When He Fends for Himself: Bison Burgers

I never thought I would ever say this, but Ted Turner has had a positive influence in my life. Ever since I went to Ted's Montana Grill ten years ago and had my first bison burger, I knew I had stumbled upon something I really liked. There is a Ted's nearby to us and we have gone a couple of times, but I make an effort to see what other bison burgers are being created out there. More often than not, if a bison burger is on the menu I'll order it. Such is my desire to get a good burger that I had a bison burger on the way to Yellowstone, where one of attractions I was most excited about was to see the Buffalo roam. The burger was delicious and I don't feel the least bit guilty about. The herds of buffalo in the park were pretty awesome also. But, what does this have to with lonely dinners?

I don't know if you have noticed, but Whole Foods regularly stocks ground bison. When planning our meals for a particular week, the wife informed me that I was going to be on my own for a night. She told me this right in front of the meat counter, and because I don't really like to put too much thought into what I'm going to have for dinner 2 days in advance, and because the ground meat looked so good, I decided on the spot that I'd do bison burgers for when I fended for myself.

I had a solid plan for quickly forming the burgers and getting them on the grill when I got home, but I decided to take a load off first. This lead to "resting" for an hour or two, and before I knew it the wife was on her way home, it was kind of late, and I missed my opportunity to make the burgers. Admittedly the cooking and execution of my lonely meals is probably biggest hurdle I need to overcome. I can be quite lazy.

However, not all was lost. I originally purchased a half of pound of the meat so the next night I made two burgers for me and the wife to have for dinner. I wasn't fending for myself, but I was giving the wife a night off. Here's how the magic happened:

1. I placed the ground meat into a mixing bowl
2. Added dashes of salt and pepper
3. Sprinkled in some Worcestershire sauce (I've seen this go in burgers before, so it's staple, right?)
4. Added and egg and some breadcrumbs (The wife's suggestion)

I mixed this all up by hand and then formed the 2 patties. In the meantime, the grill was preheating so I took the burgers out back and threw them on. When they looked done, I used our fancy spatula to scoop them up and plated them. I also grilled up some corn on the cob go to with it. It turned out to be a really quick dinner and looking back on it, I'm not sure why I couldn't do it the night before. A couple of weeks back I promised more healthy and complete dinners and I think this one is a step in the right direction. Hopefully it is something I can build on so you all can be impressed by the next "When He Fends for Himself"

Summer Salad: Farmers Market Bounty

I love the farmers market! I know, I say it a lot but it is so fun to see what's fresh, meet the vendors, and just be outside in the summer.  When I saw that Olivia's Organics was calling for creative summer salad recipes, I knew exactly what I wanted to create. A Farmer's Market Bounty Salad.  The ingredients would be whatever looked interesting at the market.  For a base I used the Olivia's 50/50 blend.  It's half spinach and half spring mix.

I headed out for a lunchtime trip to the Copley Square Farmers Market.  Atlas Farms was my first stop, since I have my pre-paid share with them.  I picked up most of the ingredients, then wandered over to Siena Farm to see if they had any new-to-me produce.  These ingredients, combined with a few on hand from my weekend market visits, made for a good mix for the salad.

Atlas Farm
Rainbow Carrots
Yellow and Orange Tomato
Golden Beets
Flat leaf parsley

Siena Farm
Lemon Ball Cukes

Potager Farm/Herb Lyceum (SoWa Market)
Black Radishes

Also from the SoWa trip (can't remember the farm)
New England sweet corn

Whole Foods (not the market, but still seasonal!)
Fresh garbanzo beans

I had all the ingredients waiting in the refrigerator, but had no free nights for dinner!  So I did what any normal person would do (right?) and made my salad after coming home around 9:30 p.m.  I did a photo shoot with the completed salad and then packed it up for lunch the next day!

When I started thinking about a dressing for the salad, I kept coming back to something creamy.  It needed to be light that wouldn't hide the flavor of all of the vegetables.  I scoured the refrigerator and come up with Greek yogurt and lemon.  I added in some of the parsley and extra virgin olive oil for a quick and healthy dressing.

This was delicious, the Olivia's greens were a hearty base, and it was perfect for lunch and dinner for a few days!

Vegetable Prep


Slicing and dicing:
Carrots - peeled and cut into coins
Cucumbers
Tomatoes - cored first (I don't like all the seeds)

Peeled and Shredded:
Black radish
Golden beets (I also blanched these to help keep the color)

Blanched:
Fresh garbanzo beans
Shredded beets

Grilled:
We had grilled the corn earlier in the week and I used some leftovers

Salad Assembly
Place salad greens on a serving plate, top with veggies as neatly or sloppily as you'd like and serve!

Salad Dressing
1 container Chobani plain Greek yogurt
Juice from half a lemon
1 teaspoon (or so) extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Whisk all ingredients together and serve with salad

Summary:
Cutting board, knife, y-peeler, slotted spoon, sauce pot, serving plates and utensils


Lunch the next day:

Daring Cooks Challenge: Pierogies

The August 2010 Daring Cooks‟ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n‟ Bites and Anula of Anula‟s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogie from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

My hubby really likes pierogies. When we first moved in together, he would buy the frozen Mrs. T's pierogies and make us the full box for dinner. Sometimes with butter, sometimes plain. I, on the other hand, wouldn't say that pierogies are my favorite.

This challenge snuck up on me - we've been having a fun-filled and packed summer and pierogies weren't on my mind.  So tonight I stopped by the store to pick up the ingredients - some potatoes and farmer's cheese for the filling. The dough wasn't too challenging to make - but I had some trouble rolling it out thin enough. I ended up with about five times more filling than I did pierogie shapes. Guess I'll be making more tomorrow! Or finding some way to use up a giant bowl of mashed potatoes and farmers cheese.

For equipment I used a trusty pint glass to cut out the shapes and a fork for crimping. I boiled the pierogies in salted water and after about five minutes they floated to the top. I served them with generous drizzle of olive oil and some fresh basil from my garden. The hubby really enjoyed them. I thought they tasted like the ones in the box, which I guess you could call success! If I made them again I think I would try a sweet & sour cabbage filling or a dessert pierogie.

I used the recipes provided for Russian Pierogies. I used the filling with potatoes and farmers cheese.