Summer Burger Tour (stop 2): Turkey Burger

     Choo Choo! welcome to Turkey Station! This is the second stop in our line. After the veggie burger I must say this was way better on the texture front. It still wasn't a good ol' American beef burger but man was this one good.
     This was the first time I have ever had a turkey burger, so I was pleasantly surprised of how it turned out. I would give this meal an overall B+ to an A. Only 2 of the 5 of us where effected by the texture, but not enough to make the grade lower. I wasn't expecting a flavor/texture of a real burger so I wasn't as tough in the grading. All of us where surprised though at how good it tasted. I will definitely make this one again with ease. My local store didn't have ciabatta bread this time, so I used some potato buns. I used a different cheese combo on this stop also, going with muenster & cheddar cheese. This combo I have done with just plain old grilled cheese and have always liked it. I figured it would compliment the turkey meat and I was right, I highly suggest it.  
     I will post the recipe on the recipe page because I don't feel the need to tinker with it. Please feel free to change it up if you choose to try this yourself. If you do please leave a comment saying what you changed and how it all turned out.  If you want to email pictures. I might just post those also. Thanks you and enjoy!
     Next stop S.B. Station (sirloin & bacon). 

Summer Burger Tour (stop 1): Vegetarian Burger

   
     In the spirit of the summer I have decided to do a burger tour. First stop was a vegetarian burger. Well overall this was not a full success, but not a failure either. Here is how it went down.
     My cousin suggested doing a vegetarian dish, so with her help and a lot of research I decided on doing a burger.  I thought it would be a good way to start in the world of vegetarian food. There are so many wonderful sounding dishes out there in the vegetarian world that it took me months to decide.
     Ok back to my burger, the taste was there but the texture was a total failure for me.  The recipe will not be posted due to it not being right yet, but once I figure it out you know it will be up there. It was a chickpea based burger. I used ciabatta bread instead of regular buns. This was a awesome change. Overall I would have given this meal a C+ that can be up to an A easily when I can figure out the texture problem.
     Next week for stop 2 on the summer burger tour is a turkey burger. 

Name Change

Ok, so I found out that the athomegourmet.com is already taken. This begs the question of changing the name of the blog or not. I have a question poll on Facebook. Please go there and vote for your favorite. If you don't like the choices please feel free to suggest a name of your own.

Thanks,

Christian

Great Balls of Dipping

     I know I haven't posted in over 2 weeks. Last week I was on our annual camping trip. I did come up with a couple extra dishes while I was camping, but that is for another time. 
     We had some friends that we haven't seen in over a year come over, so I made a family style meal of meatballs with a trio of dipping sauces. The meatballs were a 2/1 mixture of ground beef and sausage along with seasonings. I made my Teriyaki sauce, a Spicy Asian sauce made from Sambal Oelek and finally just a regular old marinara sauce. 
     This was to make sure Darrah would eat. She loves meatballs, but does not like other sauces & I was not going to give her ranch. Actually she didn't even use the marinara sauce, nor did any of us so it was a waste of time. Thankfully though I cheated and just bought some spaghetti sauce, seasoned it up like I normally do, instead of trying to make it from scratch. 
      One more Darrah story. Usually I buy some precooked frozen meatballs from the store and just heat them up in spaghetti sauce. Well naturally I made these ones myself. I made the meat balls, seared them in the pan and finished cooking them in the oven. Darrah asked mommy "Why are dada's meatballs burnt?" They were not burnt, but they looked so different that she thought they were. 
      Well the Teriyaki was my own recipe but I swapped out the flour with corn starch. This gave a bolder flavor to the sauce. I have updated the recipe page. The Spicy Asian was a very simple sauce. I made a rue just like for the Teriyaki, Sambal Oelek chili paste, water and soy sauce. This was the overall favorite. I must admit that the Spicy Asian Sauce would be better with chicken or pork over beef. All the recipe's are on the recipe page. This would be a great appetizer food for a party or get together, as well as a family style meal that is fun to eat.