Not Your Average Cheese Burger

We like burgers in our house, although we hardly ever make them.  It’s just too easy to get a pretty good burger at any number of local joints…we like these burgers and these, too.  But, recently, my husband came home from a business trip singing the praises of a burger he’d had…and then a similar recipe showed up on my weekly menu planning web service.  I took it as a sign that I needed to make this burger.

“I thought she said cheeseburger?” I can hear you pondering. “And why the funny shape?”  ”And what’s up with the fries?”

Well, those are sweet potato fries – and we’ll talk about them later.

The funny shape is due to the buns I chose – ciabatta rolls, lightly grilled.

We were split on these – he thought they were the perfect roll and I thought they were too, well, too something.  Thick maybe?  Chewy?  I don’t know.  They were delicious, but the texture seemed like it could have been improved for me.

And the cheese…well, it’s brie…and

…it’s on the inside.

First, let’s get those fries out of the way.  Frankly, if there was an easy way to take them out of the photo so I wouldn’t have to talk about them, I would. They were only so-so.

They should have been cut thinner.  They probably should have been fried rather than baked, but I was trying to be good. Maybe they should have been baked longer.  I’m not exactly sure. I’ve had some really yummy sweet potato fries, so I know it’s possible.

These were spritzed with olive oil and generously dusted with kosher salt. They were certainly edible, but I’ve had better. If you have a genius recipe for sweet potato fries, please share.

On to the burgers.

You mix some garlic and onions with lemon zest and juice, then top with slices of brie before finishing the patties.

The recipe called for green onions and garlic and lemon juice/zest, but I had some of those beautiful red spring onions from the Greenling box, so I substituted. You know how hard it is for me to follow a recipe exactly.

Red spring onions, pressed garlic, lemon zest and lemon juice

Grill them up until nice and browned and melty on the inside.

About half of the onion/garlic mixture gets stirred up with some mayonnaise and slathered on the buns…add some tomatoes and lettuce and whatever else you have to have on a burger…and it’s a good, good thing.

I do feel compelled to confess that, while these burgers were scrumptious, I did say at some point while eating them, “If the cheese wasn’t on the inside, there could be more of it.”  And this is true. So, for the cheese-aholics who read this (Erica, you know who you are) you might want to opt for the traditional cheese-on-top variation. But I’m not going to tell you how to live your life.

Brie Stuffed Burgers

adapted from relishrelish!

1-1.5 pounds ground beef (or turkey)

4 red spring onions, divided and sliced (can substitute green onions or regular onions)

2-3 cloves garlic, pressed or minced

1 TB lemon juice

1-2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 TB olive oil

4 ounces Brie, sliced

4-6 TB mayonnaise

4 ciabatta buns, or bread of your choice

tomato slices

butter lettuce leaves

salt and pepper

Combine the onions, garlic, lemon juice and lemon zest in a small bowl. Mash together slightly until mixed.  Stir in olive oil and a dash of salt.  Set aside.

Season the ground meat with salt and pepper and form a ball for each of the four patties. Divide the onion/garlic mixture in half and reserve one half. Press an indentation into each ball large enough for a spoonful of the onion/garlic mixture and 1 oz of the brie. Cover over the cheese and flatten to make a patty.  Grill over high heat until cooked through – about 10 – 12 minutes.

Mix remaining half of onion/garlic mixture with mayonnaise.  Grill the buns and assemble the burgers. Those of you not in cheese recovery, add more cheese to the top!

A great way to jazz up burger night…and don’t forget to send me those sweet potato fries recipes. Really.  I need them.

More Food to Share

Another meal I made to take to my grandmother…easy to double, easy to freeze, easy to make, easy to share.  Really, you should have this in your repertoire.

Chicken Chili

This is so quick to make, I didn’t even have time to take any proper photos.  Somehow I managed to click some shots as I was packaging it up…but you’ll still be able to see its deliciousness, I have faith.

