Mexican Pizza

     Mrs. G went out of town yesterday. If you’ve been following along, you know what that means….diet goes out the window and I play around with food!! Usually something I think she won’t like (like grilled cheese hamburgers) or something she’s nixed in the past like this version of pizza.

     I remember seeing Mexican pizza when I was growing up. Never had it, oh no, we were more of a traditional pizza family. Pepperoni or maybe a supreme, meat lover’s if I got lucky. So I’d stare over at other tables and watch people eat their Mexican pizza and wonder what it would taste like. I’m not even sure if Mexican pizza was a nation wide thing or maybe it was just regional to South Texas. Seems like it’s not really around anymore, at least not that I’ve seen, but for some strange reason it popped up in my head the other day and no matter what I did, I could not shake the idea of making one. So after work yesterday, I got the necessary ingredients (at least the ones I thought should go on a Mexican pizza, but never having one I could be wrong) on the way home and fired up the Egg.

 One of the great things about the Big Green Egg is that you can get it hot. I mean blazing hot. Hotter than your oven hot. I generally cook my pizzas at about 650F. They cook up fast and you get that nice wood burning oven flavor to them. Here the Egg was only going about 600.

The Setup

 There are a few ways to set up your Egg to make pizzas. None of them are wrong, but this is how I like to do mine. Placesetter with the legs down, then use the 3 green ceramic feet to hold the pizza stone up above the placesetter. This allows air to circulate under the stone and allows it to heat up evenly.

Cooking up the taco meat

 Yes, I have a stove and sometimes I even use it. I cooked up the taco meat and used Old El Paso taco seasoning. Not the one we usually use, and I wish I knew how to make taco meat without a packet (maybe I’ll learn me how to do that one day) but for tonight’s purposes it would work.

Dough

Took another shortcut with the dough. Now I’ve made homemade dough before and its come out pretty good, but sometimes I don’t have the time or the will. So for those of you who also don’t have the time, or are a bit timid of the whole process, there’s an easy answer. Go down to your local Mom and Pop Italian restaurant and ask if they will sell you a ball of dough. Most places will. And if you are so inclined, they’ll usually sell you a cup of sauce. I didn’t get any sauce as I was going Mexican with this pizza.

Building the Pizza

 I didn’t roll this dough out very thin. I figured with the amount of toppings it was going to receive, I needed a good thick crust to hold up. Started out by spreading a layer of the taco meat on the dough.

Cheese, or queso for those Spanish speakers

 Next came the cheese. I don’t know what kind of cheese they used when I saw these growing up. I thought about maybe using some queso blanco or queso fresco or Chihuahua, but ended up just using some cheese I found in the fridge. A little bit of Mexican blend, some pizza blend (it is a pizza after all) and finally some extra sharp cheddar. Hey, that’s what this gringo uses on his tacos.

On to the Egg

 After I was done topping the pizza, it went on the Egg which I had stabilized at 500F. That’s a little lower than I usually do pizzas, but this was also a thicker crust than I usually go with, so I wanted to make sure it would cook all the way through without the crust burning on the bottom. You might also notice the paper under the pizza. That’s parchment paper and a little trick I picked up on Greeneggers Forum. It’s a good way to slide your pizza onto the stone without it sticking to your pizza peel (something which I don’t have anyway) or getting deformed. After a few minutes of cooking, you can grab an edge of it with your tongs and it will slide right out from under your pie.

Just about done

 So far the pie looks about normal, except with some taco meat on it. Now comes the toppings. A little bit of lettuce, some tomatoes, green onions and some jalapenos. I suppose you could use some black olives, but I’m not a big fan. Top it off with some sour cream and you are bueno. (like the use of my limited grasp of Spanish?)

Boiling the Eggs

 Ingredients

• 4 hard-boiled eggs
• 1 lb of breakfast sausage
• favorite bbq rub

Start off by boiling 4 eggs. Then add 1 tsp of your favorite rub to the sausage and mix well.

Add seasoning

I did all this the night prior. After mixing in the seasonings, I placed it in the refrigerator overnight so the flavors would incorporate. In the morning, divide the sausage into four equal parts. Take the sausage and wrap around your hard-boiled egg. Give then a good dusting of your favorite rub and then put them onto a grill set up indirectly at 350F.

