Cheddar-and-Onion Smashed Burgers (p21 June 2011 Find and Wine)
I kind of vaguely glanced at the recipe while making this, but only vaguely, I kind of just followed the process. I used some Dunbarton Blue that I picked up from the farmer's market stand of The Cheese Shop of Des Moines. We, of course, sampled the cheese before hand, but it worked out really well. A very nice combination of flavors. I had bread and butter pickles on my burger and I really do prefer dill for most things, but this worked out pretty well, and made me think that I may want to investigate how it can add to other types of sandwiches where I would generally prefer dill.
Barbecued-Pork Burritos with Chopped Salad
I followed this to some extent, again, not feeling like I needed to follow it too closely. I reduced the size so I had enough to feed us both, and it worked out well. It was pretty simple and gave me ideas on cook pork loin (I used loin instead of tenderloin). Though I do think there was far to much BBQ sauce or perhaps I needed to chop the pork smaller, but it was a bit too much.
Flatbread with Mediterranean style lamb or vegetarian dishes with a harissa yogurt sauce.
So I had an intention to make flatbread, and I plan to, sometime, cause I don't imagine it's that hard, but on Monday, after making dinner, I didn't feel up to spending a while longer in the kitchen making flatbread, so I bought some instead. I couldn't find harissa sauce either, and even though I found a recipe for it, I didn't really want to go through the trouble of making it. So what I ended up doing is picking up some African Rhino Peri Peri Sauce and going from there. So I made two versions, the vegetarian version skipped the first step and used olive oil for the oil.
- Ground lamb (about a pound and a half), over medium high heat, until mostly done, meat taken out of pan, lamb fat left behind)
- diced White onion (vegetarian start here) in olive oil (as needed)
- Add Garlic (I used about 2 garlic cloves) sauté for about 30 seconds, until fragrant
- Add Spices. I used cumin, cinnamon, turmeric, and coriander. I couldn't tell you how much, but it ranged from 1/2 a teaspoon to a tablespoon, depending on how it tasted.
- Add diced red pepper, sauté for a few more minutes
- Added a can of diced tomatoes (with liquid) and chick peas (I don't remember if I rinsed these or not, but looking at it, I'm guessing the liquid went in as well) and a bit of tomato paste.
- Then add in the peri peri sauce to taste (between the two dishes, and the yogurt sauce, I used about 3/4ths a bottle)
- top with cilantro
For a yogurt sauce, I used some Greek yogurt and sauce to make a little spicy yogurt sauce for topping. So combined with the flatbread, the sauce and the stewish like dish, it all ended up pretty good. Especially for not following any sort of recipe.
Pancakes with Strawberries
So because I bought the tortillas knowing that the expiration date was very soon (they were 75% off) and the type that I normally buy, made here in Des Moines. So pushed the pancakes back, meaning that the strawberries were no longer going to be good, so it was just pancakes. But good none the less.
Bratwurst
nom.
Veggie Pizza (want to try this again)
This time I sued my 12" pan, which gave me plenty of space and I sautéd the veggies for quite a while getting rid of a lot of the liquid. So that was the good. On the bad side instead of using a hot sauce to augment the tomato sauce flavor, I used chili powder...and this then over powered everything else. So a win in one direction, and a set back in another. It still looked good.
