Cheese Burger Buns

We have just returned from a nine day trip to Montana and Wyoming.  Gorgeous. Mind boggling. Peaceful. Inspiring. A photographer's paradise.

 To say that Yellowstone National Park is huge is an understatement! Our rental car logged in over 1200 miles, touring through Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons.

My husband shot a lot of video, and my camera capture a few hundred images of geysers, lakes, mountains, wildlife and thermal pools.  It will take a while for us to edit and organize images from our trip.

Craig and I were so impressed with the friendliness of the locals. Every shopkeeper, food server, or park employee greeted us with a friendly smile.  The weather couldn't have been more perfect, averaging 75 degrees.  Those of you who live in Montana or Wyoming-- you do live in one of the most scenic areas in our country.  I'm not so sure I could handle your winters, since I've never lived in snow country.  I do thank you for your warm hospitality, and a lifetime of memories!

My vacation continues until July 22nd, and I'm looking forward to sharing with you a few recipes that I'm back logged on sharing with you.  Since July 4th is two days away, I thought I'd start with homemade hamburger buns. 

Craig and I love to grill outdoors.  Burgers are still high on my list of favorite barbecue dinners.  We finally bought a new gas grill, for the times we don't have to patience to wait for briquettes to turn that perfect temperature.

Homemade hamburger buns aren't very difficult to make.  They have a much better texture than most commercially made hamburger buns.  "Brand X" buns feel gummy, to me.  I like a bun that is dense enough to hold up against ketchup, mustard and/or barbecue sauce.  Don't you?

This recipes comes from one of my favorite recipe websites, "King Arthur Flour".  I admit that I have an addiction to shopping on this website.  I had an unopened bag of their Vermont Cheese Powder, and I was thrilled to see a recipe that I could make with this.  NOTE: It's not a requirement to use this particular cheese powder. The recipe includes how to adapt this to freshly grated cheese.

The only change I made, in their recipe, was to use Rapid-Rise Yeast instead of Instant Yeast.  I have both types of yeast (of course), but I find that Rapid-Rise yeast lives up to its name.  I wanted homemade buns in just a little over an hour.  The egg-based bread dough was super easy to make.  My bread machine broke, years ago.  I never replaced it, because my Kitchen Aid Stand Mixer does a great job of mixing and kneading dough.

The dough doubled in about 45 minutes-- I helped that process to speed up, by placing the dough in a slightly pre-warmed oven.  I turned my oven to WARM for 3-4 minutes, then turn it off.

I pressed the dough into a flattened it, and cut it into eight pieces.  I then shaped them into balls...

...flatted them a bit, covered them and let them double for about 30 minutes.  I am using King Arthur Flour's hamburger pan, but you can easily shape these on top of a parchment lined baking sheet.

These rolls baked in about 15 minutes.  They smelled so good, with that aroma of cheddar cheese.

We fired up the new gas grill, and used some homemade barbecue sauce to flavor the burgers.There was no need to add cheese, since the flavor was in the buns. 

The texture of these buns were perfect-- they had a beautiful crumb, and a nice balance of fluffy and tender bread.

I'm a fan of mustard and ketchup with my burgers. Once in a while, I like a good barbecue sauce as my only sauce.  I'll share this sauce, soon, because I made it for a brisket that we slow-grilled a couple of weeks ago.


Sure, I'll still buy burger buns when I don't have 1-1/2 hours to spare, making my own.  But they won't taste nearly as good as baking your own.  If you love cheese, then you'll enjoy this Cheeseburger Bun.   The recipe comes from King Arthur Flour, so you can't go wrong.

I'm glad to be back home, and I'm ready to get back to my own cooking.  While it's a treat to take a break from cooking and washing dishes-- I got tired of eating out for nine days, and eating food that wasn't exactly memorable.  Sorry, West Yellowstone, but the choice of good eats isn't that great.  I still love you, though!


You can view a printable recipe card at the end of this post.
 

Mar-a-Lago Turkey Burger

I think my cooking mojo is back.  I have a backlog of several recipes that I need to post, this coming week. For some reason, during the summer months, we do a lot of grilling.  We don't get very fancy, really-- because we're both tired when we get home from work.  Most any kind of well-seasoned grilled meat, and whatever vegetables are in our fridge, makes a perfect meal for us.  The meals I've been making are so simple and unfussy, that I don't feel it's interesting enough to blog about them.  Hence, I get a little lazy about making a new summer dinner recipe.   I think that it's Fall and Winter, when I start to create different soup recipes, braised dinners, stews and home baked breads.  So, I found myself wanting to break free of the grilling ho-hums.

