Happy Birthday Nana!

My grandmother's birthday is today, a mere two days post-Christmas.  She's never really liked having it so close as people tend to lump the two holidays together (really shabby of them, honestly).  But this year, having her birthday so soon is letting me fix a major Christmas gifting oversight.

You see, my grandmother loves coconut.  And because we all know this, she got coconut scented soaps and lotions and even lip balms for Christmas.  Which is why it broke my heart a little when she said "but, I can't eat any of it".  This is a very fair point.  Determined to fix this injustice in time for her birthday, I headed to Whole Foods to pick up some type of coconut treat.  They had chocolate with hazelnuts, coffee beans, pink peppercorns, ginger, but not a single chocolate+coconut=happiness treat.

So I took matters into my own hands and made her some special coconut birthday treats.  They were super easy and taste delicious, although the chocolate does overpower the coconut a bit.

EASY COCONUT CANDIES

adapted only slightly from Not Enough Cinnamon.  My deepest thanks to her for the recipe.

INGREDIENTS:

1 C unsweetened shredded coconut (I used the dried coconut flakes from Whole Foods) 

  +  extra coconut for toasting

5 oz Ghiradelli 60% Chocolate (Bittersweet) bars

5 T sweetened condensed milk

DIRECTIONS:

Mix the cup of coconut together with the condensed milk.  Prepare a cookie sheet by laying down a sheet of parchment.  Roll small balls of the coconut mixture and place on the cookie sheet.  Not Enough  Cinnamon strongly recommends rinsing your hands every few balls or so and it does a lot to prevent sticking.  Pop the tray into the freezer for about 20 minutes.  I only left them for 15 but you know I'm lazy.  

Toast a few tablespoons of coconut.  I used my toaster oven for 2-3 minutes on toast.  Set aside.

Using a double boiler, or a metal bowl over a pot, heat all but about an ounce of the chocolate.  I chop the chocolate before putting it in the bowl, but your reserved piece should be in just one or two chunks. Heat the chocolate to 105 F, stirring to melt.  Remove it from the heat and keep stirring.  As the chocolate temperature lowers, add the reserved pieces and keep stirring until the temperature drops to 88 F.  Grab the balls from the freezer and using two forks, dip them in chocolate, coating completely and then replace on the tray and sprinkle with the toasted coconut.  Cool in fridge and store in an airtight container (not in fridge) for about 5 days).

Some words of warning/tips - your chocolate will cool FAST once it hits 88 F.  You'll need to speed.  It's hard to sprinkle the coconut before the chocolate has hardened, but also have enough time to toss all the balls in the chocolate before it's too sticky.  Also, if you have any gaps that didn't get fully coated by the chocolate the evaporated milk will leak out these holes making it sticky and less pretty.  

The Hungry Hippo 2012 Gift Guide

I have made solid progress on the Christmas front.  Enough progress in fact, to give you a list of wonderful things you can buy for me anyone on your list who loves to cook!

So for the first time ever, here's your Hungry Hippo Gift Guide!

1. Adorable Pot Guards from Huset:  At only $7.00 it's easy to tuck a small critter into a stocking. Obviously, my favorite is the hedgehog.

2. A State Cutting Board:  My wish is for Massachusetts, but my family insists they are only practical if you live somewhere squarish like Pennsylvania or Colorado.  Not cheap at $48.00 but original!

                                   

3. Chef Page Flags:  When I get a new cookbook, the first thing Ryan and I do is go through the recipes and mark the ones we want to try with post-its.  Imagine how much better it would look (and how helpful it would be) with these adorable page markers!  At $5.00 they won't break the bank.

4. Protect your Tablet:  Williams-Sonoma has these admittedly pricey protections for your iPad ($15.00 for the protective sheets and $50 for the stand).  But then again, if you're messy in the kitchen, you're really just saving yourself from buying a new iPad.  Right? Not on my wishlist, because I am a luddite with no such technology, but I expect many a chef would love it.

