Ranch Burgers

I make these all the time. I'm not really sure why it never occurred to me to blog about them.

I got this recipe from my friend Lauren. Many of you know her as StarryBugg. It's a Hidden Valley recipe.



Ranch Burgers
2 lbs ground beef or turkey
1 to 2 Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing & Seasoning Packets
2 C shredded cheddar cheese
8 hamburger buns
Your favorite burger toppings

This time I used beef, but these are equally delicious with turkey!


Add dressing mix.


Add shredded cheese.


Mix it up.


Make patties


It's grillin' time!




Even though these are stuffed with cheese... we add more!


Top with your favorite burger toppings.

You can change up the shredded cheese to whatever kind you like.

I LOVE these made with ground turkey.

Perfect for tailgating & cookouts!

If you haven't tried them yet, you're missing out!

Morgan's Veggie Patties

Every once in a while it occurs to me to make a meatless meal. I'd like to do it once or twice a week, but in actuality it only happens more like once or twice a month.

I saw Guy Fieri make these on Guy's Big Bite and they looked wicked tasty, so I decided to give them a try! Plus when I looked up the recipe online, it had a 5-star rating with 85 reviews. Looks like a winner!



Morgan's Veggie Patties (slightly adapted)
2 oz olive oil
3 TBLS diced red onion
2 TBLS diced black olives
2 TBLS diced red bell peppers
1 tsp diced jalapeno
1 1/2 TBLS diced garlic
1 TBLS diced artichoke
4 oz black beans, drained
4 oz chickpeas, drained
4 oz white beans, drained
6 oz rolled oats
1/2 tsp Hungarian paprika
1/2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp dried oregano
1 TBLS minced fresh parsley leaves
1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/4 tsp ground sage
2 TBLS seasoned bread crumbs
1 egg

In a medium saute pan over medium heat, add 1-ounce olive oil and all raw veggies except beans. Saute until translucent. Remove and cool.

In a large bowl, partial mash beans.

Add veggies to beans and mix thoroughly. Add all dry ingredients along with the egg. Thoroughly mix all ingredients and form into 4 patties, cover and refrigerate for 30 minutes.

In saute pan add 1-ounce olive oil, and cook patties 2 to 3 minutes per side.

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Saute all raw veggies except beans, in olive oil, until translucent. Then cool.


In a large bowl, partially mash beans.


Add veggies to beans & mix well.


Add all dry ingredients and mix well.


Form into 4 patties & refrigerate for 30 minutes.

(I doubled this so I had less leftover beans, that's why I have 8 portions)

Cook 2 - 3 minutes per side in hot, oiled skillet.




Garnish as desired & enjoy!


These were great on whole wheat buns, but would also be great in a pita or on a bed of greens!

I'm also submitting this for Meatless Monday! and

FriscoMelts!

Hey long time no see!

I've been off being lazy and totally addicted to Cafe World on Facebook. Not a lot of actual cooking, no blogging, not blog reading, just playing Cafe World!

But I'm back... still addicted to Cafe World, but also finally doing some actual cooking too!

Way back before Thanksgiving I made Eggnog French Toast. Remember that? It was wicked good!

Anyway... when I made that, I bought a big loaf of Texas Toast bread, but only used about half of it.

I asked Jon if he had any suggestions on what to do with the rest. He said I should make Frisco Melts, ya know... like they have at Steak & Shake. It was really weird, because I was kinda thinking the same thing. It was weird because Frisco Melts are on regular sourdough bread... not big thick square white bread. So it was a little odd that we both had the same thought. But obviously if we both had the same thought, Frisco Melts had been destined to be in our future.

So the first thing I had to do was find a recipe for that awesome sauce on the Frisco Melts.

Online I found that there are mainly 3 variations of it. So I made all three to decide which one we liked best. However, we were split, but one was a definite NO.



Sauce #1 (top of picture)
2 parts thousand island dressing
1 part french dressing

Sauce #2 (on left)
2 parts thousand island
1 part ketchup

Sauce #3 (on right)
1/4 C mayo
1 TBLS + 1 tsp ketchup
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pickle relish



I'll just tell you right now, Sauce #3 was definitely NOT it.

Tawny and I thought that Sauce #1 was right on. Jon thought Sauce #2 tasted more like the actual sauce. So, Sauce #3 got scraped into the trash and I just used both sauces. Tawny, Lilly & I had #1 and Jon had #2. Bob had no interest in a Frisco Melt and fended for himself that night. (or FFY as we call it in our house!)