This recipe is adapted from a Pampered Chef recipe.  I’ve made it roughly four hundred and thirty-two times. Toss some corn bread in the oven and dinner is both simple and yummy.

White Chicken Chili – adapted from The Pampered Chef

3 heads of garlic (roughly 48 cloves)**

salt

3 TB olive oil

2 poblano peppers, finely chopped

1 onion, diced

1 1/2 pounds boneless, skinless chicken thighs, diced

2 TB southwest seasoning blend*

2 cans (15.5 oz) Great White Northern beans, drained

1 jar (16 oz) salsa verde

Slice off 1/4 inch of the pointed top of the garlic heads, exposing the cloves. Place the heads in a microwave safe bowl.  Sprinkle with 1/4 teas. salt and 2 TB oil. Microwave, covered, on high for about 3 minutes – until garlic is soft. Set aside to cool.

Heat remaining oil in large skillet or Dutch oven.  Saute onions and peppers in oil over medium heat until soft.  Add seasoning blend. Cook for a minute until seasoning is well blended.  Add chicken and saute until no longer pink.

Meanwhile, squeeze the cooled garlic into the bowl. Discard skins. Mash with a fork or with one of my favorite tools. Add beans and salsa to garlic and mix well. Add to chicken mixture and heat through. You can thin with some chicken broth if you prefer.  (If you like a little more heat, add diced jalapenos to this, too.)

We serve this with grated cheese and sour cream and tortilla chips. A squeeze of lime would be nice, too. Some cilantro maybe. It’s up to you.

** I know, I know, you are thinking “THREE heads of garlic?”  Sounds like a lot?  It’s not really – very subtle because it is cooked.  Come on, really?  Such a thing as too much garlic?  No way.

* If you don’t have a southwest seasoning blend, you can substitute the taco seasoning powder.

So go ahead: make a vat of it.  Eat some. Fill your freezer. Make friends.

Food to Share

I realized today I haven’t really posted any recipes in awhile – even though I’ve been cooking a lot. It hasn’t just been crackers and baby food around here lately! I guess I haven’t given them much thought because I’m doing a lot of simple, easy-to-share recipes…most of which are also easy-to-freeze.

NOT my freezer. But when I dream about being organized, this is what my freezer yearns to look like!

My grandmother has been having some health concerns lately and, as a way to remove some of her daily chores, my mother and aunts and I are taking turns at providing meals for her. So, I’ve pulled out my I-need-to-take-something-to-my-friend-who-just-had-a-baby/friend-who-is-sick/friend-who-just-planned-a-funeral list of recipes. This is a great list to have on hand and, in my dreams where my freezer looks like that picture, I also have one or two of these meals in there ready to be delivered at any given moment.  (Take just a second to laugh with me at such aspiration.)

In my real life, I frantically throw together one of these recipes for my own starving family and put two portions aside for my grandmother (or double it to freeze or take to a friend.)

Containers from French Bull - so cute!

In my imaginary world with my organized, always-stocked freezer, I also deliver my culinary gifts in these cute, non-plastic containers.  A girl can dream, right?

So here’s the first of my Freezer-Friendly New Baby/Sick Friend recipes. Now, these recipes aren’t about fancy-schmancy techniques or elaborate presentation…they are meant to be crowd-pleasing comfort foods with simple ingredients that appeal to a broad spectrum of people.  You probably already make your own version of most of them. And a side benefit is you are likely to have all but a few of the ingredients on-hand at any given time. This is true even if your pantry doesn’t look like my imaginary dream pantry featured here:

So far, this recipe has been my grandmother’s favorite…for whatever that is worth!