5. Two 6 Inch Cake Pans:  I heard a rumor that if you make 2 layers of a 6" cake, it will use the same amount of batter as half of a standard round layer cake.  Meaning, you can make a cake without worrying about whose going to eat the whole thing.  $13.00 minus whatever coupon you can scrounge at BB&B.

6. A Beary Good Place to Put That Cake:  I currently own 2 cake stands. But, I loooooooove this one.  I need more cabinets because I might cry without it.  $34.00 from West Elm (who is not only offering discounts and coupons every time I open my e-mail but free shipping as well!)

7. Farm Stand Baskets:  In the dead of winter, it's hard to remember those summer days at the farmer's market where you make your purchase and they pour your goodies out of the handy dandy baskets and directly into a paper bag.  But wouldn't it be so nice to restore them to their proper place with an adorable porcelain basket?  On sale for $9.80.  Yellow's probably my favorite color...

8. Canine Coasters:  Just in case the chef is allowed out of the kitchen for a celebratory drink, protective pooches will keep the tables free from rings.  Added bonus, one of the pups looks suspiciously like Dexter. $18 from Furbish.

  

9. Ideal for New Parents:  I couldn't resist adding this cookbook by Debbie who is the very first food blogger I ever followed.  Her book even has some sources naming it one of the best cookbooks of 2012.  I can't vouch for any of the recipes in this book, but I've been delighted with everything I've ever made from her blog.  As a special bonus, Debbie will even sign a bookplate for you. At under $12, it's a steal.

10. If You're Sick of Fishing Stuff Out of Pots: This spice infuser will allow you to have a bouquet garni without having to find string or cheesecloth.  Perfect for the chef that never can find basic kitchen supplies.  Possibly overpriced at $28, but reusable!

BONUS:  Getting Piggy With It:  I CAN'T HELP MYSELF.  IT'S A PIG!! FOR YOUR POTS!!

Any of these items catch your eye?  The ones I'm asking Santa for are #1, #3 and #6, even though most of them would delight me beyond reason.

Any kitchen items you want that aren't on my list?  I especially want to hear if you're yearning for cookbooks because I have none on my list right now and it makes me sad.  We're also tough to buy for because of all the random dietary restrictions, so I kind of have to flip through to see if they're any good.

Also, if you are a company whose product I listed here and you mind that I borrowed your picture and linked your item, please tell me and I will make whatever changes you request.

Happy Shopping!!

Comfort Food

It's early yet, but so far, this holiday season is a fail.  The weather here has been wildly swinging between 50-60s and vaguely below freezing, but the precipitation insists on coming only on the warmer days, leaving us with a damp, foggy December.  My best Christmas CDs have mysterious gone missing and not a single decoration graces my home.  Plus, for the first time I no longer have a working VCR so I can't watch Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gelsey Kirkland dance the Nutcracker.  Bah Humbug.  At least I can have some comforting warming potatoes.  Not nearly as good as having elves come and deal with my shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking and movie viewing situation, but delicious and soothing nonetheless.

SCALLOPED POTATOES

INGREDIENTS:
2 Russett Potatoes, sliced thin (use a mandolin if you're unsure of your knife skills)
1/2 C half and half
1 C whole milk
1/8 t nutmeg
1 t salt
pepper to taste
1 C grated cheese (cheddar is what I used, but jack would be great too!)

DIRECTIONS:
Preheat your oven to 400 F.  Thoroughly butter an 8 by 8 baking dish.  Arrange the slices of potato in layers in the baking dish.  In a bowl, whisk together the half and half, milk, nutmeg, salt and pepper.  Pour this over the potatoes.  Pop in the oven for 20 minutes.  Check. If the milk seems to be evaporating too much you can cover it.  Otherwise, leave it uncovered.  Bake another 30 minutes.  Sprinkle the cheese over the top and pop it back in until the cheese is melted and bubbling.