These are insanely easy to make.

Frisco Melts at Home
Ground beef
Texas toast, 2 pieces per sandwich
American cheese, 2 slices per sandwich
Swiss cheese, 1 slice per sandwich
Butter
Frisco Sauce of your choice (seriously #1 is the best!)

The hardest part is making the burgers thin enough. Those are really skinny patties.

Just plain old ground beef (ok, not old)

(Yikes... sorry that's fuzzy!)

You need to make two skinny patties for each sandwich that you're making

Fry 'em up.


While those are cooking, lightly butter both side of all of the pieces of bread and toast them in a skillet.

Oh and be sure your skillet isn't too hot, you want all of the cheese to melt, without burning the bread.



When first side is toasted to golden brown turn them over.


(Pictures here change from making two sandwiches to making one, because these came out better!)

Spread the sauce of your choice on the toasted side.


Cover the sauce with a slice of American Cheese


Now place a cooked hamburger patty on one of the toasts.


Cover the hamburger patty with a slice of Swiss cheese.


Top the Swiss cheese with another hamburger patty.


Then flip the other toast on top of the last patty (cheese side in)


It's not very pretty... but it tasted perfect!


You can see that little layer of Swiss in the middle!


These were great!

I just made them again a couple days ago. I decided that I'd use sourdough bread this time, to make them even more like the original. But I have to say, the Texas toast stands up to this sandwich much better than regular sourdough.

Also Bob had a friend over, so I had him taste both sauces and he agreed that #1 tasted most like Steak & Shake!

If you love Patty Melts... you definitely need to try this!

White Castle Style Sliders

I was looking for fun easy dinner ideas and thought sliders might be fun.

They remind me of the old-timey drive-in style places. I don't know why; since I've never been to one!

I decided I wanted to make White Castle style sliders... even though I've never had a White Castle burger... or even seen a White Castle. I guess my only experience with White Castle is watching Harold and Kumar go to White Castle on TV. I'm not sure that counts. But, if people would really go to that much trouble for White Castle Burgers, they must be good right?

So I started looking around the interwebs and found Robin Sue's White Castle Like Sliders: A How To over at Big Red Kitchen.

They looked wicked easy and so tasty!



White Castle Style Sliders (slightly modified)
1/2 C dehydrated onion flakes
2 lbs ground chuck (80/20 ground beef)
seasoned salt
6 slices cheddar cheese
24 dinner rolls
24 dill pickle slices (I omitted these)

Preheat oven to 400F.
Sprinkle dehydrated onions evenly into a 13x9 baking dish. Then press ground chuck over onions and sprinkle with seasoned salt.
Bake for 20 minutes. Remove from oven. Blot up grease on top of burger with paper towels. Cover giant burger with cheddar cheese slices. Then pop it back into the oven for a couple minutes, just to melt the cheese.
Cut into 24 pieces and serve in dinner rolls, be sure to scoop up some of the yummy onions with each slider.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Sounds pretty easy right?

It totally is!

Sprinkle the onions into the baking dish.


This turned out to be just about how much was in a full bottle.

I typically use leaner beef than this, but for this recipe, you need the extra fat to rehydrate the onions.


Evenly cover the onions with the ground chuck.


Then sprinkle with your favorite seasoned salt.

No surprise I'm sure, Penzey's Smoky 4/S for me.


Then toss it into a preheated oven for 20 minutes.


Ok... that comes out wicked greasy. So you definitely have to sop up all the grease from the top with paper towels.


Now cover the top with 6 slices of cheese.

Lilly's not a cheese fan, so I only used 5 slices.


Pop it back into the oven to melt the cheese.

Get your rolls ready.


After the cheese is melty (5 minutes or so) take it back out of the oven and cut it into 24 even pieces.


Now start topping all of the prepared buns.

Be sure to get some of the onions on the bottom with each slider.


If you're adding pickle slices, this is the time.

I'm not opposed to pickles, but half of the family is. It's just easier for me to skip this step.


That's it!


These were really fun to make and fun to eat!

I served them with Chili Cheese Fries.

These would be great for watching the game, or if you have a bunch of your friends over, or a bunch of your kids' friends, or just a quick fun dinner!

Thanks for posting your recipe Robin Sue!

I'll definitely be making these again!