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The Greatest Burger, EVAR!

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The Greatest Burger, EVAR!

to celebrate losing 90 pounds by the new year, i whipped up a 100% grass-fed, organic, bacon, blue cheese, olive burger with caramelized onions and onion rings.

losing 90 pounds involved lots of running and careful consideration of what i’ve been eating for the past year. and while i’d be lying if i said i haven’t had a burger in a year, this was the best one in a long time.

i will also admit that, because it was so rich, i could only eat half of it 🙂

and since i now can roughly estimate the number of calories in pretty much everything i eat i’m obligated to mention that one of The Greatest Burgers, EVAR will set you back about 800 calories.

everything in moderation, except moderation!

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recipe: organic cheeseburger soup!

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recipe: organic cheeseburger soup!

fall is here and the temperatures are dropping and sometimes you just want some good old fashioned warm comfort food like, say, cheeseburger soup. and, of course you could use something like cheddar cheese but if you really want to nail the nostalgic comfort in comfort food, you’re typically going to find a processed cheese like processed american cheesein the ingredients list.

for those of us who aren’t into the emulsified, extruded processed cheese world, the geniuses at organic valley ( *cough* my employer *cough* ) have come up with a 100% real, unprocessed american cheese! it has all the mild, melty american cheesyness you expect but it’s actually made from nothing but 100% real, organic cheese. imagine that!

so i thought i’d give it a try in this taste of home cheeseburger soup recipe, simply substituting the processed cheese with ov american singles. i also doubled the amount of ground beef, because, well, why not 🙂

and wowza. it’s really, really, really(!) good. definitely going to be in our regular soup rotation from now on.

slightly modified directions from the taste of home cheeseburger soup recipe:

ingredients
1 pound ground beef
3/4 cup chopped onion
3/4 cup shredded carrots
3/4 cup diced celery
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley flakes
4 tablespoons butter, divided
3 cups chicken broth
4 cups diced peeled potatoes (1-3/4 pounds)
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 package ( 8 ounces ) ov american singles
1-1/2 cups milk
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon pepper
1/4 cup sour cream

directions

in a largish saucepan, brown beef, drain and set aside. saute the onion, carrots, celery, basil and parsley in 1 tablespoon butter until tender. add the broth, potatoes and beef; bring to a boil. reduce heat; cover and simmer for 10-12 minutes or until potatoes are tender.

in a small skillet, melt remaining butter. add flour; cook and stir for 3-5 minutes or until bubbly. add to soup; bring to a boil. cook and stir for 2 minutes. reduce heat to low. stir in the cheese, milk, salt and pepper; cook and stir until cheese melts. remove from the heat; blend in sour cream.

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the long lost pasture butter cheesecake recipe finally published.

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the long lost pasture butter cheesecake recipe finally published.

a casualty of time, i never got around to properly blogging the recipe for my pasture butter cheesecake but the fine folks who put together organic valley’s rootstock publication did use one of the photos i took and published the recipe in the latest issue along with my “award-winning” double chocolate hazelnut ice cream ( using another photo i took for a recipe i never blogged. gah, i need more time in the day! ).

if you can’t find a rootstock near you feel free to ask your local magazine shop, bookstore, or grocery to order it 🙂

i think you should be able to grab the full sized image for easier reading here.

maybe someday i’ll get around to blogging the entire process of making the cheesecake…

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recipe: red bell pepper ringed sunny side up eggs!

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recipe: red bell pepper ringed sunny side up eggs!

here’s an easy but satisfying twist on regular ol’ eggs. slice a cross section of red bell pepper so you get a nice circle-ish shape. take care to cut it so it will sit flat on a pan. heat both sides of the pepper in a frying pan for a minute or two, so that the pepper starts to soften but not too much. then, crack open an egg and put it right in the middle of the pepper.

carefully splash a bit of water in the hot pan and cover for 3-4 minutes. the steam from the water will cook the egg whites but leave a proper sunny side up soft yolk.

acceptable modifications include adding crushed red pepper flakes and pepper jack cheese.

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the Dog Food Burrito Incident.

