What's For Dinner #77 - the "Let's Start Anew" Edition - January 2022

Blargh. :pensive:

You’re smart to be cautious about potential food sources. Our current house doesn’t have a garage so I’m familiar with rodents seeking out engine compartments of vehicles. And a mechanic once told me that he once removed 5 pounds of dog kibble that a mouse stashed away in someone’s car. Both the vehicle and the dog’s food supply were kept in the person’s garage.

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We don’t have a garage either - only a carport. And our mechanic told us that all of the tubing was changed by the manufacturers a number of years ago from rubber (I think?) to a somewhat more biodegradable material that happens to also taste sweet to critters that nibble it! Unintended consequences!!

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I briefly googled what makes a smashburger and it seems like first you just put the ball of meat on a flat-top and after it sits a while, you smash it down. I’m curious what is the function of that, rather than just flatten the patty nice and thin before putting it on the grill. That would be easier if one has a pan and not a flat cook surface. Do you know or might you ask bf?

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for one thing, there are two patties, and smashed pretty flat. i believe it’s to get a lot of surface area crustiness. and i think he originally flattens them thin before putting in the pan, and then again while they’re in the pan. ours are done on the stove top, as we don’t have access to a grill. i can ask him later.

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That is STUNNING!!!

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New February edition is here - sorry for the delay!

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Those look great, but i share in the BF’s chagrin :grinning_face_with_smiling_eyes:

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It was so tempting to fry. But we’ve been good at hitting the gym the last two months and have lost some weight, so I have been really pushing to bake/air fry more. I won’t give up my nightly liquid calorie intake, so gotta save somewhere!

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My turn to thank you for some inspiration. Made this for the BF tonight:

Stuffed my own little Goya olives with some leftover capers. Since he loves salty/briney, he enjoyed. I didn’t try one, though.

Thanks for that!

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Precisely. These patties immediately shrink when hitting the hot pan. The thinner you can make them before cooking, the better shape retention they have. My method, back some 40 years, was to roll them to quarter inch thickness between sheets of wax paper, forming thin 6" patties, then carefully transferring them onto hot griddle/cast iron pan, immediately releasing them with a spatula, reflattening, flipping, done.

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A post was merged into an existing topic: What’s for Dinner #78 - The Hearts, Candy, Flowers & Slushy Snow Edition - February 2022

Moved to Feb thread

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My pleasure. And yeah they are definitely salty/briney.

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You’ll never look back. (But they’re not capers.)

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Interesting!

One of my favorite restaurants (and not only because it’s very close to our cabin) is the Peekamoose in Big Indian, NY. Their signature martini is garnished with caper berries. It’s also made with vodka, which I sub out for gin. Another fave of mine is the tomolive, a pickled green grape tomato. The first place I had those was in the Temple Bar on Lafayette St. in Manhattan (which closed, and then recently opened, but I’m not going back 'cause it doesn’t seem the same). They served an Old South martini. Here, let me fill up your pantry with this stuff:

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I always try to make the thinnest patties on earth for my burgers. I like them so much better than the thick ones.

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I like both, fat ones are good for a good medium rare.

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Here’s what I was readlast week.

From ATK

And

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Thank you for this info! And I have friends that swear by Tomolives.

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