SortaCrunchy

Sizzlin' Summer Recipe: Best. Burgers. Ever.

Alright, ya'll.  My gorgeously named sweet friend Megan of Fried Okra opened up her recipe files and commenced with revving up our taste buds with her top ten sizzlin' spring and summer recipes.  (That creamy linguine with zucchini?  Yum-O!)  She has invited us to share our best o' the best, and I am only happy to oblige.

(First, apologies to Veggiemommy, Reesh, and my other vegetarian friends and readers.  You may not find today's offering quite so sizzlin' . . .)

Spring and summer offers us the perfect time to fire up that backyard grill, and that is a double blessing for this mama in that 1) grilling keeps the heat outside where it belongs and 2) my man is all-too-happy to work his grilling wonders on that shiny monument to manly cooking.  He really is quite the grill master, and his repertoire ranges from perfectly cooked steaks to deliciously grilled bananas and all manner of fare in between.

One of his specialties that we eat pretty much year 'round are hamburgers.  Of course, this is a staple in backyard cuisine, but we were unsatisfied with just your average ground beef patty seasoned with a little salt and pepper.  Rather than inventing new and unique ways to dress the grilled burger, my husband went a'hunting for a new and unique way to create the perfect patty. 

A little digging led him to two schools of thought: be creative in the meats used in the patty or be creative in the seasonings you add in.  It's no surprise that, as Texans, we take a more-is-more approach to dining, so we decided to combine the two schools of thought.  The result - best burger ever!

Here's what we do:

1) Start with a pound of ground beef.  Now, pick another kind of meat to add to the mix.  We originally were going to add a pound of ground veal to ours, but our small town grocer doesn't keep ground veal in stock (go figure), so the butcher suggested we might try ground brisket.  The result was pure burger perfection for us, but you might play around a little to find the taste, texture, and flavor combination you like best.  Ground bison, perhaps?

2) So work your two pounds of meat together and prepare to add your seasonings.  Sure, you could go with basic salt and pepper, but why stop there?  I'll tell you our favorite way to season - add equal parts barbecue sauce and brown mustard.  Add just a bit at a time, you don't want to overwhelm the meat and end up with raw hamburger mush.  We've also used equal parts soy sauce and lime juice with great success.  We've been known to add grape jelly in after we salt and pepper (you won't believe how smashing the result is), and once we even added in some leftover bean and bacon soup.  Now, if you do find your meat mixture is getting too moist, you'll want to crumble a piece of bread (plain old white bread works fine) to sop up some of the juiciness.  You want moist burgers, but too much moisture and those burgers will fall apart on our grill. 

Pop those beauties on the grill, and you've got yourself some sizzlin' summer perfection!

You may find with such flavorful burger patties, you can dress them as minimally as you like so you can really appreciate the taste of the meat.  We usually just have potato salad or chips on the side.  Can't go wrong with a big pitcher of Texas sweet tea, but if you use our recipe, keep your toothbrush handy for efficient cavity prevention.

Make sure you head back to Megan's place to drool over all her recipes and see what everyone else has to offer up today!

(burger photo by (nutmeg) )

 

Q&A: What's the deal with gluten free?

If you are anything like me and have been known to stalk and shop your local health food store and the "healthy living" aisle at your local grocery, then perhaps you've come across a variety of foods labeled "gluten free." I know I was sorta puzzled when I first happened upon this category of foods, knowing neither what gluten was nor why anyone would need foods that were free of it.

Eventually, I was introduced to the world of gluten free cooking and eating through my sweet friend Melissa. She and her sister Melanie have chosen gluten free lifestyles as a way to counteract the effects of Celiac Disease. Melanie was gracious enough to do this Q&A with me as a way to explain more about her family's experience with Celiac Disease and how to make the switch to gluten free living:

What is Celiac Disease?

