Homemade Hamburgers + Homemade Buns

As most of you (maybe?) know, I'm not a big hamburger eater. Give me a steak any day and I'll tear it up, but hamburger? Eh. But.......we have over 30 lbs. of the stuff, so I try to make it work for me in a variety of ways. This past week, I decided to make hamburgers that we could grill instead of using it in tacos (like I do 94.68% of the time). Oh yeah, I also felt ambitious enough to make homemade buns, too.

About the buns. I used a recipe from allrecipes.com that had stellar reviews and (I think) 4.5 stars. Lets just say mine didn't come out looking or feeling anything like the reviews or pictures led me to believe they would. They didn't really rise much, which surprised me because the yeast bloomed like crazy. I noticed, though, that when I was rolling them out, they didn't get the "shiny" outside like the recipe said they would. They weren't bad, they were just kind of flat and dense. Not my favorite recipe (and I most likely won't use it again), but they worked for the burgers that night.

The burgers were pretty simple to make. I took 1 lb. of ground beef and added ground black pepper (to taste), 1/2 Tbsp. crushed garlic and peppercorn seasoning, 1/2 Tbsp. garlic salt, several shakes of Worcestershire sauce and 1 large slice of raw onion, very finely minced. I formed this into 3 quarter-pound burgers (for Buppy), then the last 1/4 lb. into 2 eighth-pound burgers for me. Again, it all goes back to me not being big into burgers; I like a thinner patty.

I also sauteed some fresh mushrooms and raw onion in some butter, then added in a splash of beef stock and dry sherry for flavor. Excellent combo for a burger. Oh yeah, and a splash of Worcestershire sauce, too.

At the end of the grilling process, Buppy topped our burgers with Swiss cheese so it'd melt and get all ooey-gooey. I love ooey-gooey cheese, but really, who doesn't? We finished our burgers with green leaf lettuce, and I think Buppy added mayo to his. To round out the meal, we had homemade potato chips. I actually made sure to bike extra long that day so I could splurge. Way to think ahead, right?? We found that the chips are best cut 1/24" thick (with the NEW MANDOLINE Buppy got me for my birthday!), then fried at 375F for 7+/- minutes depending on how full the fryer is (don't overcrowd). We seasoned some with Old Bay, some with Cajun seasoning, some with seasoned salt and fresh cracked black pepper.......they were all pretty good. Homemade potato chips just rock my socks. Well, most chips do, but I like that I can season homemade ones with whatever I want.

One last note: I found that forming the hamburger patties is easy if you take the lid to something like a sour cream container, spray with cooking spray and pat the meat into it. It makes them very uniform and the perfect shape. I used the same size lid when doing both my and Buppy's burgers, so they each fit on the bun pefectly, but his was thicker. Give it a try sometime. Enjoy!

Menu Plan Monday - July 5, 2010

I think I was a slacker this past week and didn't menu plan at all. Buppy's father and his wife were in town at the beginning, work has been somewhat stressful and I just didn't have the time or energy to menu plan. We survived all the same, so it's all good. But I'm back on it this week with some yummy recipes to try!

Monday lunch [because Buppy & I are both off work]: grilled brats, raw cauliflower, grapes
Monday dinner: spaghetti & meatballs, green salad

Tuesday: slow cooker easy beef & broccoli

Wednesday: grilled turkey Italian sausages, whatever fruits/veggies/salad we decide on

Thursday: my night home alone, so probably a tuna sandwich or leftovers

Friday: Parmigiano & herb chicken tenders, roasted cauliflower

Saturday: we're heading to a housewarming party that starts at 1pm, so no lunch or dinner plans

Sunday lunch: jalapeno popper dogs, cheese & crackers
Sunday dinner: cheeseburger pizza, green salad

They're a zippy kind of thing, a zippy thing!

I wasn't really sure what to expect from the title: zippy burgers. One of their half-dozen ingredients was chili powder, and I'm generally not that big a fan. I feel like it overwhelms most dishes, but I could be changing my mind.

I made Buppy stop and get good hamburger buns for these. He's more of a cut-corners-cheap-white-hamburger bun kind o' guy than I am. For things like burgers, which I so rarely eat, and brats, which I love-love-love, a good bun is a necessity. For real. Why go out of your way to make this awesome little [or giant, whatever tickles your peanuts] burger when you have a generic, tasteless bun to put it on? Nope. I'm tired of it. So I put my foot down. Buppy spent a whole $2.69 on bakery buns last night. I buttered them, and he tossed 'em on the grill when he tossed the cheese on the burgers . . . or sometime around then. So worth it!

This recipe calls for beer or beef broth. Well I'm no silly fool who uses beef broth when given the option to throw in some booze, so we used an Ultra Amber we had in the fridge. The recipe list is short, but I really thought more of the flavors would come through. To be honest, all I really tasted was the beer. I'm not complaining about that, don't get me wrong, I just want to be up front about the fact that the rest of the ingredients get kind of lost in the mixture. I could almost detect a little zip from the red pepper flakes, but nothing serious. They were really moist [Buppy does a great job on the grill!], the cheese was ooey-gooey, the lettuce added some good crunch and the tomato completed it. Yes, I'll be making these again. Perhaps I'll tweak 'em so more of the other flavors are discernible, perhaps I'll be too lazy that day.

Zippy Burgers
Adapted from Taste of Home's Light & Tasty Annual Recipes 2005
Test kitchen created

1/4 c. beer or beef broth
2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. chili powder
1 tsp. onion powder
1/2 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 lb. lean ground beef
5 hamburger buns, split
Butter or margarine [for the buns before they go on the grill]
Cheese slices of your choice [I used Kraft 2% Swiss since it was in my fridge and open]
Lettuce, tomato, mayo, mustard, ketchup [any toppings you'll want for your burger]

In a bowl, combine the first 7 ingredients. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into 5 patties [Buppy did 1 bigger one for himself, then 1 medium one for me and 3 smaller ones for leftovers and/or the kids].

Coat grill rack with non-stick spray before starting the grill. Butter insides of split rolls. Grill hamburgers, covered, over medium heat 6-8 minutes on each side or until a meat thermometer reads 160F. You can also broil 4 inches from the heat for the same amount of time if you're not grilling. About a minute or so before you suspect your burgers are done, toss the cheese on the burgers to melt and place the buns on the grill, split/buttered side down. Remove the burgers when the cheese is nice and melty; remove the buns once they're warmed and starting to brown.
Top the burgers with whatever usual burger stuff you use --- lettuce, tomato, pickles, mustard, mayo, ketchup, etc. Be creative!

Tiny Tot #1 at all of his half-burger [we split 1 between the 2]. He had cheese, ketchup and mustard on his, I think. Tiny Tot #2, after several bites, decided he didn't like his burger and ate his bun only. Buppy made him eat 4 bites of the actual meat to get dessert [or "bussert", as he calls it]. When Buppy asked if he liked it after eating those 4 bites, he said he did. Little stinker just said he didn't in the beginning to get to "bussert" faster!

Funny side note: when trying to correct Tiny Tot #2 and teach him to say "dessert" instead of "bussert", I wound up with "debussert". I give up. For now.

Enjoy some light & tasty burgers!