BLT Pizza

When I was growing up my parents were seriously into food.  Most of the time this meant Julia Child level French cuisine.  When I was particularly lucky, it was various cuisines of the world - my birthday picks were usually enchiladas or moo shu pork.  But I think it was impossible for anyone to make it through the eighties unscathed, and my parents were no exception; they certainly owned cookbooks that were dead on trend (Martha Stewart Entertaining, I'm looking at you).  Among the most dated was a book of pizza recipes.  Shot on a black countertop and served up by a man in a bright yellow short-sleeved dress shirt, the pizzas almost always had the ingredients arranged in geometric patterns.  I can't quite imagine how that works from a flavor standpoint...BUT  despite all that, many of the recipes actually look, dare I say it? tasty!

Although I didn't use the recipe at all (true confession: I also didn't really write a real recipe either), my BLT pizza was completely inspired by this book.  And it was completely amazing. I will make this again, and again and again.  And if it is this good with runty little winter cherry tomatoes, just think of how it will be when the real Jersey tomatoes of summer are in.  I can't wait.

Right. So about that recipe...

BLT PIZZA NOT QUITE RECIPE

INGREDIENTS:
dough - buy some or use 1/3 of my usual recipe
mozzarella cheese, shredded (a few cups)
6-8 slices of bacon (or turkey bacon) cooked until crispy
1/2 bag of pre-washed baby spinach
cherry tomatoes (no clue how many)
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
salt
pepper
olive oil

NOT REALLY DIRECTIONS:
Crumble or chop your cooked bacon.  Set it aside in a bowl.  Rinse and halve your cherry tomatoes.  On a baking sheet, toss them with the garlic and a bit of olive oil.  Put in the oven at 350 for 15 minutes.  I'm not sure exactly how long.  You want them nice and roasty.   Roll out the dough and prebake it for 5-7 minutes.  While it's cooking rewash your spinach if you're compulsive like that and saute it up with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper.  Just long enough to wilt it. Pull the dough out cover it with mozzarella.  Then top with the bacon, tomatoes and spinach.  Pop in the oven for another 2-3 minutes until the cheese is melty and delicious.  Enjoy the spoils of the 80s.

Winging It

This year I made the most beautiful Thanksgiving turkey I have ever cooked.  I swear you could have put that bird on the cover of a magazine.  Of course, there's no evidence of this, because even though I packed the camera, I didn't exactly manage to get it out of the suitcase.

You're used to taking my word on how things taste though, so maybe you'll believe me when I claim that not only was the turkey gorgeous, it was delicious.  Nice crispy skin, juicy meat, I couldn't have been more thrilled with the outcome.

Because here is my Thanksgiving truth:  I always wing it.

I have no tried and true Turkey recipe.  I don't swear by Alton and his brining or the siren lure of the deep fryer.  I just kind of make it up as I go along.  Which is usually something I'm pretty comfortable with, but Thanksgiving is different.  First of all, it comes right after the most stressful week in my entire working year, a week of meetings and professional reviews and long hours.  This means I am effectively brain dead by the time I have to cook Thanksgiving dinner.  Secondly, (and most of you know this) I make Thanksgiving dinner at my mother-in-law's house which means I am not responsible for the equipment available or the exact ingredients purchased.  And then there's the fact that it's pretty hard to properly wing a recipe that you only use once a year.

So in the interest of my sanity more than anything else, here's a rough guide to winging your Thanksgiving turkey.

Ingredients:
1 turkey (not 2, unless of course you have 2 ovens) defrosted (seriously, if you haven't defrosted it, I am not your girl)
onions
carrots
celery
lemon
garlic
poultry seasoning
an obscene amount of butter
kosher salt
pepper
maybe one of those packs of fresh herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme
chicken stock (1 box)

Equipment:
1 poultry lacing kit, preferably one that comes with directions printed on it
1 roasting pan large enough to fit your turkey
a turkey baster
a roasting rack
something to lift the turkey out of the pan with later (old oven mitts, actual forks designed for this, be creative if necessary)
a pot on your stove (medium sized)

Directions:
Before you turn on your oven, check out your rack situation.  You may need to remove a rack to fit the turkey in the oven and not have it squished against the top.  It is SO much better to remove this rack before the oven is hot.  Ask me how I know.

