3 alarm hamburgers

This is Guy's special spicy burger!

Grill hamburger patties in a skillet until browned to taste.

Place hamburger on toasted bun.

Top with lettuce, onion, spicy mustard, peperoncini peppers, pickles, and catchup.

Rotel hamburgers and fruit salad

It started out simply. Kelly decided to make Rotel* hamburgers. Easy.

She mixed Rotel tomatoes with:
hamburger meat,
garlic powder,
red pepper,
salt and black pepper.

Meanwhile, I helped out by broiling the hamburger buns

Kelly shaped hamburger patties and browned them in the skillet. Then she added the juice from the Rotel tomatoes and enough water to simmer the meat until done.


Meanwhile, I forgot the broiling hamburger buns. They scorched.
I started over, broiling a new batch.


















* Rotel tomatoes are a spicy canned tomato product manufactured by Conagra. Click the link to read more about them.


Kelly served the hamburgers with a fruit salad of fresh grapes and tomato wedges. (The tomatoes were vine-grown, hydroponic, from Canada -- so ok'd by the FDA to eat raw.)


Delightful !

Ersatz beef stroganoff 2.0

So . . .




Ersatz beef stroganoff was well-enough received that I tried a different variation on the theme the next day.

*Recipe*

Ersatz Beef Stroganoff 2.0

Ingredients

Ground beef
onion
yogurt (ersatz replacement for sour cream)
rice (ersatz replacement for wide egg noodles)
oil
mustard

Saute

ground beef and onions in large skillet or until onions are transparent.

At the same time, cook in separate covered saucepan until all water absorbed and rice is fluffy:

1 part rice
2 parts water
1 tsp oil

After rice is cooked, turn off the heat and let saucepan stand covered.

Reheat skillet with the browned meat and onions.

Add

mustard and yogurt to the meat mixture.
Warm thoroughly, but don't boil. Remove skillet from heat.
This is the sauce.

Serve

rice onto plates and top with the Ersatz Beef Stroganoff 2.0 sauce.

Delicious!

Ersatz beef stroganoff 1.0

I suggested making beef stroganoff for dinner and got a wide range of responses. The majority favored the notion, with the following comments:

"Don't use onions! I can't stand them!"

"I hate the meat! Can we have it with only noodles and sauce?"

and

"We're out of noodles!"

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Ahhhhh, the sweet inspiration of Ersatz cooking!

Ersatz (German) means a substitute or replacement for the real thing.

Ersatz cooking is to cook your best using strictly what is on hand -- without getting too hemmed-in by the deficiency of ingredients in the pantry.

We speedily composed two recipes on two consecutive nights (see companion recipe- ersatz beef stroganoff 2.0, posted below):

First recipe:

ersatz beef stroganoff 1.0

Ingredients

patties of ground beef (instead of pan-fried strips of steak)
hamburger buns to match (instead of noodles)
onion slices
pickles (ersatz for onions for non-onion-eaters)
mustard (ersatz for sour cream sauce)

Instructions

Cook hamburger patties in skillet
Assemble hamburgers with mustard, pickles, and onions

Serve.

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Maintain a good attitude about aspiring to cook beef stroganoff!

It is the thought that counts!