A Special Day

What constitutes special day?

• The sun is shining.  It was 69 degrees in the afternoon. We are talking about February in Utah. I believe it is a year without winter here.  Here's a little factoid you may not know: In 1815 Mount Tambora in India erupted causing extreme havoc around the world.  In the year of 1816 many countries experienced a year without summer. The cause was attributed to the volcano eruption column that reached into the stratosphere causing global cooling. Crops failed all over the Northeastern states and many people were driven out of their homes. One family was that of Joseph Smith, Sr  He moved his family from Vermont to New York.  Coincidence? There were no Gold Plates buried in Vermont.  This year, only in the West, there is no winter. The Northeast has many feet of snow and below freezing temperatures. But not here. The sun is shining and it is a special day.
• I finally got out of the house to get groceries.  I spent too much money.  Stayed too long looking for Valentine Decorations. But now we have food and burlap.  Good things to have. That is special; now we can eat.  (and decorate) 
• I worked many hours in the black hole craft room. Everything gets piled in there, more and more every day. I bought a tote and filled it with new fabric. Not a dent in the room. But it is a special day, because I went in there and didn't throw up looking at the mess. I saw a little flicker at the end of that tunnel. Work schedules are on hold this week. I must chain myself to the cutting table (a long chain) and see it through to the end.
• Today's Burger Bust is a winner!!!!  From the tiny book, Beans,The El Paso Chili Company, by W Park Kerr comes the tastee recipe, Beef and Black Bean Burgers. I have made this before with ground turkey, but beef is better, you can cook it medium and it is much juicier.  This is a simple recipe with ground beef, black beans and S&P, but the 'special' part is the Cumin Mayo. Sooo YUM.

Beef and Black Bean Burgers

   1 pound ground beef                

   1 cup cooked and drained black beans

   Olive oil

   Salt and freshly ground black pepper

   4 hamburger buns, split and toasted

   Cumin Mayonnaise

In a bowl, lightly but thoroughy mix together the ground beef and beans.  Form into 4 thick patties.

Set a large, heavy skillet over medium heat.  Film the pan with olive oil.  Add the patties and cook until brown, about 4 minutes. Turn the patties and cook until brown and done to your liking, about 3 minutes for medium rare.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  (Note:  It doesn't grill too well because the beans fall out and it doesn't stay together as well.  You could mash the beans, I suppose.)

Place each burger on the bottom of a bun.  Add a dollop of mayonnaise, cover with a bun top, and serve immediately.

Cumin Mayonnaise

   1/2 cup mayonnaise

   1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin, preferably from toasted seeds

   2 teaspoons fresh lime juice

   1 teaspoons minced lime zest

In a small bowl, whisk together the mayonnaise, cumin, lime juice, and zest. Cover and refrigerate until using. 

Hope you have your own special day.

Not So Smooth Saturday

Organizing my life is not going to be an easy ride.  I spent a busy Saturday doing some needed jobs that just wouldn't fit into my schedule.  I know my schedule is not the perfect organizational form and head down the slippery slope sometimes when things don't work out as planned.  I do set myself up for defeat when I don't accomplish a day's task, then another, but I am okay with that.  I have learned over the years to factor in bad days and just ride them out.  Tomorrow will be a better day. It always is.

I must remember a note I found on my peg board when I took over the receptionist job at the Mission Office.  "He who is not flexible will get bent out of shape."  I pinned it onto a Gumby figure and kept it on my desk to remind me to get over it when things don't pan out.  I better print that on my Daily Schedule.  

That said, my menu had a few open days this week.  I prepare it on Wednesday to Tuesday and last week I forgot about Thur, Fri, Sat, and Sun and made it for Monday to Sunday.  Silly me.  It has been the old style menu for a few days.  Punt.  (And Super Bowl this weekend.  No pun intended, but it is appropriate.)  

Tonight is a Burger Bust night.  I picked a recipe that fit the ingredients that I had on hand.  I chose a pin called Daddy's Hamburgers and Friday Faves found on the blog:  http://www.foodiecrush.com/2013/02/daddys-hamburgers/ (mostly because I had no buns and other exotic ingredients to work with and this would fit the shortage.)  It was good, and supposed to be juicy, but I must insert a couple of exceptions. First, the roll burned where they were not covered with meat.  It is an open faced burger broiled right on the ciabatta rolls and 550 degrees is way hot. Secondly, the meat was not cooked in 10 minutes. A little poke in the burger oozed out too much blood.  So I flipped the meat over and gave it more time and inadvertently overcooked them while preparing a salad.  No picture.  We were too hungry and gobbled them down, burned bread and all.

My error was in making two larger burgers instead of 4 small ones with my half pound of meat.  The Pinterest picture does not look like a slider and was just as thick in the picture as mine.  But, pictures can be deceiving.  They tasted okay with a fat slice of tomato on top even though they were not juicy as promised.  This recipe is back in the queue to try again and monitor it more closely.

Now Saturday is over.  Bummer.

Burger Bust

Burger Bust Saturday

Let the quest for a great burger begin.  I have been craving a juicy burger for a while.  I like 5 Guys, but the bun is not great, but the topping selection is the best. Mostly the bag full of fries is the draw for me.  

I like Smash Burger with their flat crispy burger, not the bun, but love the Smash Fries--very savory.  

Carl's Jr.'s Six Dollar Thickburger is good, but none of them are cooked to medium because of food poisoning restrictions.  They just are  not that juicy.

I made a good burger a while ago and cooked it less than done with Costco's Kirkland Organic Ground Beef and that is the flavor I am looking for.  It was great even on a thin style bun. 

I like other "burgers", too. Turkey, salmon, shrimp--I have a few recipes. Rachel Ray is the queen of burger recipes.  I love to watch her make burgers and wish I was the one to taste it for her.  Therefore, I have begun pinning different burger recipes and plan to try them out.  I also have Rachel's Thirty Minute Meals Cookbook for some interesting ideas. I have designate Saturday as Burger Bust Day.  

Last Saturday's burger was not disappointing. The pin was from Lauren's Wicked Spatula Blog wickedspatula.com.  The burger is Tropical Grilled Salmon Burger with Grilled Pineapple and Avocado.  Of course, I did have to change it a little.  I did not have fresh salmon--too pricey for Saturday night supper. (Maybe for guests.)

I used a 7.5 oz. can of good Wild Sockeye Salmon from Alaska purchased from Azure Farms in Oregon. Then I added one egg, 1/2 cup gluten-free bread crumbs and S&P.  I could not grill it as it was a little too soft, but cooked it in a hot cast iron skillet in olive oil to perfection.  I grilled the pineapple, but, alas, my avocado was too green.  It would have tasted like pine gum.  Next time.  

Place the burger on a bed of butter lettuce (or not is okay), on a grilled thin style bun, Cilantro Lime Mayonnaise (on the blog) and thin sliced jalapeno peppers.  To die for! even without the avocado.

I used my home canned jalepenos (penyo--say it correctly) peppers.  There was an abundance of peppers in my garden last fall.  I used another pin to can them. (Pickled Jalepenos from the blog:  The Yummy Life, theyummylife.com)   They are so good. On the pineapple they didn't bite like I expected them to.  

I plan to explore the pins that I have pinned in the last few years and use my blog as the place to evaluate them, change them or just plain rave about them.   This is a great one!