Ode to Barbecue Burgers (3 burger recipes)

I’m writing this posting on Halloween, but it’s not about candy. The weather is getting cooler and I’m pining for barbecue.

All summer long we have frequent potluck barbecues with our friends. Because we’re all foodies, these affairs offer way better fare than hot dogs and corn on the cob.

Our last group barbecue was on Labor Day. Since we had just come back from vacation, money was tight. So I decided my contribution would be burgers—but I couldn’t just slap together some chop meat and throw it on the grill. My rep was on the line.

Instead, I decided to make different kinds of sliders, which are just smaller burgers. I went online to find recipes (which I do often), and here’s what I made.

For my next-door neighbor Karin, who doesn’t eat beef, I made…

GRILLED TURKEY TERIYAKI BURGERS WITH GRILLED PINEAPPLE
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1739,157191-242195,00.html

Ingredients:
2 lbs. ground turkey
1 egg
1/2 c. breadcrumbs
1/2 c. chopped green pepper
1/2 c. chopped onion
1/2 c. teriyaki sauce (my favorite is Soy Vey Veri Veri Teriyaki sauce)
1 cored pineapple sliced into rings

What to do:
1. Pre-heat the grill to medium high and lightly oil the grate
Mix together the ground turkey, egg, breadcrumbs, chopped green pepper, onion and teriyaki sauce. Form them into patties.
2. Barbecue each pineapple ring until there are grill lines on both. Make sure they’re not burned. Set them aside.
3. Now grill the burgers until thoroughly done.
4. Place a burger on a bun, and then a pineapple ring on the burger.
5. Serve and accept your accolades.


For the carnivores in my yard, I made…

BLUE STUFFED BUFFALO BURGERS
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Blue-Stuffed-Buffalo-Burger/Detail.aspx

Ingredients:
2 pounds ground buffalo chop meat
2 teaspoons salt
Ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
8 whole wheat hamburger buns, split and toasted
1/2 cup mayonnaise
8 leaves Bibb lettuce
1/2 red onion, cut in 1/2-inch slices
8 slices tomato

What to do:
1. Pre-heat the grill to medium-high and lightly oil the grate.
2. Season the ground buffalo with salt and pepper; form into 8 balls. Press a cavity in each ball with your thumb pressing halfway into each ball; place a tablespoon of blue cheese into the hole and seal the meat around the cheese. Press each ball into a patty shape.
3. Cook the burgers on the preheated grill, 4 to 6 minutes per side for well done. An instant-read thermometer inserted into the center should read 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).
4. Toast the buns and, when they’ve cooled a bit, spread them with mayonnaise. Place a burger patty onto each bun bottom, then place a lettuce leaf, onion rings, and tomato slice onto each sandwich. Top with the remaining buns to serve.


Our good friends Elizabeth and Doug love food with a kick. For them I made…

CHIPOTLE BURGERS
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/printerfriendly/Chipotle-Burgers-232484

Ingredients:
2 tablespoons canned chipotle chiles in adobo, including sauce
1 lb ground beef chuck
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 teaspoon salt
4 English muffins or hamburger buns

What to do:
1. Pre-heat the grill to medium-high and lightly oil the grate.
2. Open any whole chipotles and discard seeds, then mince chipotles
3. Mix chipotles (with sauce), beef, onion, and salt with your hands, then form mixture into patties.
4. Grill burgers, turning over once, 4 minutes total for medium-rare.
5. Grill English muffins/buns.
6. Serve burgers in English muffins.

Grandma Sylvia Goes Bananas: Cranberry-Banana Relish Recipe

My grandmother Sylvia was a great Jewish-style cook. As I fill this blog with content, you will read a lot about her, as well as the other wonderful cooks who are family and friends.

What brought my grandmother to mind at this very moment was the over-ripe banana I just ate.

They're mushy and too sweet (which is why I like them). The problem is what to do with bananas when they get this way. You don't want to throw them out. And they're a mess to eat.