About halfway done

 Honestly can’t tell you how long to cook these. I want to say 30 minutes, but I was up early and not paying much attention to time You want to cook them until the temperature of the sausage reaches 165F.

Done

 I let these rest for about 5 minutes to give them a chance to cool down and let me tell you that was hard to do.

Sliced and ready to eat.

 I can’t begin to explain how good these were. I might have given them a little too much of the Hell From Texas rub as they had quite a kick to them, just on the border of where I like my heat, especially first thing in the morning. I’ll be doing them again, but I think I’ll skip adding any rub to them the night before and trying out other rubs. Hope you enjoy.

Ingredients for Cheddar Beer Bread

      I have a weakness for bread. There….I’ve said it. I love bread. Sourdough bread, French bread, Ciabatta bread, croissants, bagels, focaccia, corn bread and don’t even get me started on that Brazillian cheese bread Pao de Queijo that they serve at churrascarias that my wife loving refers to as light, fluffy clouds of goodness. Nothing beats piping hot bread, especially with some butter slathered on top. Mmm…yum!!

Adding Dry Ingredients 1 tsp oregano

      Seems like there’s been a lot of bread making going on over at the Green Eggers Forum this past weekend. Saw some wonderful posts about ciabatta and focaccia. Got me wanting to make some of my own. Then I saw Jamie’s post on Our Eating Habits for a Cheddar Beer Bread and I knew that’s the one I wanted to do.

1/2 tsp basil

• 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 Tbsp sugar
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp dried basil
• 1 can beer (1 1/2 cups)
• 1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

1. Mix together all dry ingredients in medium-sized mixing bowl. Add Cheddar and beer. Stir until combined.

This Texas boy had to go with Lone Star

2. Place in a greased loaf pan and bake for 40 minutes at 375 degrees. I did mine on the BGE. It took a bit longer, maybe 45-50 minutes, but you have to expect those kind of differences when you are cooking over a live coals I’m guess.

Going on to the Big Green Egg

3. Eat and Enjoy!

Done!

       Now man cannot live on bread alone…at least not this man. And since we had the Egg fired up, we threw together some dinner to go with the bread.

Pork Chops

      Stubbs used to be my go to rub. I first found it in college and used it for many, many ( I won’t say how many) years afterwards. The past few years, I’ve been branching out and trying new rubs, but sometimes its nice to go back to an old favorite. These pork chops got a liberal dusting and then went on to the grill at 450.

Grilling away

   After I flipped them (maybe 4-5 minutes in), I noticed they were starting to curl up a bit, so I grabbed my Lodge Cast Iron press and set it atop to prevent that. What you say? You don’t have one of those? A brick lined with aluminum foil works just as well.

Dinner is served

      The pork chops were pulled at 140 F and allowed to rest for 5 minutes. During that time, I grilled up some asparagus that Mrs. G had seasoned up. That was served along with a nice salad.  I have to say the bread was pretty darn tasty. It had a savory flavor from the oregano and the basil and the beer. I didn’t detect much of a cheese flavor, though. Might add a bit more next time….along with some jalapenos or diced green chiles for some heat. Pretty simple bread to make and I’ll do it again…with a bit of tweaking for my personal tastes.

Beef....it's what's for dinner!

      Friday night, we had a little family dinner over at my parents house. Momma G had bought some lovely ribeyes for the occasion. Knowing what was going to come, I came armed with a batch of spices so that everybody could flavor up their own steaks. When my Mom pulled the 6 steaks out of the fridge, all of our eyes widened in surprise. These things were huge! Everybody quickly agreed that they would not be able to eat a whole one and we decided that I would only grill up 3 of them and we would split them. Doc G, Mrs. G, Brother G and his girlfriend all decided that they want the Dizzy Pig Red Eye Express (which is a coffee infused BBQ rub) and Momma G and I decided on Dizzy Pig Raising the Steaks ( a Canadian style rub based on Montreal Steak Seasoning).

My Old Gas Grill

 Friday night’s dinner was not to be cooked on a Big Green Egg. Instead, we fired up my old gas grill. I got this gas grill way back in 2006 and it served me well for many years, but soon after I got my BGE, we quit using it. In fact, for a long time I  used it to store charcoal and bbq accessories. Last year, it made the journey over to my parents house as their old gas grill was falling apart and I figured it would get more (any) use. So we fired her up and set the burners on high and let it preheat for about 5 minutes.

