Bacon Sloppy Joes

From Everyday with Rachael Ray



Ingredients:
4 strips of bacon, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 celery ribs, finely chopped
1 red bell pepper, finely chopped
4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
3/4 cup ketchup
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
Salt and freshly ground pepper
4 hamburger buns, toasted

Directions:
In a large skillet, cook the bacon over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add the onion, celery, bell pepper and garlic and cook until the vegetables are softened, about 7 minutes; push to the side of the skillet. Increase the heat to high, add the ground beef and cook, stirring to break up any clumps, until cooked through, about 7 minutes. Stir in the ketchup and Worcestershire sauce and cook until thickened, about 5 minutes more. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve on the toasted buns.

Comments:
I didn't agree with the method this recipe used to make this dish. They drain neither the bacon nor the ground beef? How greasy would that be? So I modified the directions a little to ease my mind about that. I cooked the bacon first. Took the cooked meat out, drained the fat and wiped the pan out. Put the ground beef in the pan and browned that. Added the onion, celery, and garlic to the meat about halfway through (omitted the red pepper. Not fans of that.) Drained that off, added everything back to the pan and finished up the recipe. I can't imagine what it would have been like if you actually followed the directions.

In any case, this was good. The celery still had some crunch and the salty bacon was a great addition. But very messy, as you can probably tell from the picture.