Summer Grilling

So after a month-long hiatus, I'm back with several updates. This post I have two burger dishes. This first one is cooked on the new grill KJC got when she moved into a new apartment. It works quite well, even giving the burgers and veggies some nice grill marks. A charcoal or gas grill is preferable but for apartment living this is not too bad. Well this meal was just simple beef burgers plus the sides of squash and zucchini. I coated the veggies in olive oil and salt and pepper. Very simple yet delicious.




This next meal also involved burgers but probably the best part is the side dish of potatoes. I cooked the potatoes two ways. The first is hash browns with parmesan cheese and parsley. I simply diced then boiled the potatoes and then browned them in a pan with a bit of oil. When they were close to being done, I added the cheese, parsley, pepper and salt. For the second preparation, I thinly sliced the potatoes, coated in olive oil and then grilled. They had great texture and tasted like a cross between potato chips and french fries. I served the potatoes with a burger and green beans. Not a great picture of the potatoes but you get the idea.

Buffalo Burgers

We decided to do the classic burger and fries with a few minor twists - namely buffalo meat instead of beef or turkey. Of course with no outdoor grill, the bulk of the cooking unfortunately had to be done on a grill pan. Also because we decided to do sweet potato fries, the apartment really heated up as they were roasting in the oven.

Anyway, I microwaved two sweet potatoes for about 4 minutes to get the cooking process started. Then I thinly sliced the potatoes and coated them in olive oil before placing on the sheet pan. I roasted them for about 25 minutes at 350 (flipping them when they are crisp on one side). Next time, I would slice the potatoes a little thicker (about 1/2 inch). Also microwaving them before didn't help as much as I thought it would. I would likely not do that step again or would do it for a bit longer. While the fries were roasting, I blanched the trimmed green beans in boiling salted water.

After the potatoes were in the oven about 15 minutes, I threw the buffalo burgers on the grill pan. I seasoned them generously with salt and pepper. I also put some olive oil on the burgers because they are so lean and can dry out. Once the burgers were done I simply dry grilled the green beans - no oil or butter.

Lettuce, tomato, onion and cheddar cheese on the buffalo burger. Salt and pepper on the fries and the green beans. While everything was good, I think the green beans were my favorite. Very simple and light.