Wednesday, May 27, 2009

Ultimate Burger

There are a few key steps to making an excellent burger. Below I have outlined these steps so you can make some amazing burgers at home.

Step 1: Get good ingredients.

-If you are cooking with things that taste good on their own your end product will taste that much better

Buy or Make a good whole grain bun

  • Be sure it is fresh but sturdy -not too soft, easily compressed, chewy, dry or subject to breakage
  • Buy a nice white bread rather than a poor whole grain
For the Burger:
  • Make or buy your favorite veggies burger
or
  • Choose lean or even extra lean ground beef
  • shop around for a nice flavored meat
  • sometimes at your smaller meat shops rather than at the supermarket

Have on hand:

  • fresh garlic,
  • a nice flavored onion (not necessicarily sweet),
  • a large meaty tomatoe,
  • tender large basil leaves,
  • homemade zuchini pepper relish,
  • Mircle Whip (or for the adventurist -Ranch),
  • smokey barbeque sauce and brush,
  • Opitional: mushrooms & cheese

Step 2: Cook it wright.

  1. Cook meat on a hot skillet or grill -searing well
  2. Turn once (and don't squish out juices as cooking)
  3. spread seared side with about a tsp of sauce
  4. when burger is cooked through (use thermometer-if unsure)
  5. turn burger again and briefly cook sauce on
  6. move to bun or turn back over when ready
Step 3: Build your burger correctly! The order in which you put together your burger can make a big difference to how all the flavors go together. Here is a good basic order:

Top Bun

"mayo"

basil leaves (baby lettuces are nice too)

tomato

Bottom Bun

Relish ( being careful not to get too much liquid ....)

onion sliced very thinly (or fires if you like)

mushrooms

Now put on the burger, eat and enjoy!


Tuesday, May 26, 2009

NOCOOK PEANUT BUTTER BALLS

¼ cup sesame seeds

1 cup chopped peanuts

½ cup honey

1 cup rolled oats

1 cup peanut butter

½ cup sunflower seeds

1 cup cocoanut

½ cup wheat germ

1 teaspoon vanilla

Buy fresh, high quality products. Store extra in fridge (except for honey& vanilla). Combine all ingredients well and roll into balls. Refrigerate.

FAST PIZZA CRUST


BOWL 1:

Disolve 1 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup warm water
Sprinkle with 1 tblsp yeast

BOWL 2:
Add 2 tbsp oil
1/3 cup warm water
Mix in 2 cups flour
1 tsp salt

Add to liquid

Knead , form ball and roll or stretch (toss) to fit pan

BAKER’S BEST WHITE CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES

5 squares of semi-sweet chocolate

½ cup butter or margarine

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla

½ cup granulated sugar

½ cup brown sugar

1 ½ cup all purpose flour

½ teaspoon baking powder

½ teaspoon baking soda

½ teaspoon salt

¼ cup sour cream

1 pkg white chocolate chips

Melt choco-squares in double boiler over hot water

or in Microwave on HIGH for 2 minutes ( careful not to over cook)

Beat egg with sugars and vanilla ,blend well. Beat in melted chocolate.

Mix in flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and sour cream until will blended. Stir in chocolate chips. Chill dough for at least 30 minutes.

Drop by teaspoon on ungreased cookie sheet.

Bake at 350° 10- 12 minutes

MELTING SHORTBREAD



3 cups all purpose flour

½ cup cornstarch

1 cup icing sugar

1 lb.(pound) -2cups butter

Cream butter, add sugar, thoroughly cream. Sift flour and starch. Add to butter and mix. Beat until fluffy and mixture breaks. Drop by spoon and flatten or add flour and knead until it can be rolled and cut into shapes.

Bake at 325° carefully.

until just turning brown on bottom edge