yes, so good. I’m not into 1000 island but I believe that sauce is part of most patty melts!

Buns: I can support other standard rolls but I have a major issue with the "fancy" roll movement. No pretzel rolls, no brioche.
Cheese: I've tried them all. I understand the appeal of a black and bleu burger. I understand using a bulkie roll, kaiser roll, or whatever roll you want. Just not my preference. I also agree that cheeses pair beautifully with beef, I don't agree that they pair well with a burger. I'd rather have a steak with a nice bleu on top.
Toppings: I actually forgot about lettuce. I am in favor of a nice shredded iceberg but a full leaf just gets limp and actually hinders the construction and eating in most cases. Burger sauce is great.

I did say it was a terrible take.

As to patty melts: Do whatever you want. I get mine piled with onions. Different sandwich entirely.

A donut makes a great bun...seriously.
I can hear you all screaming all the way from here. :D

Eh. I said it was my terrible take. Y'all do whatever you want.

Only at the State Fair! But, yes, at the State Fair.

lol
i had 1 donut in June as a guest and overall haven’t bought a donut since March 2020. Eek. I crave some.

We love Plenty and Plenty More. So many great vegetarian dishes. The eggplant dish on the cover of Plenty was the first of his dishes we ever cooked and had us hooked right away.

LOL, one of my local restaurants does a burger with a glazed donut as a bun. I've never tried it, but it seems to be popular as it has been on their menu for years, even through menu revamps.

It is surprisingly very good although hard to eat without it falling apart. Something about the sweet with the savory.

enjoy!!! I’m just not ready for it. I don’t even care for fried chicken with waffles or Chinese sweet noodles.

I'm sure it is very good, but it just doesn't appeal to me.

Yes, they are. The burger designation is based on the meat patty, not the bread. Great example to prove my point. The bread and cheese don't matter much as long as you have a nice ground beef patty in the middle. I generally agree with the other poster that you don't want so many other toppings that you can't really taste the burger though. I suppose a patty melt comes dangerously close to that point.

I need guidance for cooking this below pasta dish. How would I do the spinach and peas part? I assume I start by slowly cooking the tomatoes in olive oil until they break down, like a cherry tomato pasta.

Summer Cavatelli Pasta 24 (Vegetarian)
Hand-cut Pasta, Spinach, Peas, Roasted Tomatoes,“Marin County Farms” Goat Cheese

Are you trying to duplicate something from a restaurant without a recipe?
I roast tomatoes all the time in the toaster oven. I cut cherry or grape tomatoes in half,spread out on a foil lined tray with olive oil and bits of garlic, S & P. and roast for maybe 20-30 minutes at a low temp...maybe 300? I also put in dried oregano because this is what i use for my pizza sauce. Baby spinach (maybe chop a little bit) will wilt down when tossed with the hot pasta. If you want it more cooked you can blanch it first but I wouldn't bother with the extra step. Just toss in frozen peas at the end--no precooking necessary. Goat cheese will also melt with the hot pasta. Sounds good!
I would just use dried pasta...

yes - restaurant entree... I’ve bought fresh vine tomatoes and frozen chopped spinach & peas. Should I just let the spinach & pasta thaw from freezer? I bought the goat cheese as a 4-Oz log so will spoon out some small chunks with the pasta.
thank you for the guidance.

The frozen spinach is full of water and it takes quite a bit to dry it off--frozen is better used in things like spinach dip or casserole type things. I think you will like the dish much better if you just buy a bag of baby spinach (already washed). I have not used frozen pasta so I don't know what the package says but it might say to cook from frozen. Be sure to save some of the pasta cooking liquid--do not drain it all ( i just scoop out a cup or so before I drain it). You might need to add it in at the end of the dish to make it more saucy . I only see a problem with getting the spinach dry enough plus I think frozen sometimes has an off taste. Yes, small chunks with the hot pasta and as it melts it will form a sauce. Add back little by little some of the reserved pasta water until it is the desired consistency. Be sure to post a photo!
I use melted goat cheese as a sauce for sauteed chicken breasts. It is so tangy and versatile.