Steaks on!

 One thing I will admit, although I do love my Big Green Egg, I do miss all the square footage this grill had to offer. And it was nice to just turn some dials to get it fired up and be ready to cook in 5 minutes.

Halfway done

 When set on high, steaks don’t take long to cook on this grill. I think they went about 4 minutes per side, turning them 90 after 2 minutes to get those nice sear marks.

Doc G and Mrs G

 Doc G and Mrs G watched on and kept me company during this cook as they enjoyed a glass of wine.

Done

 Momma G baked some potatoes and served a nice salad to go along with this meal. Perfect accompaniments to a steak dinner.

Relaxing after dinner

 Left to right we have Momma G, Mrs G, Brother G, his girlfriend (? Not quite sure if that term is being used yet) and Doc G. All in all, we had a relaxing and quiet evening with a few bottles of wine. Always nice to spend time with the family. Hope everybody had a great weekend.

3lbs of beef short ribs

      Stumbling my way around the internet I came across a recipe from She Cooks, He Cleans (not a blog I have been following, but one I’m going to look into more now) that I figured I could probably adapt to the Egg.  This is her recipe and I didn’t follow it exactly as I wasn’t using an oven, but I’ll let you know where and how I made changes.

Ingredients:

• 2-3 pounds grass-fed beef short ribs (on bones)
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper
• grass-fed beef lard
• extra-virgin olive oil
• 2 celery ribs, coarsely chopped
• 2 medium carrots, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
• 6 cloves of garlic, peeled and smashed with the side of a knife
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste
• 4-5 springs of thyme, tied together with kitchen string
• 2 cups red wine
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups beef stock

1. Preheat oven to 325F.
2. Season the ribs all over with salt and pepper.
3. Heat 1-2 tablespoons of lard in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Brown beef on all sides in batches; place browned ribs in a bowl.
4. Pour off “used” oil.  Add ~1 tablespoon of olive oil to pan and return to medium-high heat.  Add onions, celery, and carrots.  Cook until softened, stirring occasionally.
5. Add garlic, bay leaf, tomato paste, and thyme  Cook briefly (about 2 minutes), stirring constantly.  The tomato paste should begin to caramelize, sticking to the pan.
6. Add wine, beef stock, and balsamic vinegar.  Stir well.
7. Bring to a boil, then return the ribs and any accumulated liquids to the pot.  Cover and place in oven to braise for around 3 hours or until the ribs are very tender (as in falling-apart-tender). Check on them occasionally to ladle off excess fat and make sure the liquid doesn’t get too low.  You want the liquids to reduce, but not completely!
8. When the ribs are done, carefully transfer the meat to a platter.
9. Ladle off extra fat.  Remove the bay leaf and the thyme stems tied with kitchen string.  Using an immersion blender, puree the sauce.  (You can strain the sauce if you’d like a fine texture, but it is not necessary.)  Season with salt and pepper, to taste.  Return the rib meat to the sauce, reheat on the stove top, and it’s ready to serve!

      So I procured 3 lbs of short ribs from my butcher after work and let me tell you, it is good to get to know your butcher. Don’t be afraid to ask them for certain cuts of meat if you don’t see them out in the store. Mine had to go into the back and get it and cut it right there in front of me after letting me select from the beef ribs he had in stock! I seasoned them up simply with some salt and freshly ground pepper and a light sprinkling of Dizzy Pig’s Cow Lick. They then went on my grill at 350F (you are going to have the grill at 350F for the duration of the cook) to sear and absorb some smoke from cherry wood chips (instead of browning in a dutch oven. No beef lard was used obviously)

Grill short ribs a few minutes per side

      The ribs were grilled for 3 to 4 minutes per side until they browned and had a nice crust.

Grilled Short Ribs

    Once the ribs were done grilling, I removed the grate and inserted the placesetter legs up and my Lodge Cast Iron Dutch Oven to the Egg to begin heating up. After it was heated up, olive oil was added and the veggies went in.

Veggies in

      Can’t really say how long the veggies took, but cook until softened, stirring occasionally. When they are soft, add the garlic, bay leaf, tomato paste and thyme. Here I changed the recipe a tad by adding in a few sprigs of rosemary that we have growing in our yard.