About Celiac Disease:

Celiac Disease, an autoimmune disease, is an inability to break down the protein gluten which is found in wheat, barley, and rye. Oats are off limits for the most part as well, since they are almost always processed right alongside wheat. When a person with Celiac eats gluten, it destroys the villi lining the small intestine, and causes microscopic tears in the lining of the intestine. Typical symptoms are gastrointestinal - constipation, diarrhea, but because the gluten leaks out of the gut, it can manifest in MANY different ways - other common symptoms are headaches, fatigue, mental fogginess, restlessness, chronic congestion, skin irritations (in fact dermtitis herpatiformis is an itchy rash that is caused by Celiac disease). Celiac is highly associated with ALL auto immune diseases such as diabetes, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, etc. In many cases, a person struggling with one autoimmune disease will benefit greatly, or be cured by eliminating gluten from their diet. Many autistic kids are either much improved or completely healed by going on a gluten free diet. About 1 in 100 people have celiac - some never know it because the symptoms may be tolerable, and so it is never investigated. Ireland is the Celiac capitol of the world at about 1 in 75 people. All children in some European countries are tested for it prior to entering the public school system. Celiac is most common in those of European descent. It is also genetic.

Describe your family's experience with Celiac.

Cooper, my middle son, began having chronic headaches about 5 years ago. They worsened over the course of a year, and instead of just having them every night at bedtime, he began having them all day, and even waking up at night in pain. He also complained of stomach aches quite a bit, developed a few nervous tics, and began to just have a sort of grey appearance, circles under the eyes, and a constant complaint of "Mom, I don't feel good." He underwent an MRI (horrific experience!) to see if there was a tumor, as he was also complaining of fuzzy vision. No tumor and the pediatric neurologist (with a very big ego!) diagnosed him with migraines and tourettes! I just knew that wasn't it, but we tried the migraine diet of no nuts, chocolate, strawberries, cheese, etc. Nothing changed. A friend mentioned Celiac, because her son was in the process of being diagnosed and our boys had a lot of similar symptoms. I got online and did the research, then asked my pediatrician to do the blood test. (They test for certain elevated antibodies) He said he doubted this was the problem, but didn't mind testing. Cooper's results were inconclusive as we discovered that he lacks an antibody which throws the results off, but one antibody was elevated enough to convince me to try the diet. (Cooper also had an endoscopy where they take a biopsy of your small intestine to look for damaged villi under the microscope - his results were negative, but a lot of people have a false negative reading because of the length of the intestine and the patchiness of the damage. This test remains the gold standard, and you cannot be truly diagnosed as Celiac without it - oh well - no more tests for us, thank you!) Two weeks gluten free and an almost complete removal of all symptoms! I was totally convinced!

As I researched on behalf of Cooper, I realized that I had all the common symptoms - things I just thought were "normal for me." I was tested by a doctor in Dallas (all through the mail - and a stool sample this time!) and found that I had very elevated antibodies indicating a gluten intolerance and was malabsorbing fats with off the charts numbers - I had been loosing weight pretty steadily as well. Not long after this, my daughter started complaining of stomach aches and having daily diarrhea, so we tested her and she was positive. My oldest son had a blood test just to rule it out - no symptoms really except for chronic congestion and a need for ear tubes because of it at age ten! His blood work was negative, but about two years later, we did the stool test and it came back positive. So, my husband is the only family member that eats gluten, although not much of it since I hardly have it in the house!

How did you did you make the adjustment to gluten-free living?

At first it seemed very challenging to think of things to eat, but when your child's health is in jeopardy, you just don't look back. I joined a support group in my town, collected recipes, read books, found cookbooks and just forged ahead. Honestly, we eat much healthier - fruits, vegetables, fish, chicken, beef, eggs, nuts, rice, and potatoes! Anything highly processed is usually off limits because it has wheat in it - cookies, prepared foods, breadstuffs. And anything with a long list of ingredients is usually off limits as well - canned soups, salad dressings, sauces, etc. I spend a lot of time in the kitchen, but often I'm thankful that some things are just not an option in our house! (I've made us corn syrup, msg, and food dye free as well!) I do use some alternative flours for baked goods - mostly rice, tapioca, potato, bean, and nut flours. Almost everything is from scratch, but we do indulge in ready made frozen waffles and pancakes from Trader Joe's (small quirky chain - sorta resembling Whole Foods), brown rice wraps, and Gluten Free Bakehouse sandwich bread and pizza crusts from Whole Foods. Both Trader Joe's and Whole Foods are on the same street as me and less than a half mile from my house! HUGE BLESSING - except for the temptation to go to Whole Foods every single day and deplete the checking account!

Tell a little about the book you've written.