Preheat the oven to 350.

Stare at your turkey.  Remove the plastic covering.  Poke at it a bit.  Decide what is what.  Turkeys have 2 cavities.  There are generally things shoved in these cavities.  One of ours had the neck, the other had a paper packet of other turkey innards.  So, toss the neck into that pot on your stove.   Open the paper packet of innards.  The big thing is the liver.  Toss it, unless you actually know what to do with a turkey liver and want to eat it.  Toss the other junk in with the neck.  Poke at the turkey again.  If it has any weird plastic-y things, cut them off (ours had both a stupid pop-up thermometer and a weird thing holding the legs together like some type of twisted turkey chastity belt).

Debate rinsing your turkey.  Pros: You can feel like you rinsed your turkey.  Cons:  You can coat your sink in salmonella.  Which means that really, you should probably use some bleach to clean the sink once you've rinsed the turkey in it.

Definitely pour off any weird liquid lurking in the turkey.

Pop that puppy on top of your roasting rack in your roasting pan.  Commence project stuff things into the turkey holes.  NB: Stuffing is not an acceptable option.  It is a total pain to have to monitor whether or not it's cooked and whether or not the turkey is bleeding raw poultry juices into it thereby turning one of the best parts of dinner into a veritable breeding ground for all things causing food-bourne illness.

Right.  So.  You are going to put things in the holes.  Start with salt and pepper.  Be generous.  Then a healthy dose of poultry seasoning (a few tablespoons, don't skimp).  Have someone else hold up the turkey because it is really hard to lift it and drop things in it simultaneously.  Once you've seasoned the insides, wash your hands.  Prepare your veggies.  You don't need to peel carrots or onions, but at least rinse the carrots.  Chop them into bits that will fit into a turkey cavity.  So, maybe quarter the onions, halve the lemon, chop the carrots and celery in fourths.  Cut the garlic clove so you can see all the little cloves.  Shove this into the bigger cavity, use the onions, carrots celery, half of the lemon, the garlic  Then head to the smaller cavity and shove some of the stuff in there.  Take some of those fresh herbs and pop them in the larger cavity.  Cut a few tablespoons off your log of butter and pop those in too.  (If you weren't washing your hands between each journey into the turkey you should have been).

So he's stuffed.  It's time to do the poultry lacing.  Follow the directions on the package.  Save them for next year if you're that type.  I close the big cavity but not the little one.

Once the bird is stuffed, it's time for his butter massage.  I rub the whole critter down with butter, even getting some under the breast skin.  Then wash your hands and sprinkle it with salt and pepper.  Then it's time for some more poultry seasoning, a few tablespoons probably.  Sprinkle that over the bird too.

Finally it can go in the oven.  I cooked mine at 350, basting and rotating every 20 minutes. Rotating just means that if his feet face right, you turn the whole pan and face the feet left.  Basting also goes easier if you have someone to tip the pan so you can get enough juice.  If you don't have enough liquid to baste with, sub in some chicken stock.  There's no shame in it.  If it gets brown, cover with foil.

Ina Garten claimed a 10-12 lb bird needs to cook for 2 - 2 1/2 hours.  Something else said to add 15 minutes for each additional pound.  So, for an 18 lb bird (which is what I had) it should have taken 2 1/2 plus 6 x 15 minutes.  Which according to my resident math-smart person is 4 hours total. We put the bird in at 10:30 and pulled it at 1:45 which is 3 hours and 15 minutes. Which just goes to show you that there is no percentage in planning a dinner time.  Just get people over early enough, feed them apps and alcohol and go with the flow.

Your bird should be close to 170 when you pull it (it will increase a bit as it sits).  Let it rest for 20-30 minutes before carving.  If anything is still too rare, pop it back in the pan and serve what is cooked.