Thanks! I definitely don’t drain the pasta water until after supper, in case I need to make more pasta. Most of my people really can’t believe that I ladle / scoop pasta out of the pot since most of us learned to remove the pasta by pouring it all out over a colander.

anyway turns out my spouse doesn’t even like spinach so wants no spinach and more goat cheese in the future. Lol. I enjoyed the dish although next time I’ll use more tomatoes :-)

Watch cooking shows or chefs on TV...they all reserve the starchy water to thicken the sauce. I don't know who your people are. Lol. If it is a long pasta like linguine i usually just use tongs to add it to the sauce in the pan so i don't drain in a colander at all. Of course if you are not making sauce but using jarred like Rao then you absolutely would drain it into the sink.
Maybe your wife would have liked it better with fresh spinach? I often use escarole or arugula in pasta...maybe she would prefer those to spinach?
Glad you liked it though...what kind of tomatoes did you use?

That’s why I don’t drain any pasta - I might cook more pasta during the meal and I want to use the same water. It’s rare but if it occurs...
I used a mix of vine, plum Roma, and cherry tomatoes :-)

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-e...2020-08-25.jpg

Ghost pepper pineapple hot sauce. Cooked it outside on my grill to avoid the nasty pepper fumes. I skimped on the ghost peppers and it's really not very hot. There's two other full bottles in the fridge outside. I'll see if the heat improves with a rest overnight.

Ground beef meatball recipe
 

Hi fellow FT geniuses who know how to travel well,

I need some help or recipes for Italian beef meatballs made with ground beef. Suggestions please! It would be fun if I could just make my own meatballs.

From my Italian neighbor...

1 lb of ground meat
4 large eggs
1 cup of plain bread crumbs
3/4 cup romano grated cheese
1 clove of chopped garlic(fine)
salt and pepper to taste
pinch of basil, 1 to 2 tablespoon dried parsley. If you can get fresh its better Add 1/4 cup fresh.
water to mix

Place all ingredients in a large bowl mix with hands add a tablespoon of water at a time and mix to blend until the mixture is moist looking and not dry looking. Its hard to say how much water so just add a little at a time. Then ford into balls and brown in a large frying pan on med high til meatballs are golden brown on the bottom.Try not to turn them too soon or they won't brown right.When brown on all sides drain in a bowl lined with paper towel and then add to your cooking sauce. Let cook as long as you like.

I think meatballs are good when there is a mix of ground meats...such as beef and veal or beef and pork (I know that you don't eat pork) or even beef and italian sausage. I think the Costco frozen meatballs are excellent. I wouldn't even bother messing up my kitchen as I think those are really good.

I think he does eat pork. I think other household members do not.

I’m trying to avoid frozen meatballs but would try them. My preference is to just make meatballs and I’m hoping that some people here both make their own meatballs and will post their recipe.

I love pork and try my best to keep it out of our house.

I posted the recipe I use above. You can use just ground beef, or you can add in ground pork. I typically use ground Italian sausage and beef.

The recipe which kipper posted is good, however, I generally bake them as opposed to pan fry. The number of eggs I use is dependent on how fatty the meats I use are.

YMMV

EDIT: The house has a guest for the week and possibly longer, so I may have to change things up and I'm looking forward to it.

You can bake them too, although I generally just fry them in the pan I'm going to use for my sauce, so there's one less dish.

Unless it’s leftover carnitas you brought home. :)

those were a gift that a friend literally delivered to our house. Oh so nice!
i also have evergood sausage for the grill.

