Bobby Flay's Trattoria Burger

This recipe comes from Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries & Shakes book.

Ingredients:

1-1/2 pounds ground beef
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
1-1/2 tablespoons canola oil
8 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 8 slices
4 hamburger buns, split and toasted, if desired
4 slices ripe beefsteak tomatoes
8 fresh basil leaves, washed and dried
8 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
4 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

Directions:

Divide meat into 4 equal portions and form each into 3/4-inch thick patties. Make a thumb impression in center of each. Season both sides with salt and pepper.

Cook the burgers, using caola oil and topping each one with 2 slices of cheese and a basting cover during last minute of cooking. (I just grilled the burgers)

Place a burger on the bottom half of each bun. Top with 1 slice of tomato and 2 basil leaves. Drizzle each burger with 2 teaspoons of balsamic vinegar and 1 teaspoon of olive oil. Cover with bun tops and serve immediately.

I served them with Lays Tomato Basil chips.  Yum!

These were really good!!!


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Make A Head Meals, Melt in your Mouth #4

Peanut Butter Cookies

Miss V wanted to bake up some cookies.  We picked out a recipe for Peanut Butter Cookies from her Cool Cookies book.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter softened
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup creamy or chunky peanut butter
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup chopped roasted peanuts (optional)

Preheat oven to 350.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a small bowl, set aside.  Beat the butter and sugars with an electric mixer set on medium, until light and fluffy.

Add the egg, vanilla and peanut butter.  Beat until well blended.  Gradually add the flour mix.  Stir in the peanuts if desired.

Shape dough into 1 inch balls; place 2 inches apart on an ungreased cookie sheet.  Flatten dough balls with a fork, creating a criss-cross pattern.

Bake 12 to 14 minutes or until edges are lightly browned.  Cool cookies on cookie sheets for 2 minutes.  Remove to wire rack and cool completely.

These came out really good and especially dunked in milk.

Blue Jello Aquarium test run #2 Better......

Well I bought more candy pebbles of all places, Wal-mart.  Here is the directions in pictures.

As you can see, the candy pebbles started dissolving and at this point I am saying FORGET THE PEBBLES!  Next time I am just going to use liquid food color.  This time I used Americolor Sky Blue..just a tiny drop.

Oh and for the fun of it, I got out my food markers and had fun with a teddy graham.

Ah help...I am floating away....

Internet Shopping recommendation

I am working on things for Miss V's birthday.  I saw a really cute idea for Bikini Beach Bear Cupcakes on Bakerella.

Anyway she has a list of where to find some of the ingredients.  But I couldn't understand the whole candy writer on Amazon.  Plus I would have had to get the blue cupake liners at a different shop and that would have increased the shipping.  I love Amazon, but sometimes buying a bunch of little things at different shops cost way more in shipping than the actual items.

So I searched and found a store called Shop Bakers Nook.

I was able to purchase just the color candy writers that I wanted and blue cupcake liners.  I ordered them on Friday and they were at my front door this afternoon. 

If you are in need of baking items, check them out.  I don't think you could go wrong.

Chocolate Sea Shells and Sea Creatures

Oh just had a little fun with candy melts and my new sea shells and sea creature molds.  These are just a test run for Miss V's birthday.  You know in the world of a soon to be 9 year old...sea creatures are colorful and well star fish aren't just pink.

Blue Jello Aquarium test run #1 FAILED MISERABLY!

So I thought of making a cute jello aquarium for Miss V's birthday.  As always, I do a test run.  We went to the candy store at the "little" mall.  I bought what candy pebbles they had.  I also picked up some cute gummy sea creatures.

Anyway...I have seen on other blogs that the blue jello is kind of dark and to mix it with some clear jello.  So I used a box of blue and two envelopes of plain gelatin.

So at this point, I am thinking....next time I am going to use a clearer jello and thought that I saw some a while ago.  I think it was like a sparkling white grape juice and just do a drop of blue food coloring.  (I just went to the jello site and it is not listed!  Ahhhhhh what am I going to do now???)

So I put it in the fridge to cool for an hour.

Then put my candy pebbles into the trifle dish.

After an hour you are supposed to be able to pour the blue jello over the candy pebbles.  I poured it over the back of a spoon so it didn't disturb the rocks.

Looked good for about two seconds then the candy pebble coating started to melt/dissolve. 

Well I put it back in the fridge and a couple hours later it was still so watery and not set up at all.  So it went down the garbage disposal.

WHAT CAN I DO NOW?????  (Ok foodies, I really need your advice/thoughts)

I am thinking of maybe making some clear Knox gelatin and letting it set up completely.  Put some candy pebbles in the bottom of the trifle dish then "crumble" the gelatin in over the rocks to kind of seal them in.  Then make more clear gelatin and add a touch of blue food color, sugar and flavor....

All I know is that I think Miss V and I are going to have to go to the "big" mall to the candy shop there. 

Since this 1st one failed...my motto is try, try again!!!

Chili Cookoff

This year Miss V decided that she wanted to sign up for her school's chili cook off again.  Last year she came in second and we were so proud of her.

Instead of getting up at 6 am on Saturday to make it, she decided to make it on Friday afternoon.  She makes her YCA One Alarm Chili, but she likes to season to taste and she ends up adding a bit more chili powder and cumin.  This year I bought her 6 pounds of ground beef.

It smelled wonderful and she let it simmer for a couple hours on Friday night.  When I got up on Saturday I put it back on the stove to warm up and warmed up the crock pot.  It filled the crock pot almost to the point of spilling out.  We transported it to school safely and not a drop was spilled.

Here she is right before the Fun Fest started in front of her chili.

She was so excited!  We talked about what would happen if she didn't win and she said that it would be ok and she would try again next year and that she was doing it for fun. but she really wanted to win so she could put the prize money in her Nintendo DS fund.  She is saving her money to buy her own DS.  I went to check and her crock pot was almost empty!  Right before the votes were counted I peeked again and the crock pot was scraped clean!  That had to be a good sign right?

A little while later the announcement came that they were going to give the results of the chili cook off so we waited and the principal of the school called Victoria's name for first place. She looked at me for a second like she was confused.  Then she busted out with a HUGE grin and ran off to get her blue ribbon!!!

Here she is with her ribbon and her prize money was delivered shortly afterwards.  When we got home the prize money went right into her DS Fund Ziploc baggie.

Way to go Master Chef Victoria!!!!  We are so proud of you!!!