Slider heaven

My dear husband always encourages me/us to eat healthily--organic, all-natural, complex carbs, veggies, free-range....

But he LOVES hamburgers.  In fact, after a foray through Five Guys, the next night he was still craving a good burger.  Apparently his appetite was only whetted.  So I intervened.

In the same pan, I fried an egg (runny yolk), a couple slices of bacon, cooked some small turkey burgers (for a recipe, see previous post on burgers), and sauteed onions, garlic, and mushrooms.  

The bottom layer or "bun" was a piece of sourdough bread that I lightly buttered and turned upside down onto the pan to "grill" or "toast."  Next came a little mayo and mustard and some spinach leaves as a lettuce substitute.  Then the burger and a half piece of all natural Vermont white cheddar, followed by the mushroom/onion mixture, the egg, and topped it all off with a slice of bacon, curled as a garnish.  I used a toothpick to hold it all together, and it caused the yolk to drip down over the entire dish.  In short, it was fantastic.  He ate three that evening and two the next.

I haven't heard a peep about burgers since!  Mwahaha!  And all that with only 1 lb of turkey meat and a couple slices of bacon.  (We normally use turkey bacon, but this was given to us so we're using it)

I'd like to make one with avocado next time, and maybe some sauteed bell peppers.  The more veggies, the better!

The Texas Cheese Fry Massacre!

Our favorite appetizer at Chili's is their Texas cheese fries.  Pretty much every time we eat there, it's on the agenda.  So, when I noticed a massive jar of jalapenos in the refrigerator, I got an idea.  And it was a good one, therefore, I shall share:

Texas Cheese Fries

1 Idaho baking potato, cut but not peeled
Peanut or veggie oil for frying the potato/es
Salt and pepper to taste
6-12 jalapeno slices (the pickled ones do fine)
About 1/4 c. cheddar cheese
1-2 snipped green onions

Fry potato/es until golden and crispy.  Place in oven-safe dish and add salt and pepper, jalapeno, cheese, and finally onion to garnish.  Bake at 350 until cheese is melted.  Serve hot with a buttermilk ranch dressing for dipping, if desired.

I really wish I had taken a picture of this before it was devoured.  I don't like jalapenos, so I pick mine off and give them to my husband.  These would make a fantastic Superbowl snack, especially since you can make multiple recipes at the same time.

Any other imitation recipes of which I should be aware?

Making Homemade Hamburgers Better than Amazing

Okay, I know most people don't find homemade hamburgers to be an amazing food.  You patty some meat out, cook it, slap it on a store-bought bun, and add whatever toppings you like.  No biggie.

I posit that the above description is not amazing at all.  It may be amazingly convenient for you who have a gazillion mouths to feed and no time in which to experiment, but I have two mouths to feed and time in relative abundance.  For your consideration, then:

Homemade Hamburger Buns: 
Courtesy of the 14th Edition of the Better Homes and Gardens New Cook Book

This is a basic recipe for dinner rolls that can be formed into hamburger or hot dog buns.  It yields 12 of either.  Today, I made a half-recipe because there's no way on this green earth that we can eat 12 hamburgers in 2-3 days.

Ingredients:
4.5-5 c. AP flour (I use King Arthur white wheat--they never bleach or bromate)
1 pkg. active dry yeast
1 c. milk
1/3 c. sugar or 1/4 c. honey
1/3 c. real butter
1 t. salt (I use sea salt exclusively)
2 eggs

In a large mixing bowl, stir together 2 c. of the flour and the yeast.  In a 2 c. glass measuring cup or bowl, nuke (microwave) milk, sugar/honey, salt, and butter until warm and the butter almost melts.  Add eggs and beat to break up eggs and combine ingredients.  Pour into the flour mixture and beat with a mixer or a whisk until soft and smooth, about 2 min.  Add as much of the remaining flour as you can and beat with a wooden spoon.  Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead until it is soft and smooth.

Let it rise for about an hour, or until doubled, preferably in an oiled bowl away from drafts.  Punch it down, turn it out onto the flour again, and divide in half.  Cover and let it rest for 10 minutes.  Grease a baking sheet or two, but don't preheat your oven yet.

