Hamburgers

I know what you're probably thinking--there's no way you made that delicious hamburger in the picture. And you're right. But I DID make hamburgers for dinner last night, and I did forget to take pictures of them, so I'm just posting a mouth-watering picture of a burger I got at this little diner across from the local gas station. They are as delicious as Fannie's for sure.

Fannie Farmer doesn't have much of a recipe for burgers. She doesn't have those fancy stuffed burgers that are all the rage lately. She doesn't even fancy them up like I do with bread crumbs and eggs and onions and all that fun stuff.

Fannie's recipe goes like this:
1 lb ground beef
butter for frying
salt & pepper

Just barely mix the salt and pepper. Do not handle the meat more than necessary or it gets tough and dry.

Shape the meat into patties and fry in butter 3-4 minutes per side.

I like my burgers a bit rare (my husband was scared to eat them without further cooking), so I probably cooked them less than that. I'd never fried hamburgers in butter before, so that was new. And I've never made them so plain. But, with tomatoes I had picked literally 20 minutes ago, how could they go wrong?

Sorry for the lack of pictures, but some days, I'm lucky I managed to make anything at all. Days like this, when I work all day, take my son to Tae Kwon Do, drive an hour to get home, work in the garden, unload the clean dishes, wash the dirty dishes, and THEN start dinner, well, remembering my camera just isn't going to happen. Lucky for me, everyone in my house likes burgers, so they didn't mind that they weren't fancied up. So, this 'recipe' is for a busy week night dinner. Can't get much more simple than this.

Little Joe's, Sauteed Zucchini, and Tomato Slices, oh my!

According to Fannie, this recipe is popular in San Francisco. I've never heard of it, but it sounded alright, and I had most of what I needed to make it, which is reason enough for me to choose a recipe.

Chop kale & onion while oil heats.

 For this, I used:

3 tbsp coconut oil for cooking
1 onion
1 bunch kale leaves (FF says 1 lb. spinach, but I have neither spinach nor a cooking scale, so I just used the handful of kale I had from the garden. I adjusted cooking times accordingly.
1 lb ground beef
3 eggs (or 4, depending on how many people are eating)
1/4 c. parmesan cheese
salt
tobasco

Cook for about 10 minutes, or until onions are translucent, stirring often.

Add ground beef and cook until pink is gone. Beat the eggs, add a splash of Tobasco, and pour over mixture. Cook til eggs are solid, stirring occasionally.

Top with parmesan, salt & pepper, and lots of splashes of Tobasco (if you like that kind of thing).

This wasn't the best recipe I've made, but it was alright. I paired it with sauteed zucchini (yesterday's post) and added some sliced tomatoes from the garden for a complete paleo meal. It was tasty enough, just not very exciting (until I started splashing Tobasco all over it). My son even ate a huge helping without complaining. I gave him a huge scoop, since he won't eat zucchini, and figured he'd give me a lot of trouble. But all he said was that it didn't taste like sausage and eggs, and then, to my surprise, he ate his entire helping, kale included. Apparently, he really likes kale now. Also, he thought the Tobasco bottle looked so cool that he wanted to try it, and shockingly, he splashed drops all over his and ate it all up. This is a kid who thinks the gingersnap 'oreos' I bought him were hot. So go figure. But hey, if he's not complaining, I'm not complaining!

For my son's sake, I'd call this a roaring success, even though personally, I found it a little plain without a heavy dose of Tobasco to liven it up.