SUNDAY COOK: BURGERS & CHIPS

Every Sunday I think to myself - WoW! another Sunday Cook - I can't BELIEVE it is Sunday again!  

Is it just ME or is this summer just blowing right by?

As of last Friday - July 13th - our work stint here at the parks was at the 1/2 way point - we have worked 

78 days in a row with 79 days in a row left to go. 

Crazy! In a way it has felt like that much time has passed and in a way it hasn't - know what I mean? 

Bet you do.

With Cassia and Derek back on Friday from a 4 day trip to Chilliwack - YES - I missed them immensely and NO - I didn't get much done while they were gone - we celebrated their return with burgers and fries. 

We LOVE burgers - and fries! One of our favourite dinners!

How about you? LOVE them too? Do you have a favourite restaurant to go to for the PERFECT burger?

We LOVE the burgers from Burger 55 - a little burger joint in Penticton BC. A hole in the wall kind of place with great burgers and custom toppings.

Two problems: 1. it isn't close to here so the last time we went to Burger 55 was way back in 2009 and, 2. it's a bit expensive to be going to regularly.

In fact, due to our now frugal way of living, eating out a restaurants is a very seldom occurrence. So - we had to choose - go without burgers! YIKES! or come up with our own. Obviously I had to commit myself to making our burgers from scratch that tasted great! We also live very remotely here in the forest - it isn't like we could go out for a burger even if we wanted to.

After a little trial and error,  I am proud to say that I have DONE it! It wasn't easy and it took time - but here is the BEST at home burger recipe - and chips - for you to make yourselves. 

So, here we go!

Since the fries take a bit longer, I start with them.

Baked Garlic Parmesan Fries

3 russet potatoes

2 -3 tbsp. olive oil

1/4 cup panko bread crumbs

1/4 cup parmesan, freshly grated 

garlic salt (I use 1/2 to 1 tsp.)

fresh ground peper

chopped parsley - for garnish

Clean and roughly peel potatoes - we use 3 medium size for the three of us.

Slice into 1/4 inch pieces.

Place potato slices into a bowl and add olive oil, crumbs, cheese, garlic salt, and pepper.

Stir to coat.

Spread on oil baking sheet. Bake in the oven preheated to 450ºF for 18 - 25 minutes or until cheese and panko is golden brown and your desired crispiness is achieved. 

Sprinkle with parsley and serve.

Now for the burger!

The Wood Clan Stuffed Burger

This is a 'little of this and little of that' kind of recipe. I hope that is ok - make your own changes to suit.

In a bowl place enough lean ground beef for your group. I know that is a bit vague - imagine just a little smaller then a tennis ball per burger. Hopefully it is good beef. As I've mentioned - a few times now - we buy our beef from a local meat market. It makes awesome burgers! 

Add the following - I use the same bowl that the potatoes just came out of still with the left over oil, crumbs and parmesan: garlic salt, onion salt, worcestershire sauce, pepper, some steak seasoning if you have it, green onions (optional), parsley (we have TONS in the garden this year), egg (number will be based on how many burgers you are making) for the three of us I use one, and bread crumbs.

Stir until well combined.

Now - here comes the secret weapon! I STUFF ours with cheese. We use goat cheese because we LOVE it! Any soft cheese will do - cream cheese or even blue cheese. I'm thinking a cube of chedder may even work but I haven't gotten past the goat cheese yet. Roll the cheese into a 1/2 to 3/4 inch ball.

1. take the rolled burger balls 2. put your thumb in to make a hole 3. place the cheese in the hole

Squeeze the burger up around the cheese, pinch it closed and flatten the burger carefully. Fry or grill until completely cooked.

While the burgers and chips were cooking I made bruschetta for the topping of our burger. We have so much fresh basil in the garden I am making a lot of bruschetta to eat on pretty much everything!

1 tomato

1 garlic clove (or to taste)

a handful of basil - chopped (I use scissors)

olive oil 

The result! A REALLY yummy dinner. I sliced the burger in half so that you could see the goat cheese.

So EASY but yet sooooo GOOD! I hope you try them so that you too can save a little money by staying in for your burger fix rather than going out to eat. We don't have a BBQ so I fry them inside but I bet they'd be even BETTER grilled!

Thankfully! We had rain and much cooler temperatures here at the park today. The weatherman has been threatening thunderstorms for the last few days - we are so glad it finally came true! So much rain this morning that we took it off - no sense raking sites in the rain. I did have to attend to one of our campers, a single lady who required assistance from the police and ambulance - so it was a busy day nonetheless. The rain stopped by the afternoon so it was back to my normal evening rounds.

Thanks for visiting Sunday Cook at a life made simple.

Teresa

Today's Interesting Link: I found this blog not too long ago - as usual right? When I arrived I started laughing pretty early into reading it and therefore decided that I MUST go back and read some posts. Raised by my Daughter is a blog written by Neal - the dad of a little girl. He adds cartoon sketches his posts that I could totally relate to! 

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