Chicken Spaghetti via The Pioneer Woman

(and if you don’t know who the Pioneer Woman is…well, I’m not sure I know what to say about that.)

photo from the Pioneer Woman

Ingredients

• 2 cups Cooked Chicken
• 3 cups Dry Spaghetti, Broken Into Two Inch Pieces
• 2 cans Cream Of Mushroom Soup
• 2 cups Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• ¼ cups Finely Diced Green Pepper
• ¼ cups Finely Diced Onion
• 1 jar (4 Ounce) Diced Pimentos, Drained
• 2 cups Reserved Chicken Broth From Pot
• 1 teaspoon Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
• ⅛ teaspoons (to 1/4 Teaspoon) Cayenne Pepper
• Salt And Pepper, to taste
• 1 cup Additional Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Preparation Instructions

Cook 1 cut up fryer and pick out the meat to make two cups. Cook spaghetti in same chicken broth until al dente. Do not overcook. When spaghetti is cooked, combine with remaining ingredients except additional 1 cup sharp cheddar.

Place mixture in casserole pan and top with remaining sharp cheddar. Cover and freeze up to six months, cover and refrigerate up to two days, or bake immediately: 350 degrees for 45 minutes until bubbly. (If the cheese on top starts to get too cooked, cover with foil).

****************************************************************

More freezer-friendly, easy-to-share recipes coming right up.  Stay tuned. I’ll be organizing my freezer.

It’s Baby Food Time Again!

Seems like just a few moments ago we were bringing this guy home for the first time…and now I’m digging out our baby spoons and ice cube trays.

So far, I have tried rice cereal and plain avocado and both were met with the auto-eject tongue maneuver.  Not to mention the horrified look of surprise and confusion about why I would put such things into his mouth.  Applesauce seemed a logical next step.

These peeled apple slices are just steamed in a little bit of water until they are soft enough to mash.

Then they get mashed and thinned with more water.  That’s it.

I tried the applesauce right away and it got the standard auto-eject as well.  This is so different from our older son who ate just about everything we gave him right from the beginning.  Except peas.  He didn’t like those until he was three.  Oh and potatoes.  He doesn’t like those either.

Needless to say, I had to freeze most of it since he wasn’t going to be gobbling it all up.

I often hear the annoyed groans and moans of people when they find out I made all the baby food for our first son – and I imagine I’ll hear them again this time around.  It is a little perplexing to me since the whole homemade baby food thing is so, so easy.  So, for everyone who thinks, “Oh just buy the Gerber already!” here’s some random information:  The Baby Food Debate; this book Super Baby Food; another blogger mom’s opinion;  and then the whole GMO controversy just for starters.  When it comes right down to it, the idea of reading all those labels and figuring out which brands are safe to buy, who is really organic, GMO-free and without certain fillers…well, that sounds like a whole lot more work than just mashing up the fruits and vegetables I already have in my house.  There.  I said it.  I make my own baby food because I’m lazy.

Now, if I could just get him to eat it!

Weekly Delivery

When we lived in Seattle we used a produce delivery service called Pioneer Organics (which has since been purchased by this company) and we loved it.  Since I’ve had some difficulty finding a CSA that is a good fit for us, I’ve decided to go with Greenling. A few days ago, we got our first box:

In addition to all the organic goodies inside, there were produce storage instructions, a silly bumper sticker, a magnet, a welcome packet and recipes using at least 10 of the items in the box.  Oh, and also a hand-written note saying, “Welcome to the Greenling Family!  We hope you enjoy.  Packed with love by James.”  Nice touch.

And now for the best part…the inside:

Everything was nice and cold/crisp.  And, in spite of the recent freeze which reportedly caused a great deal of trouble for our local farmers, everything was lovely.  There was broccoli, green shallots, spinach, potatoes, mustard greens, salad mix, red spring onions, lemons, tangerines, green garlic and a tomato.  And there was a total of five recipes and other tips on how best to use each type of produce – which I love!  I would never buy red spring onions at the farmer’s market, but I’m looking forward to tasting them and learning to use a “new” ingredient.

My favorite part about this service is how flexible it is…I can skip a week or two anytime I need to with a simple click on their website.  Or I can just let a box show up every Thursday without having to think about it.  It’s just one more step in our quest for suit-free food.  And, if you are so inclined, they have an interesting article on GMOs that is just as disturbing as all the other stuff out there I keep stumbling upon.  OK, I have to go now and made a salad.