Most of all, try not to worry too much.  Everyone else should just be grateful that they didn't cook.

How to Save the Pudding (and also, maybe New York and New Jersey)

In the hours right before Sandy made its direct hit, I was in the kitchen, working at a whirlwind pace trying to make things ready.  I had the eggs on to hard boil at the exact same time as I was mixing up pudding.  Now if you've ever tried to make pudding before, you know there's a slightly dicey step where you have to heat the eggs and milk enough to cook/kill it, but not so much that you make scrambled eggs.  I'd substituted low fat milk (it was all I had on hand) for cream and was in the process of panicking that it would never thicken when the egg timer went off.  I grabbed the eggs, drained them and turned back to a lovely pot full of chocolate flavored scrambled eggs.  I know.  SO gross.  After a few desperate phone calls (to my mother and Stella Carolyn) I had a plan.  With nothing left to lose, I threw the whole mess into my food processor (a blender would be superior, but I don't own one).  And I processed the heck out of it.  And sure enough, smooth creamy pudding!!  So don't despair if you have a lumpy pudding. It can be easily saved.

I wish I could say the same for the areas hit by Hurricane Sandy.  Over the past week I've tried very hard to get comfortable with the idea of having electricity and heat and normal access to things like food and gas.  I'm still a bit on edge.  Until today I couldn't even bring myself to purchase more groceries, I was so scared it would all go out again.  But we've been extremely lucky.  Despite a midweek snowstorm with high winds, we've been safe, dry and well-fed.  But we are absolutely without a doubt, some of the luckiest of the affected.

Last week I asked you to consider donating to relief efforts if you are able.

Charity Navigator is a service that rates the effectiveness of different relief organizations and they have a list up of their ratings for those working in the areas devastated by Sandy.

You can see their list here.

As a teacher and book lover, I am heartbroken at the loss of libraries in both New York and New Jersey.  The Queens Library Foundation is not only working hard to help residents in their area, but suffered damage to five branches, two of which will need to replace their whole collections.

The New Jersey Libraries Association is working to help all affected libraries in New Jersey.

While it will take a lot more work to fix the damage wrought by the hurricane than it would to save a curdled pudding, it can still be done.  Especially if they have some help.

The Day the Lights Went Out

Monday afternoon at 4:30 Hurricane Sandy turned out the lights in our part of New Jersey.  A power outage in our current home means there is no light, no heat, no phone and no way to cook food.  The first night, with the storm raging around us and the rain falling in sheets, was undeniably the easiest.  Out of our fast failing fridge we rescued some vegetables, the hard-boiled eggs and two chocolate puddings I'd mixed up before we were hard hit.  We ate our salads by candlelight then moved to the sofa for a game of scrabble.  On Monday, it was not yet freezing cold, so we enjoyed our quiet game before retiring for the night.

                                         

For the rest of the week, we moved around in the darkness, guided alternately by candles and flashlights.  We sat in our car, listening to the radio and charging our nearly useless cell phones (evidently the generators powering the towers went, cutting off all communications except text messaging).  Each night we brought something from our fridge or freezer to my mother's house where a gas stove and grill made cooking hot food an actuality.  Upon returning home, we would immediately take to the bed, the down comforter I'd bought to survive Boston winters saving us from turning into little blocks of ice.  A fleet of out-of-state power company trucks hunkered down in the local mall's parking lot, assembling a make-shift home base complete with stacks of poles and rolls of wire and finally grey transformer boxes.  I am beyond grateful to those who came to assist us in this time of need.    Our power was restored yesterday, nearly a week sooner than the estimates originally provided.  

