cheesy cheeseburgers

It was oh so thrilling to get emails from some of you asking me if there were pics of the cheesy hamburgers I made for hubby's birthday. Yes, there are! I only have one decent one as taking pictures at night is tough without the daylight to help lighten up the photo. And this photo I know the burger is upside down, not the best photo, but still good enough.
The recipe? Nothing special, very easy. I am a firm believer that it all starts with the beef. You need good beef with some fat, to build a good burger. I always buy my meats at Whole Foods. I respect how sanitary they are with all their meats, and I feel safe knowing I won't get tainted beef. Plus it just overall tastes better. I use an 85% lean beef, never 90% as it's way too dry; a packet of Liptons Mushroom & Onion soup mix, a few splashes (not dashes) of Worchestshire sauce, a couple dashes of hot sauce, a dash of sugar (yes), a good-size pat of butter. In a large bowl, combine all with my hands, don't overmix though! Form a very large meatball, put a pat of the butter in the middle of the meatball, close the pat over with the meat and then gently push into a very thick hamburg patty. Cook on a preheated pan, over medium heat. Don't go touching and flipping the burger! Leave it, let it do it's thing. You want a nice char on both sides so only flip once! Cook about 6 - 8 minutes each side; on first flip put some nice thick slices of sharp cheddar on that burger! Sometimes I do a cheddar & monterey jack mix and my famous caramelized onions. Sure on really good hearty buns. I am in love with, and use all the time those Iggy Rolls--they are the best bread makers ever, well, plus San Fran has some stellar ones too.
(I know the cheese is upside down in the photo, I just plated the burger wrong...I had a very hungry hubby waiting patiently for his burger!) Yes, those are deep fried sweet potato fries. Slice fries really thin, dip raw fries into some egg whites, chill till hardened, then deep fry in small batches in peanut oil, salt immediately.

red velvet cupcakes w/ buttermilk frosting

It was my hubby's birthday this past Sunday. Happy Birthday sweetie!
I asked him what he wanted for a treat. "your cheesy hamburgers!" He exclaimed. Ok, that was a given, but what sweet treat, what type of cake? He didn't care. A good old chocolate cake from the box was fine with him. :::shudder::: A cake mix from a box? Oh no, as much as I love a good fast and easy cake mix, I just couldn't on a special birthday. A birthday deserves a homemade moist, buttery cake from scratch, period.
How about red velvet cupcakes with cream cheese frosting? Sure, he was in--as long as it has frosting on it he was in.



I remember seeing on 'Throwdown with Bobby Flay" a duel on red velvet cupcakes recently and wanted to try it out.
So with these cupcakes I wanted, really wanted, a better cream cheese frosting. I wanted cream cheese for sure but wanted the cream cheese frosting to be really cream-cheesy tasting, if that makes any sense. So, to spare you the long details, after playing around with various cream cheese frosting combo's I came up with a cream cheese-buttermilk frosting. Yeah, it's really decadent, but it truly went so perfectly with the tangy red velvet cupcakes. I love what flavor buttermilk creates in a recipe.



The recipe for the cupcakes is here and my frosting is, well, off the cuff...like all my other creations. So bear with me as I don't have precise measurements. Experimenting is fun, yes? And you all are cooks and know how much to put in....yes?

red velvet cupcakes
from bobby flay
print recipe

buttermilk-cream cheese frosting
from vanillasugarblog.com

Notes:
You can use my frosting or you can use bobby flay's; I've included both here.

For the cupcakes:
15 1/2 ounces all-purpose flour
1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 1/4 teaspoons unsweetened cocoa powder
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
13 ounces granulated sugar
1 1/4 cups buttermilk
3 eggs
2 tablespoons plus 2 teaspoons red food coloring
1 1/4 teaspoons vinegar (white or apple cider can both work)
1 1/4 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/8 cup water

For Bobby Flay's the cream cheese frosting:
1 1/2 pounds cream cheese, room temperature
1 pound butter, room temperature
2 pounds powdered sugar, sifted
1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven 350 degrees F.
Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, and cocoa powder into a bowl and set aside.

In a mixer fitted with paddle attachment, mix oil, sugar, and buttermilk until combined. Add eggs, food coloring, vinegar, vanilla and water and mix well. Add the dry ingredients a little bit at a time and mix on low, scraping down sides occasionally, and mix until just combined. Be sure not to over mix, or the batter will come out tough.

Line a 16-cup cupcake pan with paper liners, scoop the batter into the liners and bake at 350 degrees F for 20 to 30 minutes or until the toothpick comes out clean. Let cool.
For the cream cheese frosting:

Whip the butter and cream cheese together in a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment until creamed. Gradually add powdered sugar to the mixture and scrape down the bowl as needed. Add the vanilla and mix until combined.
The frosting can be used right away, or stored in the refrigerator up to a week.
Frost cooled cupcakes with the cream cheese frosting.

buttermilk-cream cheese frosting (off the cuff):
1 block of cream cheese (8oz.) room temp.,
about 1 cup + or - of confectioners sugar,
2 tb + or - of buttermilk.

Sift confectioners sugar to get out lumps, then cream everything together until desired consistency.
It has a nice buttermilk & cream cheese taste--which I loved.
I have always put toasted walnuts or pecans on my red velvet cake, on the sides, all the way around or just on top.
Do you? It's a southern thing isn't if memory serves me right.

sugar donut muffins

I loved photographing these. So simple, so basic, the sunlight was finally out on Saturday and was just the perfect light. Plus the sugar was so pretty on the tops of the muffins. It felt good to have some sun today--we haven't had much of it lately. This Saturday night we are expecting yet another snowstorm. It's the second week of January and we've already had seven snowstorms so far this winter! We met our quota for snow, we're done, ok? No more. I hope winter doesn't keep this snow-storm pace, by March I'll be screaming for warm tropical weather. Summer: it felt like just yesterday I was sitting outside on the back deck at night listening to the resounding crickets and frogs croak away as if they were having their own who-can-croak-the-loudest contest. The warm air of summer nighttime surrounding me and my cold, sweaty glass of wine....