Remember these?

In our house they are called “Crack.”  If you have managed to avoid these devils of addiction, lucky for you…well, until now.  You are safe no more.

Years ago my mother-in-law sent us a container of these…which we nearly ate in one sitting.  I’ve been trying not to make them ever since (without much luck, I might add.)

A box of saltines…some oil and spices…a few turns in the tupperware…and suddenly you will think these crackers go with everything.  Did you hear me?  EVERYTHING.

“Crack” Crackers

1 pound Saltine crackers

1 cup canola oil

1 tsp each: red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, black pepper

1 package Original Ranch Dressing mix (not the dip mix)

Place all crackers in a large container (with a tight lid.) Mix spices and oil well. Pour oil mixture over the crackers and close lid. Roll the container every few hours for one day until the mixture is absorbed. Move to a fresh container to store.

(I was about to tell you how long these crackers would stay nice and fresh in your airtight container…but it doesn’t matter. You aren’t going to have them that long!)

Saying Thank You

I have vivid memories of my brother throwing tantrums while being forced to sit at the dining room table sometime after Christmas and write thank you notes.  And I have just as vivid memories of my mother not caring one little bit how much he didn’t want to write them.  Eventually, after all their sweat and tears, the little notes claiming gratitude in that scrawly-boy-handwriting went out and there was a truce until the birthday gifts arrived.

I can understand both sides of the battle.  It is important to take the time to express appreciation to others and to teach it to our children.  And it can feel like an unpleasant chore to sit down and do it.  In spite of that, this afternoon, we sat around the table and made thank you notes.  There was something about stickers and stamps that seemed to take the sting out of it for my almost-four-year-old.

I love writing thank you notes – I think I have for my whole life.  I love stationary.  I love all things monogrammed and personalized.  I love hand-crafted cards.  I don’t ever recall having a battle over thank you notes…well, not that kind of battle, anyway.

These cards, however, are haphazard and even a little messy.  The stickers aren’t centered and none of the colors match and the ink from the stamps is smeared on most of them.  These cards challenge every one of my perfectionist/OCD tendencies right down into my bones.  I nearly had to restrain myself as I sat at the table watching them be created…restrain myself from controlling helping with the process.  I had to talk to myself (in my head) and say things like, “It doesn’t matter what they look like – this is about making it fun to say thank you.  His grandparents will be delighted to get whatever we put in those envelopes.  Let the four-eyed alien stickers go right onto that pretty card stock and smile about it!”  And I did.

Because he thought it was fun.  He asked me twice today when it was going to be time to do his thank you cards.  And now that they are finished, they do make me smile…even the one with the weird bug robot.

We need some soup – now.

It’s kind of cold here at the moment.  Never made it out of the 30s today and they are using “teens” to describe tonight.  (I know for some people, this is not actually cold.  But I practically live in Mexico…therefore, it is cold.)

Around 10:30 this morning I started throwing vegetables into a pot.  I was delighted my almost-four-year-old was anxious to help because I always hope that means he will eat it.  Sometimes it does.

That other container is the kitchen compost bin...where I store food scraps until I can dump them in the compost pile so our dog can dig them back out again.

Initially, I wanted some potato soup.  I had some sweet potatoes from my in-laws’ garden I wanted to use and it just sounded like warm comfort in a bowl… and then somehow the peppers and carrots and onions found their way in as well.  If I’d had any leeks, I would have put them in.  I managed to keep the mushrooms out.

Everything got steamed/boiled in about an inch or two of water for 15 minutes or so.  And then I mashed it all up with one of my favorite kitchen tools ever and added some chicken stock.  Taste.  Salt. Pepper. Taste.  Nutmeg.  Fresh thyme.  More stock.  More mashing.  Taste.  A little bit of cream.  Simmer.  Yum.

It was a perfect lunch for an unseasonably cold Texas day.  And, no, despite all of his excited help with the preparation, when offered a bowl my son wrinkled up his nose and said, “I don’t like potatoes, mommy.  Yuck.”  I will, of course, keep trying.

