What's for Dinner?

I dunno Boone. My wife LOVES Tyler Florence. Pretty sure she would leave me for him in a heartbeat. If I start grilling his stuff and it's as good as you say, that may be all it takes for her to hunt him down...
 
Went to one of Houston's nationally acclaimed new restaurants last night, Underbelly. It was very good, but I wasn't as impressed as I thought I would be. There were some phenomenal dishes, and some only so-so dishes. With that kind of hype, I expect every last dish to blow me away, similar to the way Uchi (sushi joint) did. The pork chop was very close to perfection, if it had not been flirting with the line of overcookedness. The desert was amazeballs though - caramel popcorn pot de creme with fried pretzels and vanilla ice cream. Wowsers!
 
I hate the fact that when you're putting together your own handburger patties and eyeballing the spices and flavorings, rather than following a recipe, that you can't sample taste the raw beef, to make sure you're not putting too much or too little spices
 
I've been making burger's a long time...one thing I've recently altered in my approach? I was raised to smack patties together aggressively so that they would stay together on the grill. But I think one of the keys to a really great burger is to put them together loosely, preserving as much of the individual 'ground beef threads' as possible. In other words, pack the patty as loosely as you possibly can and yet keep the patty together when cooking on the grill. The difference in the final product is pretty dramatic.

As far as tasting the mix, no answer there, although in my experience, its tough to dramatically impact the final taste of the patties based on 'additions'. Hamburgers are pretty forgiving. I think the late additions (like cheese, toppings, sauces) at the end of preparation have a lot more to do with flavor than anything you add to the meat itself. That's another thing I've shifted on...I'll still add some things to the meat mixture, but I don't go overboard on that front.
 
My burgers have garnered a lot of local praise. I use meat with a high fat content (up to 15%), grab a practiced handful, and squish it into a patty. It ends up irregular in shape, under-handled, and delicious with crusty parts while being properly cooked overall.

Less is always more with a great burger.
 
Smorgasbord of cheeseburger, egg roll, Chili Mac, and rice. Couldn't make up my mind in line.
 
I hate all of you.

(got that out of the way today, good)

A sailor sandwich is pastrami and swiss with beef franks and hot deli mustard on rye. Ridiculously good. Look for it in good delis. Anyway, not very hard to make, and really really good. That's my weekly allotment of bread, so very worth it.

Oh, and I hate all of you. Especially Chris.
 
Tonight is burgers, homemade potato salad (made with egg and bacon), and corn on the cob with Breaking Bad as dessert.
 
You should run a class. In college, I took Math 103, the Nature of Mathematics (Math for You and Your Dog) - you could teach Meth for You and Your Dog. Huge moneymaker.
 
Homemade sliders w/ a red velvet fudge cake for dessert
 
A little while ago I found a new supplier for jumbo lump crabmeat. I made some cakes with it and they were fantastic, better than any I've ever had outside of the DMV and ones I had in Seattle.

The meat-

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The mix-

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The cake-

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Wow - those look fantastic Chris!
 
Boone said:
Wow - those look fantastic Chris!
Click to expand...

They really are. I have to have them once a month at a minimum. I enjoy them with my homemade chipotle remoulade.

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Some very serious yum!
 
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