Simple Hamburgers

*Disclaimer*

-Some of my pictures are blurry.  Apparently I cannot hold super still in a kitchen that has bad lighting-

Today, my husband & I decided that we wanted hamburgers.  We're suckers for hamburgers, or I should say that my husband is a sucker for a hamburger.  Whatever restaurant we go to, if they have hamburgers, he's getting one.  Needless to say, tonight's dinner would have been just fine because we were having hamburgers.

Here's how I make mine:

• 2 lbs of hamburger meat (I think this particular kind was 85/15)

• I use these two ingredients to flavor my burgers.  2 T of the seasoning, and a couple (or 10) dashes of the liquid smoke.

• Dump them in and mix it up

• I received both of these items as presents & I really like using both of them in making patties.  The scale helps in portion control & the press makes the making of patties less messy.

• I measure out 5 ozs of meat

• And squish it into a pattie

• Out of the 2lbs, I can get 5 5ozs, & 2 5.3 oz patties

• Grill.  I like using my grill.  I kinda see it as a power tool.....and I love power tools.

• I served my hamburgers up on a bun w/condiments, pickles & lettuce.  I would have added tomatoes but, ours have not turned red yet.  Summer is almost over & we have not picked one single tomatoe yet.

• oooh, yummy

Lemon Cookies w/ a Twist

I saw this recipe when I was perusing the different craft/food blogs that I have bookmarked.  I thought they sounded good, and it gave me another recipe to use with the plentiful zucchini I have sitting on my counter.  I looked at the recipe & it looked alot like my Mom's recipe for her yummy soft chocolate chip cookies.  Friday, I tested my theory & made my Mom's dough, but instead of adding the chocolate, I added zucchini, lemon & walnuts to the mix.  They turned out spectacular.  Moist & soft just like my Mom's.  They tasted even better with a lemon glaze on top.  I took these cookies to my husbands work & they gobbled them up.  They couldn't believe that there was zucchini in them.  I made up another batch on Saturday, this time w/out nuts (so my sister could try) & more lemon zest, more zucchini & lemon juice.  Michelle (my sis) said that they were delish & she took a bunch home to share.

-One speck of zucchini-

-A cookie with nuts in it.  You can also see specks of lemon & zucchini.-

Lemon Zucchini Cookies

• 1 Cup Butter Margerine (soft)
• 1 Cup White Sugar
• 1/2 Cup Brown Sugar
• Cream these ingredients together.  To the creamed ingredients add:
• 2 Eggs
• The zest of 3 Lemons
• 1-1 1/2 Cups of shredded Zucchini
• 2 T of Lemon Juice
• Mix these ingredients together, so everything's incorporated.  To the mix add:
• 1/4 t Salt
• 1 t Baking Soda
• 2 1/2-3 Cups of Flour
• 1 Cup of chopped Walnuts (optional)
• Mix everything together.  You want to add enough flour to make a semi stiff dough.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Bake cookies for 12- 14 minutes or until they're golden yellow.  Let them cool for a couple of minutes before you put them on a wire rack.  After they cool for a while coat them in a lemon glaze.  I basically took a bowl big enough to dunk the cookies, and too that added 1/4 cup of powdered sugar & 2 T of Lemon juice (from the lemons I zested), mixed it together & then dunked the cookies.  I kept doing this until all the cookies were coated.  If you have restraint you can let the glaze on the cookies harden & then eat, or you can just eat them then.

Enjoy!

First Day of Kindergarten Photo

I seriously love my camera.  I'm loving it even more as I discover all of it's creative possibilities.  With this picture, this is what I did:

*Changed the White Balance to Shade

*Set the ISO to 400

*had my son smile & look at the camera (probably the hardest part)

*When I downloaded the picture to edit, I upped the saturation just a little bit to give the picture that little extra color

New Blog

So I wanted a place just for my creativity; a place where I could share my cooking, crafts & other creative adventures.

Enjoy!