flailing in my kitchen v3

How can I be sad when I have breakfast, lunch, and dinner?
How can I be sad when I have
steak, jalapenos, and noodle soup?
Showing posts filed under: burgers

Stress-free burgers

A few months ago, my dad visited me, and I made burgers for him one night because he likes burgers and because I know I can make them well enough to his satisfaction. Even so, I've always found burgers to be so much work, so I decided to try and make things easier for myself by buying pre-made frozen patties.

That was a terrible mistake. I think using the frozen patties made it so much more stressful. And it made me realize, cooking burgers on a pan is not ideal. All the fat renders off and just sits in a puddle and then you have a splattery mess to deal with. I had to keep removing all the extra fat from the pan, which was both annoying and precarious. I ended up way overcooking the burgers and they didn't taste very good ):

But a few days ago I saw some french fries and it made me really want french fries, and I also had a burger from my favorite ice cream shop, which was delicious, and I thought, it's time for me to make some burgers and fries again.

Side view of an open faced burger with spring mix, tomato, onion, and mayo. There are fries in front of the burger as well
Yeah, that's spring mix on my burger

I used this ranch burger recipe, which is one of my go-to's. Some people will tell me that I'm really making meatloaf because of the fact that there's ranch seasoning, onions, breading, and egg mixed in with the beef, but I don't care, that's what makes it taste good.

But you know what really made this a successful stovetop burger? I used 93% lean beef. Now I like my meat fatty, but I really wanted to avoid the puddle of fat in my pan, so I splurged a bit on this. (It's okay, it evens out the mayonnaise that I bought for less than $1)

A top down view of all the burger components: spring mix, french fries, mayonnaise, ketchup, patties, tomato, onion, and a bun
That spring mix was kinda sad, and the sell by date was last week. But I still ate it

And it totally worked! I cooked the patties and it was super chill! I even used my meat thermometer and I cooked the meat to a temperature of about 140°F, which was plenty cooked.

It did still take a while to prep and cook and clean it all, but the important thing was that I didn't stress out about it, and I didn't make a mess.

A side view of the (closed) burger and fries

Filed under: burgers

Guac burgers

I just had a small amount of Worcestershire left, and because Worcestershire apparently goes well on ground meat things, I decided that burgers would be a good way to use the rest of it.

But I had one problem. I was all out of ketchup, and because I'm trying to get rid of my sauces, I wasn't going to buy a bottle of ketchup. What I did have was half a lime. I've seen recipes with guacamole on burgers before, and guac is at least kinda sauce-y.

A burger and some waffle fries, sitting in front of a digital clock
I've started taking food photos on my bedroom drawers. It has good lighting!

I didn't use a recipe for any of this. Because most burger recipes I've seen just involve ground beef, salt, and pepper, I figured I could wing it. I used a pound of ground beef, and poured the rest of my Worcestershire sauce on it. I also mixed in some panko breadcrumbs and salt and pepper. And maybe some garlic powder and ground mustard? I don't know.

I also just threw things together for the guac. I mashed up an avocado with the lime, and added some onions, cilantro, and garlic. And salt and pepper of course. It was very lime-y and very tasty.

The same burger and fries, this time in front of a blue bowl
The guac looks so nice in these photos

But I nearly wasted my avocado when I was scooping it out! The avocado just slipped out of my hand, and it almost fell to the ground, but I caught it with my white tank top that I was wearing, which now has a giant green stain on it. That might be the end of that tank top.

The same burger and fries, taken at a different angle, with the fries sitting up front
It's like a burger photoshoot!

Overall, the burger was fine, but nothing amazing. I enjoyed the guac, but I was still missing ketchup. It was all pretty easy for me to make though! In the past, burgers seemed like so much work, but maybe I'm just getting better at this whole making food thing.

Filed under: burgers

Burgers

Hello friends. I'm still here. Still cooking. My sabbatical ended about a week ago, and I've been trying to get used to working again and figuring out what work life balance means.

I was pretty exhausted from my sabbatical. Even though I wasn't working, I had so many things that I wanted to do, and I didn't even have time for my food blog! And now that I'm working again, well, that would seem to mean even less time for the food blog. But like I said, I'm figuring it out, and I'm taking it easy right now.

One thing that I am really trying to do now is save money and not eat out. I don't really need to save money, but I kind of find it a little exciting and fun to see myself spend way less on food. I know I've done "$30 a week" challenges in the past, and I'm not going to do that now, but I'm going to keep track of my spending and see how it turns out without eating out.

So, today I made burgers.