Carmelizing tomato paste

      Cook briefly, stirring constantly. The tomato paste should begin to carmelize in the dutch oven. At this point, you want to deglaze the pan. I had poured all the beef stock, wine and balsamic vinegar into a measuring cup, so I used this mixture to deglaze.

Deglazing the pan

     Bring to a boil and then add the ribs back into the dutch oven. I did not add a cover at this point as I wanted it to pick up more smoke. You will want the ribs to braise for about 3 hours or until the ribs are falling apart tender.

Adding the ribs

      Check on them occasionally to make sure that the liquid does not get to low. You want it to reduce, but not completely. If needed, add more wine or beef broth. During this process, I had to remove the dutch oven and place the little green feet under the dutch oven to raise it from the direct heat of the placesetter as it begain to boil too fast (although anything you can add as a spacer of about 1/2 to 1 inch will work if you do not have the feet).

Fall off the bone tender

      When the ribs are done, remove them and transfer to a platter. Ladle off any extra fat and then remove the bay leaf and thyme and rosemary stems. She Cooks said to use an immersion blender to puree the sauce. I didn’t have one, but I do have a blender. If you try this, make sure to hold the lid down tightly with a towel since it is hot liquid.

Blending

      Season to taste with salt and pepper. We served them up on top of some creamy polenta we made using parmesan cheese and goat cheese and a side salad (not pictured).

Plated up

      This was an outstanding meal. The ribs were so tender and the flavors from the wine and vegetables was amazing. There was a background hint of smoke that you would not be able to achieve with an oven. Sure, it took a long time (over 4 hours start to finish) to prepare, but it wasn’t labor intensive, most of it was allowing it to braise for 3 hours. Mrs. G said we are going to have to make this again. Can’t get a better compliment than that.

Christine , a fellow blogger at Texanaskitchen  awarded me with The Liebster Award for being one of her top 5 favorite new blogs.  I can’t tell you how excited I was to recieve this, especially from somebody who I follow and admire so much! I was in total shock and sat stunned in front of my computer for probably 5 minutes before I was even able to respond in any type of way and share the news with Mrs. G. 

The Liebster Award originated fromGermanyand it means “favourite, beloved, dearest”.  

The rules are: 

1) Show thanks to the blogger who awarded you by linking back to her blog.

2) Pick 5 blogs with less than 200 followers and let them know about your nomination by leaving a comment on their blog, and 

3) Post the award on your blog!

I am not sure how many followers most bloggers have (and I know some of them well over 200), but I am awarding my top five to my favorite bloggers in general. I had a hard time coming up with this list, trying to find blogs that I liked who had not yet received this award, when I realized that you can get this award multiple times. So some of my picks are not first time winnners, but in fact have won this before.

My 5 nominees (in no particular order):

The Unorthodox Epicure - A fellow Texan, Adam the aspiring food snob,  whose posts are both insightful and hillarious. Always has me laughing.

Juanita’s Cocina - Another fellow Texan, Jen (OK I promise I won’t pick only Texans), whose post remind me of growing up in South Texas. I promise I will try and duplicate your tortillas.

The Posh Latin Cook - I believe Elena is a fairly new blogger with roots in both Puerto Rico and New York. Can’t wait to see more of what she comes up with.

Necessary Indulgences - Kristi over at Necessary Indulgences. Had to include a fellow Egghead (somebody who owns a Big Green Egg and is obsessed with cooking on it for those who don’t know). Not to mention her travel pictures are stunning.

Kristianne over at My San Francisco Kitchen - you had me with your Chocolate Surprise Peanut Butter Cookies. I don’t normally do much baking, but these I have to try. Also love the photography here.

Make sure to go and check out their blogs and leave them a comment letting them know what you think.. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Rainbow Trout

     I grew up in a little city down on the Texas coast called Corpus Christi. Spent most of my life there, within 10 minutes of the Gulf. I even went back for 4 or 5 years after college. And somehow, in all that time, I never learned how to fish! Seems like a shame now, especially considering how much Mrs. G and I like seafood, not that there is anywhere in Dallas to fish….at least not that I would eat. So now I just do most of my “fishing” at Central Market.

     To continue on with our healthy eating this week, Mrs. G and I both agreed that we wanted some seafood. So after work, I headed up to my “local fishing” spot to see what I could find. Salmon? No, been doing that too much lately. Tilapia? Boring. Catfish? Never been a big fan. Red snapper? Too expensive. That’s when I spotted some rainbow trout. Haven’t had that in years and the price was good. Fish looked good and didn’t have that fishy smell. Done!

