Tiffany’s buffalo-flavor joes perfect for football season

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Whether high school, college or pros, we’re now solidly in the middle of football season.
Surely tailgates and televised games alike call for something more inspiring than hot dogs and pretzels.

Tiffany Sheeks, a Wayne native now living in Bowling Green, believes she has the answer with Buffalo
Turkey Joes.
“I thought it would be a fun recipe for you for football season. I have made it for a couple years now.
My husband has friends over a lot, and they like these.”
The sandwiches, on mini-size Hawaiian buns, “are a nice substitute for chicken wings, which are kind of
expensive in the store.”
They convey the fun spicy buffalo flavor but in a new, healthier way.
“We don’t use ground beef in our house a lot. We use ground turkey and ground chicken. We are not, like,
greasy-food people. We don’t like fried food.”
Sheeks admits she first got the idea for her buffalo joes from TV chef Rachael Ray.
“She actually had a recipe somewhat like it and I just tweaked it to how I knew my family would eat it,”
including adjusting what crunchy vegetables were included and subbing ground turkey for ground beef.
“And I use the Budweiser hot wing sauce; I think she used Frank’s red hot sauce.”
The choice of Hawaiian buns is not just because they are easier to gulp down in a hurry.
“Hawaiian style buns are sweeter. I like that,” Sheeks explained. “If your turkey is pretty spicy, that
neutralizes it.
“I always butter and toast the buns, too.”
It was another recent Cook’s Corner subject, Cyndi Carroll, who recommended Sheeks as a source of
wonderful recipes.
“She’s always cooking. She babysits a lot of kids and in the midst of it she’s canning! Canning things
I’ve never heard of.”
Sheeks, whose mother died when she was 6, credits her stepmother — “the best lady in the world” — for
showing Sheeks and her sister “how to do everything; baking, cooking, canning included. For 12 years of
my young life she was really the one who raised us.”
The former Tiffany Mintey, a 1992 Elmwood High School graduate, moved with her husband Rusty to northern
Minnesota for a year and returned to Wood County in 2001.
“We were still young and could do that.”
They have a teen-aged son and a daughter, 10, plus “10 kids total” for whom she provides day care,
although not all at once.
“My day-care kids will eat anything. And if they don’t like it on a particular day, we have peanut butter
and jelly as a backup. But I have to say, I don’t think I’ve made peanut butter and jelly for months.”

For all but the first year of the couple’s 17-year marriage, Rusty has been a disc jockey for weddings
and parties. Along with day care, Sheeks’ job is doing all the paperwork for the DJ gig.
It’s a good balance, allowing her plenty of time in her garden and at her stove, where at this time of
year she is likely to whip up a pasta dish with plenty of fresh tomatoes and zucchini.
“I always cook to the season.”
Since the season is “Football Fall,” give the buffalo turkey joes a try.
“It’s just so easy. It takes about 10 minutes.”
Buffalo Joes
6 Hawaiian-style buns/12 mini rolls
1 lb ground turkey
1?2 cup Budweiser wing sauce
1?2 medium onion
2 tbs. minced garlic
1 tsp olive oil
1 large stalk of celery
4-5 tbsp fat-free ranch dressing (or fat-free blue cheese)
1 tbsp. vinegar
Heat olive oil in skillet.
Chop celery and place in skillet with garlic, vinegar, and turkey. Cook on medium-high until turkey is
brown and celery is tender.
Add hot sauce. More or less, to taste.
Turn off heat and add in 4 tbsp. of ranch dressing. Stir.
Servings: 6
Tiffany Sheeks with her Buffalo Turkey Joes

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