How were the muffins you ask? Well, you're asking the wrong person as I thought they were ok; a little plain tasting. Don't get me wrong, they came out just fine. You all know I like things kicked up a notch. So, if I were to make these again (and I will) I want to put a vanilla custard in the middle for a little extra something. Or even a jelly center would be perfect. The muffin has a wonderful mild, tasting vanilla base, but I just wanted to add something to it. My husband LOVED them, but see he loves plain old anything, so...if you're like him then you'll just love these. I have to admit these are the perfect base muffins for experimenting add on or add in's.

sugar donut muffins
print recipe

1 cup sugar
1 large egg
2 cups all purpose flour
1 ½ tsp baking power
¼ tsp salt
½ tsp ground nutmeg
¼ cup plus 1 TB vegetable oil
¾ cup plus 2 TB buttermilk
1 tsp vanilla extract

For topping:
4 TB butter, melted
½ cup sugar, for rolling

Preheat oven to 350F. Lightly grease a muffin tin with cooking spray or vegetable oil.
In a large bowl, beat together sugar and egg until light in color. Add in all the vegetable oil, all the buttermilk, vanilla extract and mix well.
In a small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg; add this to the wet mixture.
Divide batter evenly into 12 muffin cups, filling each about 3/4 full.
Bake for 15-18 minutes, until a tester inserted into the center comes out clean.
While muffins are baking, melt butter in one bowl and in another bowl pour in the ½ cup sugar. When muffins are done, take muffin one by one and dip top of muffin into melted butter then dip into sugar. If, you’re feeling even more creative you can dip all sides of the muffin. I also used cinnamon on half of the muffins. After I was done doing 6 muffins with the plain sugar I added some cinnamon to the remaining sugar and dipped accordingly. Cool on a wire rack.

Makes 12 muffins.

bad girl...

Do you have those times when you go to the grocery store starving...ravishing. And you get a lot of extra stuff because you are so hungry? Yep, ok. And then once you get home you are just so hungry and can't wait until dinner that you just break into a 'bag or box o' junk' just to have a small bite to tide you over till dinner? And one small bite leads to another small bite which leads to 10 small bites? Yeah, that's what happened to me. I didn't even make it to dinner, as I ate a good amount of this.



I didn't even cut a piece and plate it, I just grabbed a fork and dug right in. How bad is that?
Those grocery stores are smart by putting the Entenmann's baked goods right near the checkout aisles, so when we pass them by we are enticed to buy them, now.
My favorite, obviously, is the raspberry danish. Don't buy it!
What is your worst 'I'm starving while grocery shopping moment?'
Do share...

cheesy chicken & veggie soup

Do you have a bunch of leftover chicken or turkey or even veggies you need to use up? Want to get your kids or hubby to eat more veggies? Want something nice and hot to warm your bones? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then do I have the answer for you....
Ha ha, don't I sound like a TV commercial, selling the latest and greatest chopping gadget for only $9.99?
But seriously, this cheesy soup is super easy to make, very versatile when adding any type of leftovers, and I swear your kids might just love it. If my over-the-moon fussy hubby eats it--veggies and all, then so will your fussy kids. The best part I love is you can add whatever veggies you have from the ice age in your freezer and chopped leftover chicken or turkey (never tried roast beef, but hey, I bet it might work too).
I was just frozen today, pretty much all day. No amount of hot tea was going to warm my cold bones up. I wanted a hearty, warms you to your bones, soup. This is it for me. Yeah, plus I had a bunch of leftover roasted chicken that I needed to use up too. Leftover potatoes would be wonderful in this too. See, just about anything can go in this cheesy soup.
This time around I added in leftover broccoli, corn and leftover roasted chicken. Wouldn't it be great to add this soup to a hollowed out bread to use as a bread bowl?

Cheesy Chicken & Veggie Soup

2 TB butter
2 TB of extra virgin olive oil
1 medium sweet onion, chopped
2 cups cooked chicken breasts, grilled is even better
1 cup frozen peas, corn & carrots veggie mix, or whatever you crave
8 oz Philadelphia cream cheese
1 can (14.75oz) creamed corn
1 cup milk
2+ tsp. of chicken bouillon cube, chopped fine (add as much or as little)
Couple dashes of black pepper
1 cup of mozzarella cheese
Chopped fresh parsley as garnish, optional

Melt butter and olive oil in a saucepan and add onions. Slightly brown the onions.
Remove onions to plate. Then stir fry the chicken breast slices till fully cooked. (or you can grill the chicken, cut it up into cubes).
Add veggie mix, then add the cooked onions back in. Stir together, then add in the cream cheese, stir until the cheese is melted. Add in the creamed corn and milk; sprinkle in the chopped chicken bouillon. Stir well to mix and bring to just boiling, turn off heat, and stir in the mozzarella and some black pepper. Taste test to see if you need more chicken bouillon or salt. Serve with crusty, warm bread.

Serves 4 (depending on portion size)

Note: I like my soup very thick. If you don’t want it thick then add a couple dashes of water or more milk to thin it out. The next time I make this I will be adding chunks of cooked, cubed potato.