Prepping the Trout

      We kept it pretty simple last night as far as seasoning. Some salt and pepper, a few slices of lemon, some thyme and a little bit of rosemary. (We grow our own rosemary BTW, and when spring rolls around I’m going to try to grow some other herbs as well as our usual peppers, but I digress). I can’t seem to leave things alone, so mine also got a sprinkling of Dizzy Pig Jamaican Firewalk. What can I say? I like a lil bit of heat.

On the BGE

      The fish went on to my Big Green Egg, which was preheated to 400 F along with some apple wood chips to give it a little smoke flavor. We also tossed in some zucchini that was seasoned up simple with some salt and pepper.

Halfway done

      Somewhere I read that you want to cook rainbow trout to about 135. Not sure if that is correct or not. I’ve also heard to cook fish until its flakey, although another source says that if its flakey, it’s already overdone. I really don’t know. We let this fish cook for about 8 to 10 minutes, flipping it halfway through, and to us it seemed done. (And I’m writing this up the following morning with no ill effects and I’m still alive, so it must have been ok, lol).

Plated Up

      Not my best plated up picture, but oh well. I’ll  blame it on still being just a little bit sick, how’s that? We served it up along with some of my wife’s rice. She’s been playing around with using different amounts of chicken stock when making the rice, so it gives it a little extra flavor, but doesn’t make it too salty. She also threw in a few sprigs of thyme. The rice turned out really good, and went well the fish. The fish was very tender and had a mild taste. It would be good for those who are just starting to eat fish, but don’t like a strong fishy flavor (that sounded really weird to me after saying it, does it make sense?). There was a hint of smoke, but could have used more. Next time, I think I will add more apple wood chips. It’s such a quick cook, that if you want a smokey flavor, I think you need to have a handful or more to start with. I probably shouldn’t have added the lil bit of Jamaican Firewalk to mine as it gave it quite a bit of heat and I think over powered the fish. Should have stuck to simple. Overall, I think it was a pretty good meal, and I think it’s going to start going into our rotation as we continue to try to eat a lil bit healthier.

Happy Friday, I hope everybody has a great weekend and get out there and fire up that grill or smoker and cook something up! Everything tastes better over a lil fire!

Knowing that I wasn’t 100% Tuesday and wanting some “healthier” meals for the week, I decided to grill up a bunch of chicken breasts. I got the idea from Kerri Tipton of DR Fitness Systems who writes a blog and one of her post called Confessions of a Power Cooker where they cook all their meals for a week on Sunday and vacuum seal them. This gives them quick and healthy options to eat all week-long rather than stopping for fast food on the way home when they are tired and don’t feel like cooking. For us, 4 chicken breasts are quite a bit of food.

I took the 4 chicken breasts and pounded them out flat so that they would cook quicker and more evenly and would not dry out on the grill. I then took my jaccard ,which is a meat tenderizer, and used it to perforate the meat hoping that in the short amount of time I had to marinate the chicken that it would get down into the chicken and make it more flavorful. Two of the chicken breasts were marinated in Zesty Italian dressing and a few teaspoons of Fiesta Fajita Seasoning and the other two were marinated in Lou Malnati’s Sweet Vinaigrette, which was a present from my secret santa on GreenEggers.

Jaccard

 I allowed the chicken to marinate until my wife got home, which I think was about 3 hours and then I tossed them onto my Big Green Egg at about 400 F. I did not use any wood for smoke this time, just going straight over the lump charcoal. The fajita chicken got some more of the seasoning sprinkled on top as it went on the grill and then later as it was flipped to give it a bit more flavor.

Grilling the Chicken Breasts

 The two on the left were the fajita chickens and the two on the left had Lou’s marinade. Not sure how long these took to cook, but not very long. And knowing that two of them would be for later on in the week and would need to be reheated, I did not want to dry them out. For that reason, I cooked them until the internal temperature reached 160, counting on them carrying over to 165 as they rested.

Wednesday Night's Dinner

 Wednesday night, we served up the remaining chicken along with some rice that Mrs. G made up (using chicken broth instead of water), some hominy and some garlic bread. I’ve never had hominy before, other than in a soup, and let me tell you…I am not really that big of a fan. The chicken was ok, nice and juicy, not dried out, but I really wasn’t digging on the Lou Malnati’s as a marinade. I thought it was way to sweet, so I dumped some of Big Al’s Hell From Texas Rub onto it to give it a bit of heat and that made a world of difference.