One more thing.

I made a resolution for 2010 about writing down more recipes.  This was primarily due to my husband’s request in his constant campaign to battle my culinary ADD.  But, guess what?  I did it!  I actually wrote down what I did.  Tonight at dinner when he took his first bite of soup and said, “Wow, this is good soup.  Where did it come from?”  I said, “I made it this morning to have for lunch.”  He said, “Oh.  So I better enjoy it ‘cuz I’ll never see it again?”  I giddily handed over my chicken-scratch notes about how this soup came to be.  He was shocked…and pleased.

So here it is.  But you should think of this as your “Clean Out The Produce Drawer Soup Recipe.”  If you need to use it and you like it – throw it in.

Clean Out the Produce Drawer Soup

2-3 white potatoes, peeled and diced

1-2 sweet potatoes, peeled and diced

handful baby carrots

2 thick slices of red onion

1/2 yellow bell pepper, diced

Boil/steam vegetables in 1-2 inches of water (they should not be covered with water) for 15-20 minutes (until fork tender.)  Drain off most of the water.  Replace with chicken stock (about a cup to start.)  *You could also just start with chicken or vegetable stock instead of water and avoid that “draining off” step. Mash vegetables with broth and add more stock if needed (up to another cup.)  If you like your soup really smooth and velvety with no chunks – transfer to blender at this point and puree.

Add salt and pepper to taste.  Add nutmeg and 2-3 sprigs of fresh thyme.  Bring soup to a very low simmer just to bring all the flavors together.  Add about 1/2 cup heavy cream (or milk if that’s how you roll.)  Simmer slowly for at least 10-15 minutes.  Finish with freshly grated parmesan and/or croutons.

This will freeze well, too. So, if you like it, make a vat of it and keep it on hand for those days when the temperature drops just a little too far.

Gingerbread House

I’m in the process of trying to figure out which holiday activities are going to become traditions and which are fun to do every once in awhile.  This year we tried the Gingerbread House…and no, I didn’t bake the gingerbread pieces (I’m still without a working oven!)  It’s a kit.  Still cute…

And my almost-four-year-old did almost all the decorating by himself.  Of course, his favorite part was licking his fingers after placing each candy.

Happy Holidays everyone!

My Little Christmas Soldiers

I’m big on homemade gifts.  It’s one of my very favorite kinds of gifts to give and get.  This year, my little salsa soldiers are ready to make their way into the holidays spreading spice wherever they go.

Can you see those little bits of yummy goodness in there?

This salsa recipe is a favorite in my house for a couple of reasons.  One: I usually have all the ingredients on hand which makes it easy to throw together in just a few minutes.  Two: It is very simple to adjust the heat index on this as the recipe includes both sugar and jalapeños.  Three: It is the closest thing to my favorite kind of Mexican restaurant table salsa – you know, the kind they bring out with the chips?

So, if you still need last minute gifts for people who happen to love spicy things on salty chips, go grab some mason jars and haul out your blender.  Just be sure to make enough of these little soldiers so you can keep one or two for yourself!

Blender Salsa

1 can Italian style tomatoes

1 TB cider vinegar

1 TB sugar*

1 TB jalapeño juice (out of the jar/can)

3 spoonfuls sliced jalapeños*

2 shakes each of: Italian seasoning, garlic salt, season salt

salt and pepper to taste

fresh cilantro to taste*

1/4 onion (optional)

Throw everything in the blender and pulse until nearly smooth…or until it is the consistency you like.

* These ingredients can easily be adjusted up or down depending on your personal flavor preference.  I made three different batches of salsa (1-3 stars) by increasing the heat and amount of the jalapeños.

(I got this recipe from my dear, dear friend Christy – who is about to become a temporary Texan – yippeeee!!! And she has Angi Weigel written on the top of the card.  Just giving credit where it is due.)

Merry Christmas Y’all!