I wrote and self-published a book for kids about Celiac Disease. There was nothing out there to read to kids when we were being diagnosed, and I always look for a book to help explain things! It's called Bagels, Buddy, and Me, came out in September, and can be purchased through the website bagelsbuddyandme.com. In it Cooper tells his story of being diagnosed and making the transition to eating gluten free. The story idea came after the first three of us had been diagnosed, and our new golden retriever was needing to go out several times a night because of diarrhea. A friend told us their retriever could not tolerate wheat, and we should try switching food. We switched from a wheat based food to a rice based food and he was never sick again! We could not believe it - how weird is that? The WHOLE family except for dad!

Thank you so much, Melanie, for taking the time to share this insight into Celiac Disease and the benefits of gluten free living! Both Melanie and Melissa have more gluten free links in their blog sidebars. If you are interested in learning more, I know either of these wonderful women would be happy to share more with you!

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And now, if you really want to be blessed today, I highly encourage you to click here to listen to "Music From Another Room" - an amazing, inspiring, thought-provoking treasure of a song, written and performed by Melissa. (Melissa didn't know I was going to do this. Hope she isn't mad! I just can't NOT share it!)

Our favorite homemade pizza crust

I am ashamed to say that when The Coach and I got married, if "homemade pizza" appeared on the week's menu plan, then a cardboard box from the freezer delivered "cheese" (of dubious origin) on a cardboard crust to our table.  It's true.  I entered the holy union of marriage without a clue of how to make pizza from scratch.

Then we moved to Fort Worth and discovered pizza perfection in the form of an extra large cheesy masterpiece from Joe's Pizza and Pasta (on Bryant Irvin), and The Coach and I agreed that no one's pizza - homemade or otherwise - could ever come close to this flawless incarnation of our favorite meal.

When life moved us southward, I think it took us about six months to move past the mourning of our best. pizza. ever. loss . . . finally we moved on and found some nice, local pizza places that satisfy our pizza needs.  (As a rule, when given the choice, we don't eat at chain restaurants.  While we have been known to break that rule for a nice dinner out at Saltgrass, we have discovered that local pizza eateries win hands down over National Chain Pizza.)

Anyway, where was I going with this?  Oh yeah.  Homemade.

So as most budget conscious home managers know, homemade pizza is a fabulously frugal meal.  For a year or two, I made "homemade" pizza on a crust that popped out of a can. It was okay.  The Coach liked the elementary school cafeteria nuance of the taste and texture.  But then last September when my mother-in-law stayed with us for a few weeks after AJ was born, she introduced me to this amazing, bona fide homemade crust.  And we haven't looked back!  And it's so yummy and easy, I wanted to share.

From the First Baptist Church, Small Town, Oklahoma Cookbook:

2 pkg. active dry yeast
1 1/2 c. warm water
3 3/4 c. to 4 c. flour
1 T. olive oil
1 t. salt
1/2 t. sugar

Dissolve yeast in warm water (I dissolve it in a Pyrex measuring cup).  Pour into a large bowl and stir in half the flour, all of the oil, salt, and sugar.  Stir in enough of the remaining flour to make dough easy to handle.  Turn dough onto lightly floured surface.  Knead about five minutes or until smooth and elastic.  Place in greased bowl, greased side up.  Cover and let rise in warm place twenty minutes.

Punch dough down.  Cover and refrigerate at least one hour but no longer than 48 hours.  (I have found a minimum of four hours rising in the fridge works best.) 

Now, this recipe says it makes enough for two 14 inch pizza pans.  I like to make homemade pizza on a big, rectangular baking pan, and this makes enough to cover the pan with a nice, thick crust. 

Top with your favorite toppings and place on bottom rack of oven at 500 degrees for 8-10 minutes.

Bon appetit!

SortaCrunchy Q&A #13 - Quickly

The wonderfully sweet Karla of Looking Towards Heaven offered two questions for my SortaCrunchyMightHurtMyselfSoonBecauseI'mSoBoredWithItAll Q&A experiment. The second of the two is a very thought-provoking one (If you could write a letter to a persecuted Christian in a foreign country, what would it say?) that I want to come back to when I am over this burn out. (Five more days! No wait - after this post, four more days!!)

But her first question is one I am happy to answer today: What are your favorite quick night recipes and why?

Two words:

Cheese quesadillas.

(Or quesa-dill-as. Depends on where you live and how big of a Napoleon fan you are.)