Burger, some toppings, fries, a salad, and a book to read

Why burgers? Well, my sister was here last week and she made me some pretzels with cheese sauce, and we ate all the pretzels, but we still have some cheese sauce remaining, and I thought "maybe I can dip some fries in this", and then "burgers go well with fries".

I know, my thought process is weird.

I did bookmark a cheeseburger recipe a few weeks months ago, and this seemed like a good time to try it. Except it really isn't much of a recipe. The burger patty is literally just ground beef, salt, and pepper. The recipe also includes a burger sauce, but I didn't even bother making that.

The burger tasted good though! I mean homemade burgers always taste good. I cooked the patties in a cast iron skillet that I haven't touched in many months. The process was pretty simple, but my whole kitchen got super smoky, which meant my living room got super smoky and I had to turn on the vent and open the windows for a while. It was also kind of a pain to clean and re-season.

I also bought some frozen fries and made a salad to use up some leftover carrot ginger salad dressing I made a couple of weeks ago. Honestly it's not that great with green leaf lettuce. Iceberg would have been better.

Closeup of the burger and fries, with ketchup for dipping

While I was eating, I read a little bit of James and the Giant Peach. It was a very filling meal, so filling that I couldn't even finish it all.

Will I be able to stick with only having homemade meals? Will I make another post soon? Will I have any time to write about the endless amounts of food thoughts in my head? I don't know. We'll see how I'm feeling in a week.

Filed under: burgers

Quinoa burgers

Some of my co-workers mentioned a food blog called Half Baked Harvest and when I hear good things about a food blog, I have to check it out. I've been scrolling through all her recipes deciding on one to make, and I settled on these quinoa burgers, which is kind of a complicated first recipe to try, but I still had quinoa from who-knows-when and I really wanted to use that up.

The recipe also called for making some caramelized onions and sweet potato fries. I love caramelized onions so I was all for that, and I also love sweet potato fries, but this was already getting too involved, so I just bought frozen fries. Plus I also decided to fry up some bacon.

Two quinoa burgers topped with cheese, as well as caramelized onions, bacon, and sweet potato fries on the side
We added a cloth because I said "I feel like this needs something green"

Bacon?! Doesn't that defeat the purpose of a veggie burger?

Hey, my goal wasn't to make a veggie burger. It was to use up the rest of the quinoa. And I want my burger to taste good. The bacon added some nice texture to this.

Closeup of two quinoa burgers with various toppings
This is what I meant when I said it needed something green

Not that the burger tasted bad without the bacon. This came out surprisingly well and had plenty of flavor. The shredded cheese that melted into a gooey blob with crispy edges was a really nice touch. I always thought that getting sliced cheese is better for a burger, but no, definitely go for shredded and sprinkle the cheese all over, making sure some of it spills off the patty to create extra crispy cheese pieces.

I even took the time to sauté more onions and fry an over easy egg during lunch on a workday just so I could fully enjoy my last burger.

Closeup of a quinoa burger (with top bun off) with my laptop in the background
I know, I burned this one a little

Closeup of a quinoa burger, fully assembled
Still delicious, though

Closeup of a quinoa burger, after taking a bite out of it, causing the yolk to spill out
Look at that YOLK

No hectic or busy workday is going to stop me from putting together a delicious gourmet lunch.


An attempt to satisfy my burger craving

I first learned what the word crave meant some time in elementary school. I distinctly remember this because once I learned what it meant, I used the word all the time. "I'm craving bananas." "I'm craving quail meat." "I'm craving some baby chicken eggs."

(You might think, those are weird things for a 10 year old to want to eat. You're probably right.)

I think my mom told me it was weird that I kept saying that because it made me sound like I was pregnant, so I stopped.

But I think about food all the time, and when I don't get to eat something that I even have a small desire for, it just grows and grows until I finally have some. I had a craving for pizza from Thanksgiving all the way until last month. The thing is, I actually ate pizza several times between Thanksgiving and last month, but none of it was hitting the spot. I was finally satisfied when I got a supreme pizza and a cheesy bread twist late one night after helping my friend move a bunch of stuff to her new house.

Two days after that, she sent me a photo of a burger that she got from the restaurant next door, and I thought, "Man, I want a burger." So, I bought a burger from a nearby restaurant. It wasn't great. I bought another burger from the same place she got her burger. It wasn't bad. I made myself some smash burgers.

Burger with salad

Burger bite

It was fine, but it was literally just smashed ground beef, and I like burgers to have a little more flavor than that.

So, yeah, I still haven't satisfied that burger craving.

Filed under: burgers

Hi! I like to cook, and I like to blog. This is where I dump out all my thoughts about food.

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