For those of you not in the affected area, please know that the devastation is much worse than what you imagine.  The images you are seeing are completely real, but they also focus on the most dramatic and hardest hit areas.  The truth is, New Jersey is crippled not only along the shore, but from Mercer county northward.  While much of the state was spared the visually arresting destruction that you see on the news, the impact was still great.  Many are still without power.  Gas rationing has begun in many counties.  So many roads are blocked that only a knowledge of the area will allow you to navigate.  A GPS will give up and start insisting you turn around.  Anyone who has been out and around to affected areas will not be at all shocked by the power restoration estimates because the sheer scope of the outages and damages is so extensive.  

If you have it in your means to make donations or volunteer time to help those affected by the hurricane, please consider it.  With only 4 days in the cold and dark we were among the luckiest people in the state.  

Last Potato Standing

Evidently, potatoes are the hot food of natural disaster.  This is something I honestly did not know.  I'm pretty new to the stockpiling frenzy, having lived in a city for 8 years that generally did not play the "buy out the grocery store" game.  I don't know if it's the proximity to food (walking distance rather than driving), or what, but I never saw the shelves cleared.  The closest I ever got was during a massive blizzard I was picking up a few things while two guys in chef's whites cleared the potato bin.  Their restaurant had a delivery cancelled and they were buying on a major scale.

I suppose that should have been foreshadowing for the great potato shortage of '12 but I really just didn't expect it.  I was pretty blown away to find that our biggest grocery store was out of baking potatoes, boiling potatoes, sweet potatoes, fingerling potatoes... pretty much everything.  All that remained were a few very sad looking shrink wrapped bakers advertising that they wanted to be microwaved and two full bins of red creamers.

What do people have against red creamers?  Why were they the wallflowers of the potato party?  I have no idea.  What I do know is how to make them delicious.

Ina Garten's Parmesan Smashed Potatoes.  Ridiculously easy and tasty (also, sub greek yogurt or regular yogurt for the sour cream if you have none on hand). You will not be sorry, even if you did end up with pickings from the bottom of the potato bin.

Also, I may have been a bit traumatized and overpurchased the next time I saw potatoes (um, the following morning at a small family owned store).  I now have baking potatoes, boiling potatoes and sweet potatoes.

Any theories on why potatoes were such a big seller?  I'd like to think everyone's planning on doing them camping style in their fireplaces when the power goes out, but I somehow doubt that's the case.

Batten Down the Hatches

Storm's a-coming.  Or at least that's what every news outlet and government official in the area would have you believe.  I have been granted a four day weekend, which means that as long as I have power, I shall be only mildly inconvenienced but possibly very bored.

Pre-storm preparations in these parts have been somewhere around the intersection of laissez-faire and half-assed.  Mainly, I figured it would be totally okay to stop by the grocery store last night around 9:30.  My thinking:  I don't want to be there with the madding crowd.  The reality:  Arrival after the madding crowd means that there may not actually be any food remaining.

Evidently the only potatoes left in NJ (TM) were red creamers.  I bought them in self-defense, but also, I know how to make them and they are delicious.  Check in later for more advice on that front.  Bread was also in short supply so I did what I had to do.  Mixed up a few loaves of white bread.  Not too hard and very delicious.

What should you cook before you lose all power?

1. Make the focaccia.  With pepperoni and cheese it is a filling snack with protein, but you don't need to keep it in the fridge.  It's perfect for tiding people over.  It's also pretty versatile and can use pantry items, so be creative if need be.

2. Sugar cookies! If you are going to be housebound with older children, bake the cookies while you still have the chance.  Decorating them will occupy plenty of time.  Make them Halloweeny to perk up small people who worry that their holiday trick or treating will be ruined.  Whip your royal icing in advance unless you have arms of steel.  Whipping could be done without power, but you'd feel it in the morning.

3. Pumpkin cake/loaf/muffins - again, I recommend investing in refrigerator free snack items.  This versatile recipe can be a cake, a loaf or muffins depending on what you think will go over with your audience.

I also elected to hard boil some of my eggs.  I figure they'll last longer than raw eggs if I do lose power and they work for multiple meals - deviled, as egg salad (you'll have to use your mayo ASAP if the power goes), or sliced on salad.

On an entirely non-cooking note, did you think to...