We enjoy grilling red meat, but I try not limit how often we do that.  I starting searching through my saved recipes and I settled on this turkey burger recipes. What seems like ages ago, I had bookmarked this  recipe that was featured on the Oprah Winfrey Show.  (Would you believe I still haven't watched her final three shows?  That's how little time I have to watch television, these days.)  I digress.  Oprah was raving how she had the best turkey burger, ever, at Donald Trump's private club in Palm Beach.   The Donald and his chef were invited to share the recipe with Oprah's viewers.  I decided to finally see for myself what all the hoopla was about this recipe:

The first step is to sauté  scallions, celery and apples in the canola oil until tender. Let cool.

The ground turkey is then seasoned with salt & pepper, hot sauce and Major Grey's Chutney.  Only, my chutney comes from Trader Joe's.  Close enough.  Lemon zest and juice is also added. 

Because I'm rebellious, at times, I reversed the recipe directions and added the cooked veggies and apples last...and then some fresh chopped parsley.   I scaled the recipe down to make four patties. Turkey burgers can be a challenge to work with. They're very soft and can fall apart very easily. After pressing an indentation in the middle (a little Bobby Flay trick I learned), I borrowed something I've seen the fine folks at Cook's Illustrated do--I froze the patties for about 15 minutes.

The recommended grilling time is seven minutes per side, plus 5 minutes for the meat to "rest".  

 Because the patties were partially frozen, it took about an extra 4 minutes of grilling time.  My husband said that the patties were easy to work with, since they the freezer had firmed them. These were cooked to about 160F and they continued to cook as they rested, loosely covered in foil.

I slathered a bit of Poupon Mustard, a touch of mayo and a dab of chutney on the patties.  I picked one of our paltry tomatoes (we've had one of the coolest and overcast summers that I can ever remember) and some onion. Look closely and you'll see a golden raisin that was in the chutney. 

Of course, fries goes beautifully with burgers.  I made a new recipe for oven-roasted garlic fries and they were fantastic! (That recipe will be posted next.)

VERDICT:  Okay, I get it, Oprah.  This is a really good turkey burger!  The apples add a lot of moisture to the lean ground turkey, but you really don't taste them.  The lemon zest really came through-- and I think next time, I'd add a little less as I don't want that to be the dominant flavor. In fact, I think lime would be a great alternative!  The chutney adds a little bit of sweet to the mix, while the hot sauce kicks up the flavor a notch.  If I do say so myself, I need to get busy and make some more of my own peach chutney (that has red bell pepper) to this burger.  The bonus is that this is healthy burger, especially if I had whole wheat buns.  

I'll definitely add this recipe to our grilling menu.  Is this the best burger ever?   Ever is pretty absolute, so I don't use that word as liberally as others do.  I'd say it's a great burger, and I'm glad I can make my own at my humble home. I doubt that Donald Trump will be inviting me to dine at Mar-A-Lago.  How about you?

 A printable recipe is at the end of this post.

Maple-Basted Grilled Salmon

One of my favorite cooking magazines is "Cuisine At Home".  If you've never seen an issue, please order a free preview issue from their website!  (I'm not sponsored by this magazine, nor am I being paid to say this.  I just believe that when something is really good, it deserves a shout.)  The format of the magazine is missing something.  Ads!  Each page has step-by-step photos and recipes that can be a little bit fussy, along with plenty of very simple recipes.  Like the family of Cook's Illustrated's publications, their issues teach and inspire me to cook or bake recipes that are new to me.

This June issue has several recipes that are on my radar.  I've already made a few of them, but my laptop is giving me some trouble. My husband, who has a career working with computers, is as bumfuzzled as I am frustrated with my laptop not being able to recognize USB ports!  Hence, I can't upload photos to my laptop! It's been well over a week, so I've had to resort to a painstaking workaround.  I am confident the problem will be fixed-- someday. Hence, I have recipes and photographs that are backed up and I'm anxious to share with you.  This recipe is very simple, and needs only four ingredients-- other than salmon.  I didn't have to take a lot of photos, so this recipe is being posted first.

