Mandy and Jace

I absolutely love a good hamburger. Hamburger, cheeseburger, sliders they all make me a very happy girl. They are also a summertime staple around here. There is nothing I like more than eating a juicy burger right off the grill. Oops, I just drooled on my keyboard a bit.

I was a little worried when I made these. I had seen some hamburger patties with cheese cubes mixed in the meat. I had initially mistaken them for butter and asked about them and they quickly corrected me. Then I got to thinking, butter makes everything better, why not burgers? So I cut the butter into cubes and mixed them into the meat. People, that was the best thing I ever did. They were delicious! Not healthy by any means, so be smart and eat in moderation.

The juiciest burgers ever
makes 5 large patties
1 lb ground beef
2 tbs butter, cold and cubed
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce

Throw all ingredients into a large bowl and mix with your hands or a spoon is you don’t want to get your hands dirty. If you have time, let the mixture sit in the refrigerator for a couple of hours. In the words of AB “your patience will be rewarded”. Form the patties and grill to your desired doneness.

After an exhausting but exciting weekend we are ready to relax. I am counting down the days to the weekend and it’s only Monday! Every year our shop closes for a week around the 4th of July and we look forward to it every year. It is our time to rest and recover. We will be heading out of town on Friday and we’re not sure when we are coming back.

Here’s this weeks meal plan.
Tonight: burgers and sweet potato fries
Tuesday: 5 spice beef stir fry
Wednesday: grilled lamb chops and couscous
Thursday: take out since we will be getting ready to leave
Friday: We’re outta here!!!

Happy eating!

I know my meal plan said we were having waffles but I was too lazy to get the waffle maker out and clean up after. So, I decided to do pancakes instead. I made these a couple of months ago and swore off boxed pancake mix forever. They are THAT much better and only took me five minutes to mix up.

Melt in your mouth pancakes
adapted from Joy the Baker

1 cup flour (white or wheat)
4 teaspoons baking powder
4 teaspoons brown sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup buttermilk (if you don’t have buttermilk add 1 tablespoon white vinegar to regular milk)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and cool

In a large bowl sift together the flour, baking powder, sugar and salt. Set aside

In another bowl stir together the buttermilk, eggs and vegetable oil. After that is mixed together, stir in the melted butter.

Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture and stir until it becomes a batter.

If you have a cast iron skillet get it out. Believe me, it makes them better. If you don’t have one on hand a regular skillet or griddle will do. Add some vegetable oil to the pan and turn the stove to medium-high. When hot, I use a ladle to pour my batter in the pan and cook until brown. Serve immediately.

This was a photo of my kitchen on Saturday. I set out to make an ordinary coffee cake. Now, I’ve made my share of coffee cakes before and had no problems, but this coffee cake had it out for me. I was using a different recipe than I normally use and this particular recipe called for beaten egg whites. My stand mixer was occupied so no problem, I have a handy dandy immersion blender with a whisk attachment. Don’t I? The attachment was no where to be found and, the only thing I could do was mix them by hand. If you’ve ever done this before you’ll know what a pain hand beating egg whites can be. I thought my arm was going to fall off! I finally got the batter mixed and put it in my pan. I wanted a thicker coffee cake so I put it in a smaller pan than what the recipe called for. Turns out the cake rose so much that it flopped all over the side of the pan and into the bottom of the oven. After a couple of tears and lots of throwing things around, I cleaned the oven, poured out the cake and started over. Thankfully my mystery solving husband found the attachment, and the second cake was much easier but no less annoying.

Here’s what we are eating this week. Hopefully it will go smoothly.
Tonight: King Ranch enchiladas
Tuesday: waffles, eggs and bacon
Wednesday: beans and Cornbread
Thursday: pork Loin and mac and cheese
Friday: date night!

Tuesday evening we had our first BBQ in our new house. We fired up our never used grill and got to cooking. I was a little nervous becuase I had never had lamb chops. The closest I have had to them was in our meatballs. Turns out they were delicious. I am so excited about the summer season, now. Last summer we wanted to grill all the time and we couldn’t so now we are going to try to get outside more.

I also made lemon thyme rice to go with it and it was so good. I don't know what I ever had against rice but I could eat it every meal now. I used white rice but if you have some extra time or want to do minute rice this could be an extremely healthy side dish or lunch.

Lemon thyme rice
2 tablespoons canola oil
2 cups white rice
1 carton chicken broth
4-5 sprigs fresh thyme
zest of 1 lemon
salt and pepper

Pour the oil into a pot set on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the rice and cook for about 2 minutes to toast the rice. Add in half the carton of chicken broth and the thyme and reduce the heat to medium. Cook until the rice absorbs the liquid and is soft. Add more chicken broth during cooking if needed.
Pour the rice into a serving dish and stir in the lemon zest. Salt and pepper to taste.