Tale of Two Hamburgers

* Small disclaimer I started this post last week but needed the week end to finish it up hence the days not quite making sense, sorry!

Remember just a few days ago when I was so proud of myself for making dinner in advance do we could eat right as we walked in the door from an appointment? This is the opposite of that.

Yesterday once again I thought I had it together. I was going to go to a training yesterday evening. I picked out a quick dinner for myself and something my daughter could heat up since we would be eating separately (something I try to avoid). There I was sitting innocently at work when the call came. The very sweet foster parent coordinator from my agency calling to see when she could reschedule  me for the training   I missed  the evening before. Ooops! After many apologies she emailed me what I needed to self train at home and I ran to the freezer  and pulled  out some ground beef to make burgers for dinner. Did I mention I work from home so I can pull stuff from my freezer and be back at work in about 60 seconds?

   

After work I checked on my daughter who was tackling this huge pile of homework, she looked uo snd asked " What's for dinner?". The question is common from her, normally I say something like " chicken and a salad" and she just looks at me ored with my answer. However this time when I said "Hamburgers" she lit up and launched into a careful Q&A about exactly what would be on her plate and specifically on her burger.

So I head to the kitchen to make my burgers. I actually won a grilling contest with burgers once but that's another post because those burgers had enough sugar in them to count as candy. Here's the kicker. I get to the kitchen and guess what? My ground beef is still frozen like a rock. Ok no problem. I can make several other things like chicken wings or eggs. So I head back to my daughter's room to see if she could get excited about hot wings. This time I got the blank stare and then she says "but I really wanted that burger and fries". I know many of you may be rolling your eyes but my daughter is slightly underweight and couldn't care less about food 99% of the time. So this is not our standard protocol. I point out she has a mountain of homework and she counters with a plan to do the home work at a restaurant so she can have a burger and fries. I argue the meat will defrost and there will be burgers and fries for dinner tomorrow aka today. This is when I realize aliens may have taken over her body because my daughter who never cares much about food launches into a lecture about the differences between homemade burgers and fries and restaurant ones. Her argument ended in the conclusion at least from her perspective that homemade burgers and fries and restaurant burgers and fries are not even the same meal. Whatever...we went to Chili's.

But tonight homemade burgers it is!

There's really not much to this recipe but the burgers are tasty

You need:

1 pound of Ground Beef, cold

1 Tbs Onion Onion ( this is a Tastefully Simple product) if you don't have that you could use dry onion flakes or onion powder, salt and pepper

1Tbs Butter

Romaine Lettuce, washed and dried ( you can pat them down with a clean towel if you forget to do this earlier)

American Cheese

and any burger toppings you enjoy ( I used Tomato, Mustard, and SF Relish) 

Mix the Onion Onion into the ground beef so that is it is incorporated throughout. You know me I just got in there with some clean hands . Divide the meat into 3 portions (or 4 if you prefer a smaller burger) and form into a patty you can do this by rolling each portion in a ball then flattening it or by using a burger press which is what I did. In a frying pan melt you butter over medium high heat, you want to have the pan hot when the hamburgers hit it. Carefully add each burger to the frying pan. If your pan is too small for all of your burgers cook them in two patches they won't cook up nicely it they are squished in there and they will be harder to flip. Cook your burgers until until they are nicely browned on the bottom and then flip each burger and repeat. I found this took about 12 minutes on my stove. My burger was cooked perfectly and was very moist.Overlapping you lettuce leave lay the romaine lettuce out on a plate forming lettuce bed large enough to wrap around your burger. Lay your American cheese on the leaves and place your burger on top. I do this on one half of the leaf bed so it is easy to fold the lettuce around my burger when I am done. Add whatever toppings you are using and fold the lettuce over to form a wrap. I had never cooked my burgers in butter before, I may never go back!