Monday morning, after a little prodding, Emily found a recipe for cheese filled burgers. It is something she has talked about making several times, but thought she could just invent. I have tried this (not this recipe though) and not had great success. It is not impossible, but a little fussy. But she found a recipe and it looked remarkably simple, so I dug out a package of ground bison and some ground pork from the deep freeze....because bison is so lean adding a fattier meat to it makes a juicer burger, and as there were no other binding ingredients in the recipe it seemed like a good idea.
I went to the store later in the morning for hamburger buns, and although I picked up the ingredients for oriental noodle salad on the way home I decided what I wanted as a side was in fact broccoli salad. While Emily was off with her friend I put the salad together so it had time to marinate & chill and then went back outside with my book.
I came back in just before 5 with a basketful of line dried laundry. I debated starting supper on my own, letting my mini chef cook another night, but she wheeled in just before I made up my mind.
While she mixed the meat together with a little seasoning salt I sliced some cheese for her (since I never buy cheese slices as called for in the recipe). I showed her how to make the patties, explaining they needed to be thin, then placed cheese on one, topped it with a second patty and worked the edges together to create a seal. While she continued I made a quick fruit salad of nectarines, plums and cherries as a second side, and laid the griddle on the barbecue.
She had made her patties on the small side, so she wound up with eight burgers instead of four. Still they turned out very well. As she was making the burgers she told me that one good thing was once she learned something she would know how to do it again. Very astute, my girl is. Some days she even believes I know what I'm talking about.
While the burgers were on the grill we perused the local movie showtimes, she thought we needed to go see a film, since it had been a while. I suppose it had. We opted for "Me, Earl and the Dying Girl" and invited my sister to join us. It was a beautiful movie, if heart-wrenching. I'm not sure Emily understood all of it, but she enjoyed it. I would recommend it highly.
Cheese Filled Burgers
1 1/2 pounds ground beef
1 teaspoon seasoned salt
medium Cheddar, sliced
Mix ground beef and salt, divide into 8 equal patties. Spread cheese on four patties, top with another patty, press edges to seal. Cook on a medium high grill, about 10 minutes per side.
Serve on toasted buns with your favourite condiments.
* I would season the meat more, with ground pepper, fresh garlic, perhaps even a little cayenne.
The original recipe also called for a teaspoon of sweet pickle relish to be spread in the middle of each burger with the cheese. As we don't care for relish we omitted it. Admittedly this would certainly enhance the flavour. I think salsa might be an interesting option as well.
Broccoli Salad
2-3 broccoli crowns 1/2 cup mayonnaise
10 slices bacon 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/3 cup diced red onion 2 teaspoons sugar
1/3 cup sunflower seeds salt & pepper
1/3 cup dried cranberries or raisins
Chop broccoli into small florets. Fry bacon until crisp and crumble (or cut into small pieces and fry until crispy). Drain & cool.
Toss together broccoli, onion, sunflower seeds (I toasted mine a little) and cranberries/raisins & bacon
Mix together mayonnaise, vinegar, sugar and salt & pepper. Pour over vegetables, toss and chill at least one hour.
No comments:
Post a Comment