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the Dog Food Burrito Incident. I.

and it came to pass that it was my night on dinner duty and i was under a clear directive to use leftovers in the fridge in whatever concoction i could concoct. an easy enough task since we had just had black beans and rice topped with cheese and a side of kale the night before. i thought, i’ll just mix them all together with a bit of garlic, fold into a tortilla shell, cover with cheese and heat in the oven for a bit for a quick and easy burrito!

as i quickly grabbed ingredients, i notice some leftover refried beans in a container, so gave it a quick smell test, noted that it didn’t smell rotten, but also didn’t really smell like refried beans either. it had a vaguely familiar smell. one that i couldn’t quite place. but i was on a mission to keep on the dinner making schedule and brushed aside any nagging thoughts that something might be amiss.

the Dog Food Burrito Incident. II.

after 15 or 20 minutes in a 350°F oven the burritos emerged piping hot and covered in melted cheesy goodness and we started to eat them. straight away, odin refused to take more than one bite. too much garlic ( this is a common dinner issue. i keep thinking i can sneak it almost never works and i’m denial about possibly living without garlic for the next 10 years ).

kris ate half a burrito before declaring that they had too much garlic.

i, happily, devoured several ( with corn torillas in keeping with my mostly gluten free lifestyle ) while proclaiming they Most Certainly Did Not Contain Too Much Garlic. no sirree, they did not!

the next morning, while getting ready odin ready for school i noticed there was another container of refried beans in the fridge with just a small amount gone.

huh? someone just had to have a small bite of refried beans for breakfast? ever so slowly it dawned on me as i raced out the door to yell down to kris and odin as they walked down the street towards school.

the Dog Food Burrito Incident. III.

“HEY, KRIS, SAY WHAT’S IN THAT CONTAINER IN THE FRIDGE THAT LOOKS LIKE REFRIED BEANS?”

if i only could have taken a picture of her face as she turned around and slowly registered the real meaning of my question.

“WHAT?! NOOOOOOOO! TELL ME YOU DIDN’T!”

and that’s when i remembered that, unusually, we have soft dog food in the house to smother in the antibiotics pushkin has to choke down to help treat his latest lyme disease flare up.

i don’t think odin is going to let me forget the Dog Food Burrito Incident. ever.

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recipe: no-bake gluten free energy bites.

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recipe: no-bake gluten free energy bites.

what with all the running i’ve been doing lately, i’ve been looking for healthy and tasty energy sources and the no-bake energy bite recipe from the smashed peas and carrots blog definitely fits the bill. and as an added bonus, if made them with non-contaminated oats then they fit right in with my (mostly) gluten free lifestyle.

and they’re super simple to make! it’s win-win-win.

ingredients

1 cup oatmeal
1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter)
1/3 cup honey
1 cup coconut flakes
1/2 cup ground flaxseed
1/2 cup mini chocolate chips
1 tsp vanilla

mix all the stuff up in a bowl real good, refrigerate for a time, then roll up into little balls and enjoy.

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The Transformative Power of A Real Peach ( and a little heavy whipping cream ).

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The Transformative Power of A Real Peach ( and a little heavy whipping cream ).

after years of avoiding them altogether thanks to being ruined in my early years by their canned commercial cousins, i am thoroughly enjoying my Rediscovery of The Peach. in a way it’s funny because, of course, we’re all about fresh, local and organic. i mean, we have back yard chickens for pete’s sake. we’re part of a csa, have several gardens and i’m the milk and cream product manager for organic valley. we’re sitting right at the “grow yer own peak” of the evolving organic lifestyle.

and yet, until very recently i still thought a store peach was A Peach. i am here to testify to you that unless you are very lucky, it is Not A Peach. not at all. not even close. it’s a tasteless, mealy peach imposter.

A Real Peach is transformative. no, really, this is not hyperbole. i finally, really understand why alice waters imagined The Peach would change lives:

“It started with a peach. Not just any peach but a Frog Hollow Farm peach, coaxed into its fullness by the rich loam of the Sacramento River Delta. A golden peach suffused with a lover’s blush, a hint of erotic give at the cleft, its juice sliding down the chin at the gentlest pressure — it was a peach that tastes the way peaches once did, the way they should. It was the peach with which Alice Waters, the founder of Chez Panisse in Berkeley, the chef who revolutionized American fine dining, imagined she would transform children’s lives.”

“It was Frog Hollow peaches, which can sell for about $5 a pound, that Waters took seven years ago to the first day of summer session at Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School in Berkeley. She was carving an organic garden out of a parking lot next to the playground, planting the seeds for a schoolwide program to promote ecological and gastronomic literacy. One bite of these peaches, she thought, and the scales placed on students’ eyes by the false prophets of the junk-food industry would fall away.”

transformative indeed. and if you add a bit of heavy whipping cream and just the slightest sprinkle of sugar the A Real Peach you’ll have The Worlds Best Peaches and Cream. i wish i had recorded our collective reactions to tasting it for the first time and caught the pause and eye-widening and mouth-filled “oooooooooh, this is good!” exclamations.

i know we’ll be patiently waiting every year for these Wonders of Nature to arrive.