Not the most exciting meals of the week, but hey…I was sick. And I have managed to drop some weight since Monday when I went to the doctor. Whether that’s from being sick and the meds, or from eating less and eating better, who knows? And we still have about a cup or so of diced up chicken that we can chop up and add to a salad tonight….although something not so healthy and not so chicken sure does sound good right now….

Puff Pastry Pizza

 Last week, while looking at some blogs, I was inspired by Shugary Sweets who made a Greek Puff Pastry. I really wasn’t in the mood for a normal pizza as I had one recently, but this seemed like it was just different enough that it would work out. And since Mrs. G was still out of town, it was a perfect time to experiment some more.

Puff Pastry Sheet

 I started out with one puff pastry sheet, thawed per package directions. I cut it into thirds and then brushed it with olive oil, pressed garlic and salt and pepper.

Toppings

 Next, I added some mozzarella cheese and began to top them with some things I found in the fridge. The far one was simply done with pepperoni. I mean who doesn’t like pepperoni? The middle one received artichoke hearts, pepperoncinis and some goat cheese. The closest one got some cheddar and goat cheese.

On to the Egg

 The pastries went on to my Egg which had been pre-warmed to 400 F and was set up with the placesetter legs down, 3 spacers and then the BGE pizza stone. As you can see, I used parchment paper to ease the transfer from the tray to the Egg. After a few minutes, the pastry should begin to firm up and the paper can be slid easily from underneath.

Beginning to Rise

 About halfway through, you can see how the pastry has puffed up…well, on all but that last one. Not sure why that one wasn’t puffing like the rest of them. Maybe the toppings?

Done

 Shugary Sweet  said that hers took about 15-17 minutes to cook in her oven. Mine went more like 20 -22 minutes, so you may need to keep an eye on them to check their progress. After taking them off, they immediately began to deflate. Once again, not sure why. I haven’t worked with a lot of puff pastry, so this is all new to me. Maybe the toppings were weighing it down? That’s the best I could come up with, if you have a better idea, I’d love to hear it.

Time to Grub

 The puff pastries came out really nicely. They were delicate and flakey with a nice crisp. I think the flavor of the goat cheese paired well with the artichokes and pepperoncinis. Pepperoni is always a great topping and the cheese one would be great for kids or vegetarians. Although I don’t think I would ever make them as a meal again, they would be a perfect appetizer, especially if they were cut up into 9 pieces. I think it would be a great idea to get your guests involved.  Set out toppings and let everybody create their own.

Well, with Mrs. G out-of-town this week, I was able to cook somethin’ this past Friday that I know she would not be interested in, nor probably allow me to cook. Something I saw awhile back on TV, although I’m not sure who came up with the idea originally. Something that I doubt I will ever cook again, but at least I can say I had one and cross it off my list…..a grilled cheese burger! I don’t know about you, but growing up I could have lived on grilled cheese. And they weren’t any fancy kind of grilled cheese, just regular bread and plain ole American cheese. Loved ‘em, couldn’t get enough of them. And what kid doesn’t like a burger? So it only makes sense to combine the two, right?

I fired up my Egg, as I was going to be doing this all outside, and threw in a CI skillet to begin to pre-heat.

Making the grilled cheese first

 Trying to plan ahead, I cooked one grilled cheese first, before throwing the burger on thinking the second grilled cheese would be done be done at the same time.

Burger and second grilled cheese going

 This burger came from the batch of meat I ground up a few days before but had frozen for a later use. Starting to smell good and I was getting hungry by this point.

Plated up

 All I can say is WOW! This was one big honking, tasty burger. The grilled cheese used as buns added a unique texture to the burger and the fresh ground meat in the pattty was wonderful. Looking back, I don’t think that this burger needed two slices of cheese per grilled cheese (for a total of 4!) and I might have made the patty a tad too big. In fact, I was only able to eat half of it before throwing in the towel. While tasty, I’m not sure I would ever make this burger again, but at least now I can cross it off my list. Wonder what I should try and make next? (Don’t worry Mrs. G and Mom, I’m already planning on having a salad for dinner tonight. )