve with a veggie or a salad for a hearty meal.

NOTE: I don't always have garlic, celery, green pepper or even onion on hand.  So I use dried green pepper, celery salt, garlic powder & dried minced onion.   Also, there's usually a little glob of fat in the Pork & Beans...I always discard that.

This is so good and if you have any left overs, they are even better re-heated the next day.   Enjoy

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh your mail box looks really jolly ,The  recipe sounds good I think Ishall print it and have a go ...love Jan xx

Anonymous said...

Your mail box looks so festive!!!
How nice to leave things for next resident.  :)
I have fixed that recipes for yrs, when kids where small we had it quite often.
Have a great day.
Hugs,
Sugar

Anonymous said...

That's cute what you did with your mailbox...and thanks for sharing the recipe....June:)

Anonymous said...

Wow, now that is a neat mailbox!!!  Love the idea!  I dressed up the inside of the trailer today.  Gabby was complaining how it didn't feel like Christmas inside the trailer so I went to the dollar store and picked up a few small things.  I think I will go back tomorrow for a few more bows.  It's hard cause I cant get anything real big...for one the space is small and two we wont have a place to store it once xmas is over.  I will take some pics and post them later.

Anonymous said...

I am going to try this recipe out for sure!  I will let ya know how everyone liked it!   thanks for sharing this!

Anonymous said...

hi linda, your mailbox looks great, like the sound of the receipe too. Thanks for the lovely "paw print" in my guest book. take care mrs t xx

Anonymous said...

How cute the mailbox and how neat that each resident passes on the tradition....
Linda :)

Anonymous said...

I love your mailbox that looks so festive.  Gosh I watch the news and can't believe how awful it is for those people down south from us.  Who would have thought that could happen so close to us.  Joni

Anonymous said...

What a cute idea for dressing up a mailbox!  I love it!  Your recipe sounds absolutely delicious!
Marie
http://journals.aol.co.uk/mariealicejoan/MariesMuses/

Anonymous said...

Your mailbox is adorable, what a neat thing to do.  Your recipe sounds good, I suppose I could change this to ground turkey and still have it be good, aye.
Lisa

Anonymous said...

that recipe sounds great.