Cut into 12 pieces and shape your buns.  You can really form them into whatever shape you like.  This recipe can make rosettes, butterhorn rolls, parker house rolls, or sandwich rolls.  Put them on the baking sheet and cover them again, let rise for 30 minutes.  About 15-20 minutes into it, preheat your oven.  Put them in for 12-15 minutes or until golden on top.  They smell great, and taste even better.

Marinated Hamburgers:
Courtesy of Jenny's experiments

1 lb ground beef or turkey (Don't dis the turkey--I actually prefer it to beef)
1 slice stale bread or 5-6 crackers, crumbled
A splash each of hoisin and soy sauce
A dash each of garlic, lemon/pepper, cajun seasoning, fresh black pepper
1-3 green onions, snipped

Mix it all with your hands.  Refrigerate 1-6 hours.  Patty out, cook.  Charcoal grilling is the best.

Okay, now, what toppings do you guys like the best?  I love me some Spring Mix salad greens, tomato, sauteed onion and mushrooms, mayo, and a tiny bit of mustard.

Discover and define your interior decorating style

I've had the urge lately to define my interior decorating style.  I have no idea why, especially since we're in the middle of re-locating back to a space in which I'll have approximately 24 square feet of actual personizeable  area.  I have always loved earth tones, Asian (especially Japanese and Zen) spaces, softened geometric lines, houseplants, and Mason jars.  

And now, thanks to two things I have access to for free, I know what all that stuff above says about my style: simplistic (not minimalist, though similar) rustic chic.  FYI, all styles apparently end with the word "chic" these days, though few actually probably deserve the title.  As to the two free things, here they are: 

1.  House Beautiful Magazine.  Yes, I know it doesn't come for free.  But here's how I got it for free, and the option or a similar one should also be available to you: 

Get a Swagbucks account and use their search bar.  You will randomly get Swag Bucks, 450 SB = $5.00 Amazon Gift Card.  Amazon frequently runs 1-yr magazine subscriptions for $5.00.  Get the magazine. 

2. Pinterest.  Sign up.  Under "Everything," go to "Home Decor."  Browse to your heart's content.  Pin things that interest you and look for themes.  Read blogs to discover what terminology usually is associated with your themed interests.  Think of ways to create similar looks using your space and your budget.  

What is your style?  Is it a strange combo platter, like mine?  Or is it more straightforward?  How do you incorporate your style into your budget?  

Craftiness for pretty much nothing

I ran across a phrase on a craft blog yesterday that made me chuckle.  It said the item could be made "with things crafters usually have on hand."  It's true, we tend to keep things like hot glue guns, buttons, bottle caps, fabric scraps, and zippers much more often than people who would rather buy things than make them.

In the vein of making do, many of us honestly do find creating an item much more fulfilling than purchasing the same item.  We love having a say in tailoring our possessions to the needs they are designed to meet, rather than having to re-arrange to accommodate an item that was too small or large for the space it needed to fill.  And better yet, we love having done it all with things we had on hand already--things that were given to us or that somehow found their way into our homes.

Thus my last two crafted items have come into being.  The first was from Stash Tea catalogs and packing tape, the second from fabric that was bequeathed to me from someone that had no use for it.  My friend and colleague Dr. Lape called them "sustainable crafting," and I suppose they are--it is very easy to be sustainable when you look at what you have to work with and use it well.  Whether or not you do so because you have no money to throw at things, or for the love of it, or both, is up to you.

Meet the tea bag.  This bag is adorable, despite what my horribly lit bedroom might tell you.  My idea use for it would be to take it out into a kitchen garden, gather herbs, and set them gently into it.  I even added an inner pocket for scissors or a knife to cut the herbs or vegetables, so the sharp places won't damage the cuttings.  Because of the packing tape I used to hold the parts together, it has a vinyl crackle and feel, but the patterns, images, and descriptions visible on it are all from a tea catalog.  Very chic, very fresh.

This is the rug.  I took at least 6 yards of a garden-themed print fabric and tore it into approximately 4-inch strips.  I sewed the strips together to make a giant "yarn" of sorts and crocheted the rug with a chopstick.  The entire project took me the better part of 3 hours, and I'm already contemplating shredding more fabric and making the rug big enough to fill a room.  It is incredibly soft, as the knots of the crocheting put over an inch of cushion between your tired feet and the hard floor.  This rug is also chic and summery, which is tending to be a theme now that it is cold and blustery outdoors.

So...the challenge for the week is this: use ONLY things you have on hand to create something new and beautiful.  Bonus: The thing you create must fulfill a purpose in your home.