Grandma Sylvia figured out a solution.

1. Peel an over-ripe banana and put it into a ricer. Then add a can of jellied cranberry sauce.

2. Turn the handle to mix the two into a jelly and serve.

Easy, capeasy.

Grandma used this for desert. I put it on the Thanksgiving table next to the the turkey.

Do you have any quick-fix recipes like this you'd like to share? Post them here for all five of my followers to read. (And please share my blog's URL so I can get more readers.)

Small plates. Big tastes. Review: Peniche Tapas in White Plains

Remember the episode of “I Love Lucy” where the four friends went to dinner, and after someone placed their order Lucy changed her mind? I’m like that.

I always have a hard time picking what to order from a menu because everything looks too good. (I feel sorry for the waiters who serve me.)

That’s why I love Tapas—you don’t have to pick one dish. You can have many. Even better, when you go with lots of people, making our selections is a group activity—and you can debate the merits of all the flavors.

Last night Terri and I went to dinner with our favorite dining-out group—Judy and Lew, and Leslie and Ed. (Elane and Fred couldn’t make it, because Elane wasn’t feeling well).

We went to Peniche Tapas in White Plains. Our second group visit to Peniche was even better than the first.

We had several small plates, each with intense flavors concentrated into bite-size portions. Everything was shared. And everything was debated. The more wine we had, the louder (and funnier) the debates got.

We started with a Tortilla Espanola—a slice of potato pie with a bacon-like essence baked in, and a swirl of aioli on top.

Next up, Romeo & Juliet flatbread—quince marmalade atop a freshly baked flatbread, with Manchego cheese melted on top. This was my favorite dish of the night.

We had an endive salad with goat cheese. In my book, you can’t visit a Spanish restaurant without ordering Serrano Ham and a cheese plate.

The waiter insisted we try their evening special bbq beef, which came with a jicama cole slaw, and he was right to have forced us to order it.

The hit of the evening was a sweet potato and pecan dish called Calabaza. It had a maple syrup glaze that was so delicious I could’ve dove into the dish after it was done. We ordered a second helping.

In the real world, I'm a marketer. So anytime I experience good customer service I become enamored of the brand. After we swore we couldn't eat or drink anymore, the waiter walked over with what looked like a giant glass gravy separator. In fact, it was a large decanter with a tapering spout coming from the bottom of the bulb. Inside was a red liquid that the waiter told us was a Spanish champagne.

One by one our waiter made us tilt our head backward as he held a napkin under our chin and poured into our mouths a swig of this delicious bubbly nectar. Then he left the bottle (or is it a decanter?) on the table for us to finish. No one quite got the hang of how to pour the champagne. On the positive side, no one got red champagne on their clothes.

Three hours and multiple dishes later, our wonderful meal came to end. But the memory of the flavors linger.

Do you have a favorite Tapas?

The Neurotic Gourmet. We feed because we love.

This is my blog. It’s about food. The food I make. The food we eat. The food we talk about. The restaurants we eat at. The people who cook for us—or who share their recipes with us.

I love food. My family loves food. My friends love food. In my opinion, food equals love, and that’s where the tagline for this blog comes from.

This is a cook’s blog, not a chef’s blog. Some recipes and ideas will be from scratch—I promise they won’t be too difficult. Others will be shortcuts to quick, delicious food. After all, we’re all busy all the time, and cooking isn’t always the top priority.

Because I have high cholesterol and I love working out, I try to make healthy food. But, there are times when I’d rather eat something a little fattier and then run an additional 10 minutes on the treadmill. For me, the good food is worth the extra effort.

No one taught me how to cook: I grew up with a loving mother who was very good at opening cans of vegetables to serve with pan-friend steak. Remember TV dinners? We had them every Friday. Now my mother lives in Florida and goes out to eat for every meal—or eats leftovers. I, on the other hand, spend much of my free time with food. Because I believe with just a little effort and some loving care, anyone can make delicious meals.