Why? If there are two things we always, always have on hand in the SortaCrunchy kitchen, it's tortillas and shredded cheese. Slap 'em together, toss 'em in a skillet, and voila! Dinner is served. You can get all fancy with them, adding chicken or beans or veggies - I use whatever I have on hand. Quesadillas and tortilla chips some fresh veggies have been served as dinner around here many a-night. D always eats them up, too, which is a blessed bonus.

What works for fast and easy in the kitchen for you?

Labels: food, NaBloPoMo

Wordless Wednesday - Just Because

Labels: food, parenting a toddler, Wordless Wednesday

It's the simple things, like a well-cooked steak

It occurs to me that I don't talk about The Coach much here on the ol' blog. He is an extremely private person, so I try to honor that by not revealing too much about him on the web that is world wide. You know, because I have a lot of readers and all. But I am going to make an exception today to share this with you about my man.

My husband really is a Renaissance man. Equally at ease with coaching up three hundred pound defensive lineman as he is with shopping for and hanging brand new drapery in our living room, there is simply nothing he can't do. Well, except change dirty diapers. As much as he enjoys some good old-fashioned toilet humor, there's something about coming face-to-face (hand-to-diaper?) with real life toileting that brings him to the brink of vomithood. I can only handle one clean-up at a time, so he gets a free pass on the dirty diaper changing.

Anyway, one area where he really shines is in the preparation and grilling of meat.

(Vegetarian Friends, it's at this point that you may want to tune out.)

Last week, we had planned to celebrate a really big victory for the team with a really big steak dinner. However, in a week filled with the distractions of Halloween and intense game planning, the really big steak dinner plan never came to fruition. He hadn't forgotten the plan though, and called yesterday morning to say he had just received a nice bottle of red wine that needed some rib eye steaks to go with it. Off to the store I went and found some gorgeous rib eyes, marbled to perfection.

I set them up to bathe in our secret family recipe for meat marinade and spent the rest of the day comforting and cuddling a feverish Miss D. Because she was sick, the girls and I stayed home from last night's game, but by the time the last seconds ticked off the game clock, The Coach and I had another big win to celebrate! He skipped the post-game tailgates and hurried home for some quality time with his much-neglected grill wife.

Finally, a little after ten in the evening, we loaded our plates with pan-fried green beans, mashed potatoes, Hawaiian bread, and those gorgeous, glorious steaks. As we blew the dust out of the wine glasses, we joked that eating at such a late hour made us feel like them fancy New York types. And, oh, we were fancy, indeed! He in his wind pants and me in my gray running shorts . . . But the wine was rich, the potatoes were comforting, and the steaks were perfection.

D had long since gone to sleep and AJ snoozed peacefully in her bouncy seat. We talked about the game, the scores from the day, the weather, the future . . . It was the first date we had been on in ages. Our dinner last night reminded me of why I treasure simplicity so much. A great meal in the cozy comfort of our own home confirmed for me that in this season of life, simple is the new fancy.

What's that you say? You were wondering if I could share the secret family recipe for an outstanding meat marinade?

Well, if you are going to twist my arm like that, I suppose I can let it spill.

It's simple.

Combine equal parts soy sauce, vegetable oil, and lemon or lime juice (we like lime). Put the meat in a gallon size freezer bag and pour in the marinade. Let the meat soak for as long as you have . . . overnight is great, but even just a few hours will work. Before the meat is cooked, we like to generously dust the meat with garlic pepper. Works nicely for beef or chicken and is definitely, definitely good eats!

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No need to deceive this one!

Evidently, there has come to be some heated discussions in the past few weeks regarding the idea of hiding veggies in the kiddos' food (a la Deceptively Delicious and The Sneaky Chef). I, for one, stand on the side of the fence with the big billboard that says whatever works. Jen and I are still waiting on our backordered copies of Deceptively Delicious to come in, but I have a sneaking suspicion the deceitfulness won't be all that necessary when it comes to D and her veggies.

Yesterday afternoon, we were working on some "art" projects when I felt the need to raid the kitchen for some afternoon snackage. I pulled out a shiny new box of puffed Club crackers as my snack du jour. Look at the box:

Notice how it says MULTI-GRAIN? That means it's good for you, right? Never mind the back of the box . . .

. . . and all that about the delicious butter-y-ness of it all. (They are quite enjoyably crispy, by the way.)

So I am trying to get D to join me in the perfectly puffed snacks, but she keeps asking for corn.

You want corn?

Yesh!

Like corn on the cob?