I spotted fresh wild-caught sockeye salmon at Whole Foods.  At $18.00 a pound, it sounds very pricey.  However, I've read enough information about the dangers of farmed-fish, and so I splurged.  I paid about $6.00 per fillet.  I particularly love the beautiful red color of sockeye salmon -- unlike the cheaper farm-raised salmon that has red-dye injected into it.  You didn't know? It's something to think about...

Simple seasonings-- coarse salt & fresh cracked pepper.

The basting sauce consists of Pure Maple Syrup (not pancake syrup, please), bourbon, unsalted butter and cider vinegar.  (The cider vinegar adds acidity, which balances the rich sweetness of the baste.) Simply boil the ingredients over medium-high heat until thickened (3 minutes).

Grill fillets, covered, 3 minutes. Flip fillets, baste with maple glaze and grill until firm to the touch, 2-3 minutes more.

 Baste fillets again before serving.

I served this with a fresh corn and tomato succotash-- one of my husband's favorite side-dishes.

TASTING NOTES:  The salmon was moist, and the basting sauce had gentle notes of sweet.  The bourbon wasn't overpowering at all (as a side note-- I'm not a bourbon drinker in any way!).  I appreciated the simplicity of the basting sauce, the healthy Omega-3 fats from the salmon, and the summer color and flavors of fresh corn and tomatoes.  As for my husband, he kept thanking me for the dinner I made for us.  He said it made him feel good.  I know what he means.  It's a guilt-free kind of meal that leaves your appetite feeling satisfied and not overstuffed!

For the next two weeks, I will be working a "day shift" at my job-- I'm so excited!  That means, I can be home before 6pm, rather than 9pm-- I  think my family is even more excited to have my home-cooked dinners.  I look forward to having more time to catch up on writing and editing recipes and photos to share with you!

(Printable recipe cards are at the bottom of this post.)

Jumpstart to Grilling Season-- Need Inspiration?

Memorial Weekend has become the shotgun start to uncovering Weber's, Gas Grills, Big Green Egg's or Hibachi's.  For those of us who planted our garden tomatoes, we are anxiously awaiting for those beautiful orbs to make themselves known.

For me, it's a time to temporarily put away my hot soups, stews and casserole recipes and to think about some outdoor cooking!   I just finished prepping a beautiful cut of Tri-Tip, Santa Maria Style.  As I type, the meat is coated with olive oil, lots of freshly minced garlic and some coarse salt. Tomorrow, it will be grilled over coals until it has a beautiful brown crust, with some medium-rare meat.  Oh, it's a Carnivore's Delight!  I thought I would post some photos and links of a few tried-and-truly delicious summer recipes that my husband and I plan to recreate over the next few months:

Santa Maria Style Tri-Tip

Fig-jam makes a beautiful glaze over burgers. In particular....

Ground Lamb & Beef Burgers, stuffed with Feta Cheese and a Red Onion Jam

My husband's all-time favorite-- Slowly grilled pulled pork with homemade BBQ Sauce

We like our pulled pork with slaw on top, rather than on the side. Either way, my Creamy Cole Slaw recipe is a sure winner at any barbecue!

Ina Garten's Spatchcock (Butterflied) Chicken

...so moist and lemony delicious!

 Giada's Grilled Chicken with Homemade Balsamic Barbecue Sauce. Very easy!

Antipasto Pasta Salad is an America's Test Kitchen success story. The marinated mushrooms are good, all by themselves, by the way.

Just in time for the Memorial Weekend, my husband picked his first bowl of our own homegrown olallieberries.  Berry Pie makes my husband weak at the knees.  (It's my secret weapon.)

Until I bought this excellent book on grilling, my husband was deathly afraid of trying to grill.  

 

He stressed about it, because he shamelessly admits that he isn't a cook.  I bought this book for Craig because it has lots of color step-by-step photos on how to grill.  Both of us have learned a lot of very helpful tips on grilling.  Craig has become quite the Grill Master!I'm thankful that I can focus on being in the kitchen, while he tends to the main course!

Because I'm thankful for so many things-- that we are blessed with great weather... that our part of our country has been spared natural disasters... that I am thankful for those who gave their lives for our country-- and that is really what Memorial Weekend is all about--  I want to bless someone with a copy of this book.

All you have to do is to leave a comment on this post.  Either share your favorite thing(s) you like to grill. Or share your worst grill disaster.  Or, just share your thoughts on what Memorial Day means to you.  You have until Monday morning, and I will randomly choose a winner.

God Bless America!