Just made a batch tonight. My husband is partial to chicken tsukune. Unfortunately, despite minced chicken being a mainstay in Japanese stores, it is virtually impossible to find it in London. Turkey mince is common enough (too lean!), chicken mince is nowhere. So I make my own - if it’s chicken breast filets I cut them into a rough mince myself with a cleaver, if it’s thigh meat I slice into small pieces and put them in a blender/liquidiser (has more tendons and ligaments)
Once minced, I massage the meat for a couple of minutes with a teaspoon or so of salt. After a while, if you look very closely, you’ll see flecks of white, that’s when the massaging is complete. Add pepper or any other preferred seasoning (I like miso and soy sauce), then massage in a beaten egg BUT don’t massage in more than a dribble at a time so that the egg is incorporated evenly (if you add it all at once the mince “separates”). If you’re using about 300g chicken then add 50-100g of tofu (I’ll press tofu through a sieve), massage in the tofu. Finally I add half a diced onion and that’s my carb concession. If you wish you can stir in some breadcrumbs or a spoon or so of potato starch, but it isn’t necessary.
Take a handful of the mince mixture and squeeze out a dollop of it through the hole made by your thumb and first finger. Size of the dollops are pretty uniform this way.
In a pan, add a thin layer of oil and on a medium heat, once the pan is hot, add the dollops appropriate to the size of the pan (without overcrowding) and then put a lid on the top so that the dollops both fry and cook in their own steam. Leave for about three minutes. Within each dollop, the cubed onion pieces will also release steam and help cook them from the inside. Take the lid off quickly (give it a quick wipe with a towel to get rid of excess water so that it doesn’t fall back and explode into the pan), turn the dollops over - they should be a deep golden brown) and replace the lid and cook for a further 3 minutes or so. If the lid picks up too much water before the end, just remove it quickly, wipe dry and replace over the pan. I generally fry/steam my dollops in two batches.
PS - If exploding water drops are likely to freak you out (a sensible reaction!), you can wrap/tie a damp but not wet towel to the underside of the pan lid. Just make sure the wrapped cloth doesn’t stick out enough so that it can catch fire from the burner.

I love the idea of covering the dollops (meatballs). It makes so much sense and I’m excited for this new method! I learn so much here. Big yay!!

I want to try making banana ice cream using the one banana ingredient. My ripe bananas are frozen. Is it ok to keep them frozen, then thaw to slice the bananas, and then refreeze for 2 hours per the recipe?

https://www.thekitchn.com/how-to-mak...e-kitchn-93414

I remember noticing this when I lived in London. Turkey mince is everywhere, but no chicken.

Yes, you won't get sick. Might affect the texture of the bananas though.

I improved cooking during 2020 and 2021.
I recently started to use Yukon gold potatoes with mashed potatoes instead of using russets.

that said, dishes that I cooked often in 2020-2021 have become HEAVILY eschewed by my family - too much for them. So now my past hits are that - in the past!!

grilled cow steak
grilled chicken thighs
grilled sausage
grilled cheese

turkey tacos
fish tacos
pasta with Rao’s marinara and Ks beef meatballs

homemade pizza

king crab legs with oven steak fries

I can eat any of the above weekly if needed. Alas it’s no longer needed.

I am sure a local food bank would welcome your stockpile of Rao's sauce as a donation.

Does anyone else have burnout of pandemic food joys? Maybe just my family :-)

4 glass jars? One jar per client? They have hundreds of clients. When my family and I volunteered with My future in-laws at Marin food bank, every client gets the SAME THING per table which means that they have caseloads of things per session. Then the client goes to the next table. Each client is vetted with the food bank. My friend is a Ed at a food bank in San Carlos or somewhere in the peninsula and also wants pallets of individual items and not loose amounts of an item. Their donors are warehouses, not individuals. You worked in the food industry - do you really not know that food banks work on warehouse level and not retail level? These aren’t shops in San Francisco plus of course if they were shops then they’d probably get burgled :-)

So, how about a smaller charity? Example: I served on the Board of a domestic violence charity here in PA. The charity had many missions, one of which was to operate a shelter for women and children. At any time there were one or two families in there. They welcomed donations of individual items to prepare communal dinners.

fantastic - thank you for your service! Super sweet of you.