Sliders

Serves 4


A jar of homemade pickles


Why wait until summer to eat hamburgers? The ingredients, pictured above from left to right, are: a bag of lettuce/salad greens, fingerling potatoes, 2 red onions, and large rolls or really really small hamburger buns.

Ingredients:
1-1/2 lbs. fingerling potatoes
1 lb. ground beef
2 t salt
2 t pepper
2 red onions
1/3 lb. delicious cheese, like Muenster
1 head of lettuce or 1 bag of salad greens
Pickles of your choice
Mayonnaise

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

2. Put the fingerling potatoes in a baking pan. Once the oven comes up to temperature, roast the potatoes for 20 to 25 minutes, until golden brown and delicious.


3. Combine the ground beef with the salt, pepper, and egg. Do mix it too much, or the burgers won't be as delicious.

4. Preheat a large skillet or grill pan over medium high heat. Gently form the meat into patties that are slightly larger than the buns you're using. Press a small indent into the center, so that each patty looks like a hockey puck. This will keep the burgers flat while they cook. Put 1 T of vegetable oil in the pan, and cook the burgers for about 3 minutes per side, flipping once. Don't press down on the patties with a spatula while they're cooking: it makes a nice sizzling sound, but that's just the juice running out of the patties. And if the juice is in the pan, it's not in the patties.

5. As you flip the burger, put a piece of the cheese on each patty.

3. Meanwhile, slice the red onions. Saute them in a medium skillet over medium high heat for about 4 minutes.


4. Once the patties are done, toast the buns. The patties should rest for 2 to 3 minutes before you assemble the burgers, so it's a perfect time for bun warming.

5. Assemble the burgers as follows: Bottom bun, lettuce, burger patty, a small bit of red onion, a pickle slice, mayonnaice, top bun. EAT.

Mason's Macaroni and Cheese

Ingredients:
1 lb. small pasta, like penne, gemelli, or corkscrew
3 T butter
3 T flour
3 cups whole milk
1 1/2 cups shredded extra sharp cheddar
1 1/2 cups shredded mild cheddar
1 cup shredded mozarella
2 T mustard
3/4 cup panko bread crumbs

Method:
0. Preheat the oven to 375 if eating immediately.
1. Cook the pasta in a large pot of salted water. Drain the pasta back into the same pot.
2. Once you add the pasta to the water, melt the butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add the flour, and whisk to combine. Let the butter and flour, now a roux, cook for 3 minutes, stirring every 30 to 60 seconds.
3. Get ready to whisk. Add the milk 3/4 cup at a time, whisking constantly, waiting for the milk to get hot before adding more. Once all the milk is in, cook the mixture for about 5 to 7 minutes, until the milk has reduced/condensed a little.
4. Add the 2 1/2 cups of the cheese to the milk, 1 handful at a time, stirring (not whisking) very often. Wait until the cheese melts before adding more.
5. Meanwhile, grease a 9 x 13 baking pan with butter or oil.
6. When the cheese is totally combined from the milk, take the saucepan off the heat.
7. In the large pot that you cooked the pasta in, pour the cheese sauce over the pasta and stir to combine. Pour this into the greased baking pan. Sprinkle the reserved cheese and panko bread crumbs over the top.
8. Loosely tent foil over the pan of macaroni and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil, switch the broiler on, and cook the top for 5 to 15 minutes: however long it takes to become golden brown and delicious.
9. Remove from the oven and wait 5 to 10 minutes before eating. If you don't wait, the macaroni will not have time to set and will flop all over the place when you try to get it out of the pan. Waiting is critical! After you patiently wait, eat!



With some steak and greenery:

Breakfast Tacos

This morning, I wanted tacos and I wanted breakfast. These breakfast tacos were what I came up with.

Makes 4 tacos

Ingredients:
- 8 small corn tortillas
- 4 eggs
- 4 slices bacon
- 1/4 cup sour cream
- Sweet and spicy salsa (I used Sweet Jalapeno dressing)
- Sliced cheese (I used Jarlsberg, but most anything would be fine)

Method:

1. Fry the bacon to whatever level of done-ness you like (I like it crispy!)
   
   
2. When the bacon is almost done (about 4 minutes away), fry the eggs. Put 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil in a pan, and let it get hot over medium high heat. Crack the eggs into the pan, trying to keep the egg together. It will spread out, but do the best you can. Cook the eggs for 2 to 3 minutes, until the whites are almost all the way solid and the yolk is starting to cook on the top. Don't cook the eggs all the way in the pan because they will continue to cook even when they're off the heat.
   
3. After you take the eggs out of the pan, heat up the tortillas in the same pan. Stack the tortillas on top of each other, and put them in the hot pan, flipping once after about a minute.

Assemble the tacos:

1. Take two tortillas, stacked on top of each other.
   
2. Put in one fried egg, and one piece of bacon (break it into two pieces).
   
3. Top the bacon with the cheese, salsa, and sour cream.
   

Enjoy!

Above: Breakfast tacos!
Below: Close-up of the finished product.

Shepherd's Pie

I created this version of Shepherd's Pie with the intention of making it on the weekend and reheating it during the week. But, it smelled too good, and I couldn't wait to eat it!

Ingredients:

- 4 large Russet or Idaho potatoes
- 3 T olive oil
- 1 1/2 lbs. ground beef or stew beef chunks
- 1 large onion
- 3 large carrots
- 3 celery stalks
- 4 large cloves garlic
- 3 T flour
- 3 T butter
- 2/3 cup shredded cheese
- Salt and pepper to taste

Method:

1. Peel and cut potatoes. Put them in a large pot of cold water. (Yes, cold water. Starting the potatoes in cold water allows them to cook more evenly). Put the water and potatoes on the stove to boil.
   
2. Start a large saucepan over medium high heat with 1 T of the olive oil. Once it's hot, add the ground beef. Cook until heated all the way through (no pink remains).
   
   
3. Meanwhile, cut the onion, carrots, garlic, and celery. Reserve on a plate.
   
4. Once the beef is browned, remove the beef to a plate, but leave the remaining oil and beef juice in the saucepan.
   
5. Add the veggies to the saucepan, cooking for 7 to 10 minutes until the veggies are softened.
   
   
   
6. Once the veggies are cooked, sprinkle the flour on top of the veggies. Heat and stir until the flour has been thoroughly mixed with the remaining liquid.
   
7. Add 1 cup of room temperature water to the pot. Stir, until the flour and water have combined. Add 1 more cup of water and stir.
   
   
   
8. Heat the water, beef, and veggies until the water starts to slow boil.
   
   
9. Meanwhile, drain and mash the potatoes. Stir in the butter, 1/4 cup of the shredded cheese, and salt and pepper to taste.
   
   
   
10. Put the beef mixture into a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan. Spoon the mashed potatoes on top of the beef. Spread the potatoes into a layer with a greased spatula.
    
    
11. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the pie.
    
    
12. Put a piece of foil on top of the pie, tenting it so that it does not touch the cheese.
    
13. Put the pie into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes, or until the remaining liquid has been absorbed into the pie.
    
14. Once the liquid is absorbed, or you're ready to eat, switch the broiler on, remove the foil from the pie, and brown the cheese. Keep a close watch on this. You can pop open the over to watch once the broiler gets hot.
    
15. Remove the pie from the oven, and let it rest for 5 to 10 minutes. Once the pie has rested, enjoy!