Dark Matter Dinner

Today was a day dedicated to the sole purpose of slogging through as much information about galaxy formation and dark matter as possible. It turns out that they are neither interesting nor relevant topics to my research (at least in the way that it was presented) so studying it is about as fun as, oh, watching Guy Fieri take a bite out of a deep fried sandwich twice the diameter of his beach ball sized head. Nevertheless, I had a study partner coming over with wifey in tow and a husband of my own to feed (he gets grumpy when I forget to feed him), so I decided to use that seven-dollar-a-pound-too-lean-free-range-ground beef that's been sitting in my freezer and make burgers. They turned out wonderfully and were much more delicious than n-body simulations of dark matter halos.

Green Chile Cheeseburgers
1 lb ground beef
1 can hatch green chiles (not sure what size, but it's an awfully small can)
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground pepper
1 tsp parsley (because what the hell, why not?)
1/4 c shredded mozzarella cheese
1/4 onion, sliced and caramelized
~3 tbs chevre

Drain the can of chiles to get some of the water out and then mix in with the granulated garlic, salt, pepper, parsley, and mozzarella until well combined. Make four patties that at least stick together, making sure not to over work them. Cook the patties in your preferred cooking machine. I have to pan-fry all my stupid burgers because it's apparently illegal to have a grill on a balcony in Austin. So. Not. Cool. Towards the end of cooking, add ~2 tsp or so of chevre to each burger and cover with caramelized onions. Cover for a few to get the cheese warm and gooey-ish. Nom nom.

I ate mine plain, Colby ate his with a ton of ketchup (because he's classy like that) and study parter covered his in spicy brown mustard (because we don't have no stinkin' yeller mustard in these parts because like... EW). These were also served with a large helping of nachos a la Crown&Anchor because we're nothing if not classy in this joint.

Tomorrow is a pizza party kind of night. I bet I'll be kicking myself for not starting the dough tonight, but the bit of evening that I managed to salvage was spent over a dutch oven deep frying things... but that's for another delectable post. :)

Goulash

The essence of certain dishes is patience. These are not ideal for me. Also, we got the internets today! Yay internets! More on goulash later, though (i.e. expect an edit on this later). I'm preparing myself for a washer/dryer set tomorrow. Onto discount shopping, for now.

-->addendum<--

that probably looks way cuter in ascii.

So, back from the discount (but NOT Evil-Mart) shopping, I've acquired laundry materials, a coffee maker, and coffee from Caribou!! The coffee was, sadly, not discounted, but it's still going to be super tasty (and probably a big regret when I'm totally wired after drinking it!)

Dinner tonight was a feeble attempt at my Dad's goulash, which was just given to me in email form like... about 45 seconds ago:

Gram K would be proud of you, that was one of her standard dishes. We had it home, we had it at Barton City, we had it at the campground in Tawas when I was a kid. My recipe is 1lb sirloin hamburg chopped and browned with fine-cut onions, 2 cups macaroni noodles slightly undercooked (like 20% reduction in recommended time), 1 large can diced stewed tomatos, 1 small can sliced mushrooms, 5 1/2" thick slices of Velveeta cheese. Brown burger with onions, drain. Add tomatos, mushrooms, macaroni and Velveeta on lowest heat, cover, stir occasionally until Velveeta melts into a thin sauce, serve hot, salt and pepper to taste...

my version was slightly different:

2 medium portabella mushroom caps, roughly chopped
1/2 onion chopped
3/4 lb ground chuck
1 sm can diced tomatoes
2 tbs flour
2 tbs butter
3/4 c milk
handfuls of cheese
olive oil
chili powder/paprika/oregano/garlic salt/onion powder
s+p

sautee onions and mushrooms... and by "sautee", I mean turn on the wrong burner and wonder why the hell the pan isn't getting hot. Then sautee. Add in the GB and then after it browns, drain some of the fat (because, yuck) and then add in the tomatoes. In a different pot, make a roux (butter+flour+salt...+milk) add cheese after it thickens and then add the cheese to the pot. Then taste it and be all like.. hm.. this is missing something and add in the spices at random.

Also, Jon and Kate plus 8 is like a ridiculously adorable show and makes me want my future hapa babies like.. yesterday.

Burgerama

So my new "experiment" is with ground beef, which I can't touch without gloves because obsessive compulsive disorder is an interesting phenomenon when it meets raw meat. Anywho. So I've been making various cheeseburgers with varying degrees of success. My latest is mixing in minced shallots, garlic, cheese, and bbq sauce. I used colby-jack the last time because *someone* doesn't like cheddar. Also, I find it ironic that Colby doesn't like Colby cheese. Just a thought. Anywho, Chris is donating some Gorgonzola to me, so maybe that will become a beef-y burgery meal. Or maybe it'll make Colby sick. We shall see.

Burgers! (this is mostly for you, Kyle. Also, I'd rather be writing this than doing homework, or other homework or wedding planning or other homework. Gah.)

makes 2 burgers.. but kind of small burgers because I don't have a black hole for a tummy.

1/2 lb ground beef (I use chuck)
2-3 cloves minced garlic (also, for the love of jebus, kyle, buy actual garlic and mince it yourself)
1/2 shallot minced
olive oil
salt, pepper
bbq sauce (sweet baby ray's was totally on sale at meijer)

heat oil in pan, add in garlic+shallots. when the garlic is starting to brown and the shallots are translucent-y take these out and put them in the GB... which is defrosted and stuff. Also, add in a squirt or two of bbq sauce and some cheese and mix thoroughly and put back in pan and make sure you watch to not start a grease fire. w00t. I should really get ketchup.

I'm thinking about making this a for-realsies blog as opposed to just a place for me to dump recipes to kyle.