Joe – I Want Something Special!

Joe’s Special is just another form of what we affectionately call slop here in my household! This dish uses a wonderful combination of hamburger, spinach, mushrooms and seasonings. There is history behind this recipe too. It is believed that the dish was created by “The Original Joe’s” restaurant now located in San Jose, CA. Late one night a customer came in and asked for a spinach omelet and asked what else the cook had in the kitchen. The cook told the customer that he had hamburger and mushrooms, and the customer asked for him to throw those items in too!

This is an easy dish to prepare, and I am all about easy! Are you ready for Joe’s Special?

Ingredients
1/2 large onion, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
12 oz. of thick sliced mushrooms
2 TBS butter
1 lb. hamburger
1 tsp. oregano
1 tsp. basil
14 oz. spinach (I use the pre-washed bags of spinach)
8 eggs, beaten
salt and pepper to taste

In a skillet melt the butter and add the onions and garlic. Cook until just softened. Then add the mushrooms. Cook until the color just starts to turn on the mushrooms.

Sauteed mushrooms, onions and garlic

Remove them and the juices from the pan and set aside. Crumble in your ground beef. Add the oregano and basil. Cook, breaking apart the pieces, until the pink just disappears. Drain off all the fat.  Then add the mushroom mixture and the juices.

Mushroom mixture added to the browned ground beef

Top this with the spinach

Add the spinach

and cover for about two minutes. Then remove the lid and stir this up to combine the cooking spinach into the meat mixture. When the spinach has completely wilted,

Cooked down spinach

add in the eggs

Add the eggs

and cook until the eggs have just set. Season with salt and pepper to taste, and then serve it up!

Dinner is served!

I hope you enjoy the lovely flavors of this easy dish!