YESH! (with much emphatic head nodding)

So while I crunched on fat grams and calories of the buttery multi-grain variety, D took the high road with a satisfying whole food snack. I feel confident that the denizens of this household who will benefit the most from the Deceptively Delicious eats and treats will be The Coach and myself.

And just so no one feels left out, here is a gratuitous AJ shot from today, just shy of eight weeks:

Labels: food, parenting a toddler

Wordless Wednesday - Pumpkin Bread, Anyone?

Labels: parenting a toddler, Wordless Wednesday

Bit O' Crunchy, October 19: Homemade Baby Food

First of all, I need to make an introduction. This morning I shared with my in-town community of friends for the first time ever about my little home on the web. These friends of mine - awesome, amazing, wonderful, loving . . . I could go on and on. I love them to pieces! I have been hesitant to tell them about this little ol' blog, but the word is out now. So in-town friends, meet my online friends! I think everyone is going to get along just famously.

Last week, seattlebags asked if I had ever shared my own experience in using veggie purees, etc., in making homemade baby food. I got to looking back through the archives, and as a matter of fact, I have not. I guess D was far enough past the baby food stage when I started blogging for real that I just never thought to write about it here.

When D was five months old or so, one of my friends lent me her copy of Super Baby Food by Ruth Yaron. Seeing as how I am always on the lookout for ways to pinch a penny, the idea of saving money on baby food by making it myself had me hooked from the beginning. Ms. Yaron takes the idea of homemade baby food beyond the draw of frugality and explains how in making your own baby food, you have absolute control over what you are allowing to enter your tender young baby's system. She advocates organic eating whenever possible, although you don't have to if that won't work with your budget.

Ms. Yaron's book is a wealth of information. So much information, in fact, that I got kind of overstimulated when I tried to really read through it. It made my (self-diagnosed) ADD act up in a big way. Some mommy board friends of mine pointed me in the direction of wholesomebabyfood.com - which, by the way, is even more user-friendly now than it was two years ago when I first found this helpful site.

These two resources were really all I needed to make almost all of D's baby food! (Yes, I do admit to buying jarred baby food for trips out of town because I am lazy like that . . .) But really, it was quite easy. Buy your fresh (or even frozen) fruits and veggies, get a rice/vegetable steamer, dig out the old blender, and locate those never-used-before ice cube trays in the back of the cabinet and you are all set!

One more site to check out . . . On Wednesday, Melissa (of Melissa Garrett ~ a writer's woolgatherings) posted her great success with one of Jessica Seinfeld's Deceptively Delicious recipes. In that post, she makes mention of Mush - a new(ish) blog devoted to "All baby food recipes. All the time." If you want to get fancy with all of this baby food makin,' check their recipes for things like Mango and Fresh Apricot Puree, Butternut Squash Risotto, and California Chicken. Sounds fab, right? A heckuva lot better than decidedly unappetizing jarred version of Turkey Rice and Garden Vegetables or the decidedly unhealthy corn dogs a la Kids' Cuisine (not that I would know anything about preparing one of those for D! Oh no, I've just heard that such things exist . . .).

So that's your Bit O' Crunchy for the week. Good eats!

Labels: baby, Bit O' Crunchy, food, recipe

Menu Plan Monday - August 13th

Well, friends, the sweet days of a mild summer are long behind us now, and as I write, the temperature outside my kitchen window is 85 degrees. In the shade. At nine in the morning.

Needless to say, this Mama is too hot and tired to do much in the way of fancy in the kitchen. In fact, you will see several dinners from last week's meal plan because I just big fat didn't get around to cooking a few nights last week. (Not to worry! D and I still ate - we just went ahead and had Sonic corn dogs instead of that tofu miracle.)

Monday: We'll try again to do the Black Bean, Tofu, Spinach Miracle
Tuesday: Cheese Tortellini and Mushroom Sauce
Wednesday: Dinner out with D's Aunt Mimi (my sister! hooray!)
Thursday: Coaches' wives get together!
Friday: whole wheat spaghetti and leftover peanut sauce from last week
Saturday: chicken nuggets, mac n cheese, corn on the cob
Sunday: Joe's Famous Breakfast Tacos (Thanks Keara and Joe! Welcome back to Texas!!)

As always, many thanks to Laura at I'm An Organizing Junkie for hosting!

Labels: food, Menu Plan Monday, recipe