Ready, set, MAKE SOME AMAZING!

What is the Christmas Spirit, Anyway?

4 days until Christmas.  Nope, hasn't hit me.  Honestly, it might miss me altogether this year.  I am at the point where I'm wondering what the Christmas spirit really is, since I apparently don't feel Christmassy until I wrap presents.  And this year, I will be doing very little present wrapping because of our budget.  Not that we can't afford presents, we just can't afford to spend $500 on presents for family I see maybe once a year, and am not going to get to see this year at all.  Instead, I've opted to make cool (ok, VERY cool) snacks and foods and freeze them until I can send a courier to deliver plates/baskets of goodies.  Sounds great!  It just doesn't involve much wrapping, and even less gifting, especially since it will be the weekend after New Year's Day when my mom can visit to be that courier.

Good news: I have a whole 2 more weeks to bake/arrange goodies to give.
Bad news: Christmas isn't going to be anywhere near Christmas Day.

So, here's the delivery schedule as it stands so far:
Husband's family: Christmas Eve or Christmas Day
My family: January 7th-ish
Church people: Whenever we see them at church/New Year's LAN party

Here's the baked/made goods list so far:
All-Natural Vanilla Almond Biscotti dipped in chocolate and sprinkled with organic coconut
Chocolate-covered salted caramel shortbread squares

Here's the list of other things I plan to make:
Chocolate-covered pretzels (can't get enough) and pretzel sticks
Cheesecake-stuffed strawberries
Brie-stuffed spinach puffs (a la Kronk)

Honestly, though, complaining about lack of wrapping-paper highs is not where I intend to be.  I actually think I'm still in the Thanksgiving Spirit and am going to get my Christmas on after New Year's.  I'm insanely thankful for the gift of Christ's life, death, and resurrection.  The less stuff we have cluttering our lives, the more thankful I am for God's simple gifts.  I'm thankful for gifts of family and friends, especially for my husband's little brother who is visiting us for the week and my college roommate and her husband, who will also be visiting.  Their company is an incalculable gift.

Do I need more stuff when I have such wonderful gifts to rejoice over?  I think not.

Merry Christmas.

Streeeetch that food budget

I'm as guilty as anyone of overspending during the holidays.  I've been forced to take drastic measures to cut down to match our reduced income of late, and with all the money going toward presents, I've got to find somewhere to cut to send the money to the shopping item.  

And what better to cut than the food budget?  Seriously, I'm about to be eating A TON more than what I should be, anyway, so now is the time to find some healthy, cheap food.  

What's that I hear?  Santa's "hohoho" of merriment?  Cheap, healthy food?  Am I nuts?  Would I like a handful of almonds?  Don't mind if I do.  

Here are some easy grow-it-yourself options that I've discovered recently, thanks to Pinterest:  

Grow your own bean sprouts.  The grocery store has lentils for pretty much nothing.  There's a lot you can do with a bag of dried beans, but I'd never heard, until last week, that you can use them to grow bean sprouts for salads or egg rolls or as a healthy filler in stir fry.  

Here's the process: Get a quart jar.  Put 1/2 cup (ish) of lentils in the bottom.  Fill it with water and let it soak overnight.  You'll be keeping it in the windowsill about 4 days.  Strain the water the next morning (if you have a sieve lid or a small strainer so you don't have to dump the beans out, that's the best way.)  The following morning, rinse the beans and drain the water (you're basically keeping them moist without allowing standing water to set up for mold.)  Same thing days 3 and 4.  By dinnertime on Day 4, you should have a quart full of bean sprouts.  

Green onions:

I go through green onions like kids go through peanut butter.  So, when I heard you can grow your own green onions in the windowsill FROM THE BOTTOMS OF YOUR OLD GREEN ONIONS, I about did a dance of joy.  I left about an inch and a half on the bottoms, planted the onions in an old tea tin, kept them moist, and in a day or two, had enough tops to make a chicken salad.  This picture is the day after I cut them.  I'm not even joking.  I need to get some more tins like this and have herb gardens in my windowsills.

Ginger (sorry, no photo, it hasn't sprouted yet).

Set store-bought ginger on top of the soil, and keep the soil moist.  We'll see how this one goes.  :)  

What else do you guys grow in your windowsills?  I think my bathroom window could use some greenery...