The Mother of All Burgers

Who knew? Who knew how much more a burger could be than American cheese and ketchup. This meal was so good. I think if Dan hadn't proposed yet he would have tonight. Seriously.

We had two patties left over from Grazin Angus Acres at the Carroll Gardens Market this fall. I started defrosting them last night so they would be ready for today.

Here is what you need for 2 people.

- 2 patties

- a block of pepper jack cheese

- 1 medium onion

- 1 avocado

- two buns

- Extra Virgin Olive Oil, salt and pepper.

Don't you dare desecrate this with ketchup.

Directions:

Start carmelizing your onion first. Cut up your onion into four pieces, drizzle it with EVOO and sprinkle it with salt/pepper and beginning cooking it in a small frying pan on medium to medium low heat. You might need to add a little olive oil if it looks thirsty--but not too much. During the carmelizing the onion sections will break apart (you will be mixing them occassionally, so you don't need to worry about huge chunks). After 10 minutes you can start cooking your burgers.

While the burgers are cooking, whether in a large frying pan, on a grill, etc, you can cut up your avocado and slice some pieces of the pepper jack cheese. I had never cut an avocado before, it's really fun. You'll see what I mean (don't forget there is a huge pit).

Right before the burgers are done top your meat with the cheese slices so they can start to melt, toast your buns, yeah baby, and then start piling it on. Enjoy! A great party recipe to try for this summer's first grilling party. People will be impressed ;)

Chicken Saltimbocca

So this was a first tonight. I wanted to make something that would be filling for the fiance and so I was flipping through a Giada cookbook my sister gave me for Christmas last year when I came upon this.

Apparently it's a very traditional Italian dish. Usually it is done with veal, but based on some of the research I did (oh yah, I went that far) the veal tends to be overshadowed by the spinach and prosciutto, so why waste the money? Also eating baby cow is an abomination and one of the major sins on my list of How-to-be Moral. It's up there with armed robbery and pit-bull fighting. No-Nos. I cooked enough for 3 servings.

Ingredients
-1 box of frozen chopped spinach thawed (10 oz)
-olive oil
-salt and black pepper
-2 chicken cutlets pounded flat
-4-5 slices of paper-thin prosciutto
-1/2 cup of freshly shredded Parmesan cheese (seriously... buy the block)
-1 can or container of chicken broth. About 14 oz is good. Low sodium!
-the juice of one lemon

First you squeeze out any water from the thawed spinach and add a splash of olive oil, salt and pepper to the spinach. I'm not going to give measurements because unlike the Barefoot Contessa I don't think these things need to be exact. Just add what FEELS right. haha.

Next pound out your chicken cutlets. I placed mine in-between two sheets of clling wrap and had the man flatten them out by banging them with a rolling pin.

Remove the cling wrap and sprinkle some salt and pepper on the chicken. Then lay the prosciutto pieces on top and follow with the spinach mix on top of the prosciutto. Make it as even as possible and press it down. On top of this spread your grated Parmesan.

Roll the whole thing together like a jelly roll by starting at the narrowest end and rolling it tightly. Shut both rolls using toothpicks (try to remember how many you use so you can remove them all later!). I think I used about 6 in each.

Now this is where I got a little confused by Giada and other recipes. I wasn't sure if I was supposed to chop each roll into little pinwheels or put the whole thing on the frying pan. I did the whole thing because I think if I sliced it the whole roll would have fallen apart. Maybe in a few years I'd be advanced enough to do that but for now... nope.

In a large/deep skillet or pan heat up some olive oil on high and cook your rolls for about two minutes on each side until they are brown. Then add in your broth and the lemon juice, let it come to a boil, and then turn it down and let it simmer covered until the chicken is cooked all the way through. We took about 10 minutes and probably could have used a little more time even. Giada says 4 minutes but that sounds crazy to me... unless she has hers perfectly sliced into tiny pinwheels rather than two huge rolls.

Take out and serve hot. Check first to make sure the chicken cooked on the inside too. Some spots it can be hard to tell because the prosciutto can look like uncooked chicken but it's not. Give it extra time if you aren't sure. The chicken will stay moist because it's in that simmering broth.

Enjoy!