1. Shower.  

2. Do Laundry.

3. Run the dishwasher.

4. If at some point we're without water, you'll be grateful you did.

5. Move a flashlight to your bedside table just in case you lose power over night and need to see.

6. Fill up some ziploc baggies with water and pop them in your freezer - your freezer will stay cold longer if it's full.  

7. Charge all of your devices - including iPods, Kindles, etc.  It's easy to remember your cell phone because you need it.  But what about all the things you'll want?

What are you cooking or doing to prepare for the storm?  Or are you a lucky bastard who's not on the East Coast?

Hamburger Hybrid

When I went to high school in the early nineties, it was enormously on trend to be vegetarian.  Always one for half-measures, I did not join my friends in this, but went for the far more conservative "no red meat" stance.  Of course, when I went away to college, land of the inedible food, this was something of a liability.  For the first few months of school I subsisted entirely on a diet of hot buttered rice and apple jacks.  The food offerings of the few dining halls that served Freshman were as far from my mother's gourmet kitchen as you could possibly conceive.  At one point a group of boys in my dorm even got me a pizza from the outside because they were so concerned I might starve.  Slowly, slowly I began to introduce more foods:  chicken nuggets from the kosher kitchen downstairs, baked ziti from the mostly vegetarian cafe, salads from (urban legend has it) the longest salad bar in the state, and my dear dear friend the grilled cheese on white bread.  But midway through freshman year there was an exciting announcement! We were getting turkey burgers!  I cannot even begin to explain to you how revolutionary this was.  They were these little brown lumps on soft soft buns and you would have to wait to get a nice fresh one that a) didn't have time to get condensation on the plate, because you don't want a soggy bun and b) came with melted cheese. With that mouth-watering description I'm sure you'll have a hard time understanding why, during my sophomore year, I started eating red meat again.  As bleak as Freshman food options may have been, those available to the rest of the school were bountiful.  My friends and I favored a place that sold chicken wings (entirely too messy for any college girl to risk eating in public), grilled chicken sandwiches and beautiful, juicy burgers.  I remember staring at the menu full of pathos and longing when a friend said "Seriously, just GET one."  I was nothing if not a pushover, so I ordered a bacon cheese burger.  It quickly became a staple of my sophomore year diet.  These days I don't get much red meat anymore, but there's no reason for my turkey burgers to be sad specimens like the ones offered by my freshman dining hall.  Now they're juicy, flavorful and topped with bacon and cheddar.  I kept the nice soft roll though.  It is just a turkey burger after all.


BACON CHEDDAR TURKEY BURGER

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb ground turkey
1 T Worcestershire sauce
1/2 t salt
more than 1 t black pepper
2 t ketchup
2 T shredded onion
1 strip of (turkey) bacon per burger
cheddar cheese (or whatever you like!)
butter

DIRECTIONS:
In a non-stick pan, melt a tablespoon of butter.  Cook the bacon until crispy.  I used medium-high heat and did 3 minutes on one side, and 1 minute on the other side.  Then set aside the bacon.  Ideally, I'd do the burgers in a cast iron pan, but mine was dirty, so I used the non-stick but I didn't wipe out the bacon grease.  Because the burgers are tastier that way.

So you need to mix up the burger mixture.  Turkey burgers require extra things in order to be tasty, so don't skip the add ins.  Add the Worcesterhire, the salt, the pepper (be generous, especially if you like pepper), the ketchup and the shredded onion.  You should shred the onion on a regular grater. A microplane results in just mush. Shredding is better than chopping because it adds flavor and moisture with no weird chunks in the burgers.  Gently mix the meat, don't handle too much.  Form into 4 patties. Heat the pan to medium high and cook for 4 minutes on the first side.  Flip the burgers and cook for 2 minutes on the second side.  Then top with the cheese and cover (I used a standard metal bowl - the steaming is perfect) so that the cheese melts.  Cook for 2 more minutes.  Serve on toasted buns.