Earl Cooks the Best Burger I have Ever Cooked!

I love hamburgers. A good burger combines the best of meat, veggies, dairy, and bread all in one handy package! The burgers usually include 2 meats and cheese. Most often, the type of cheese doesn't matter to me, but it must be one that will melt easily and cover the patty with gooey smoothness. This burger was born from leftover ingredients from my Cinco de Mayo meals this past weekend. I had crispy flour tortilla shells, cheese, taco seasoning and avocado.

I started with one pound of 80/20 ground beef, which I seasoned with simple taco seasoning. I used a package, but it is easy to make your own. Now the uniqueness begins. I had some delicious flour tortillas left over from my fish tacos from Cinco de Mayo, which I CRUSHED into fine flakes and added them to the seasoned ground beef.  I divided that into four patties, and placed an indentation in the center to prevent cupping when the burger cooks.

I lightly coated each patty with the same seasoned coating I had used on the fish. Dixie Fry & Taco Seasoning (Dixie Fry is a simple coating for chicken & fish that my grandboy introduced me to.  After searing on both sides I added a dash of Weber® Gourmet Burger seasoning. I topped that with cheddar jack shredded cheese and covered the pan for just a moment, to melt the cheese.

To top the burger off, I used a perfectly ripe avocado. for a side dish I roasted some baby broccoli. This need no bun, just a knife & fork.

Results & Conclusions:
As I said in the title, this is the best burger I have ever cooked. Maybe not the best I have ever eaten, but I have never considered my burgers flavorful enough to rave about. The crunch from the tortillas and the mild taco seasoning worked almost to perfection. It was like Taco Tuesday!

Earl Cooks Not-So-Sloppy Joes

I couldn't tell you the last time I ate a sloppy Joe, and neither my wife (a.k.a."Turkey"), nor I could remember the last time, if ever, we had them at home in the last 40+ years. I don't recall my mother ever making them for us as kids either. I DO remember having them as a cheap replacement for burgers for school lunch and not caring for them then.Tonight I wanted to give them a try...with a twist.

 I had some good lean ground beef (85/15) and a can of Manwich® Thick & Chunky in the pantry. I decided to do it open-faced on Turkey's (a.k.a. my wife's) homemade bread. Since it was open-faced, I wanted to top it with some delicious Tillamook® brand Colby Jack cheese which I grated for easy melting. For a side dish, I had some multi colored carrots that I cooked sous vide which I added to the pan to reheat. (NOTE: When you sous vide multi color carrots, the darker carrots discolor the others, so if you intend to sous vide, separate by color!)
This meal turned out better than I could have hoped for, and my wife liked hers too (kind of ate it in her own way). This will be a good go-to week night meal.

Earl Cooks Angel Hair & Meatballs

I recently heard on a TV cooking show that spaghetti and meatballs have all but disappeared from menus, both home and restaurant. Let's be clear this is an AMERICAN dish, not Italian, even though I was sure as a kid that it was Italian, and one of the few Italian restaurants I  knew about (The Italian Village) had it on the menu way back then. Times change and tastes change. Now the meatballs are served on a bun from a fast food window (in fairness, you can add meatballs to your pasta bowl at Olive Garden®, so maybe we will see a comeback). With all that said, I had never made meatballs, and my wife, "Turkey", thinks pasta is just paste (well it is, but delicious paste)! That results in our almost never eating pasta. I can sneak it in but only if I use Angel Hair rather than spaghetti, which is thin enough for her, I guess because she is an angel!



—I started with one pound of 85/15 ground beef. Many recipes call for ground sirloin or mixture of beef & pork, but this is what I wanted to use. I seasoned the beef with fresh ground pepper and Mediterranean seasoning salt. I also added about ½ teaspoon of crushed garlic.

—Next add 1 large egg and grated Parmesan cheese (about ¼ cup) and mix them all together however you want. I used a fork, but hands work well too.

—Finally in preparing the beef, add about ½ cup of breadcrumbs. Mine were homemade panko, but whatever you have on hand will be fine. Mush these into the seasoned beef until all is well combined.

—Roll the meat in to ping-pong sized balls (about an inch and a half). As you can see my one pound of meat with breadcrumbs and seasoning produced 15 meatballs. I placed them in a non-stick baking pan and into a 425℉ preheated oven, for 12-15 minutes.

—While they bake, take a large deep skillet and add your favorite store-bought pasta sauce. I like the ones with chunky vegetables (of course you may make your own if you like). Heat on medium until bubbling nicely and add another quarter cup of Parmesan to the sauce.

—Add the partially cooked meatballs to the sauce to finish cooking. They should have developed a nice brown crust in the oven and will have shed some of their excess fat. Allow them to cook through for another 10 minutes. Cover if needed to prevent the sauce from over-thickening.

—I buy the pasta in what they call "Pot-Perfect" size. It fits nicely in a smaller pot since we are just two. I know all of the TV chefs would not approve, but it makes cooking pasta easy. In our household, we do not cook our pasta al dente, because "happy wife, happy life". If you like yours that way, by all means, cook it to your liking. That is the only way it will be perfect. You could even cook it al dente and then finsh it in the sauce, but I felt it was too cumbersome with the meatballs in there. Top with MORE Parmesan cheese and enjoy simple and very tasty spaghetti and meatballs!

Earl Cooks Miracle Crock-Pot Lasagna

Miracle Lasagna with Garlic Toast

It is often said that this is the season of miracles, and I am now a believer because I made a lasagna that my wife (A.K.A. "Turkey") LIKED! This may not seem like much of an accomplishment, "Who doesn't like lasagna?" you are probably asking and my answer is my wife. Over the years my daughters would ask me to make it and I would spend hours doing so. Once I even dropped the whole thing and the glass baking dish and all of the ingredients crashed to the ground, glass flying everywhere.But I digress...

My father-in-law loved pasta in all of its forms. His daughter, "Turkey" does not. To her, it is like eating school paste. Consequently, we eat very little around here since we are empty nesters and I cook for her too. But today the stars aligned and I had all of the ingredients on hand and found an inspirational recipe that made the lasagna IN A SLOW COOKER! I have heard of this, but never tried it. It just didn't seem right! Dairy & pasta don't seem like natural fits for a slow cooker, but this inspiration led to a result that was the equivalent of a ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review, My wife wanted to take leftovers for her LUNCH! It was not only good enough to eat, it was good enough to eat AGAIN! What's more, the simple garlic toast I made with her homemade bread got the same accolades! Here are the ingredients and the steps to make your own Miracle Lasagna!

Start with these ingredients:
Medium sized onion, Ground Beef (1 lb.), Oven Ready Lasagna Noodles (8), Jar of Alfredo Sauce (1), Jar of Pasta Sauce (1), Shredded Mozzarella Cheese or Italian Blend (1 pkg or 3 cups), Diced No-Salt-Added Tomatoes (1 can 14.5 oz), Basil leaves dried but I used Basil stir in paste (1 tsp paste or/½ tsp dried), Crushed Garlic (1 tsp.), fresh grated Parmesan Cheese.






Step 1—I normally avoid slow cooker recipes that require cooking before slow cooking, but you want your ground beef to be browned. Start with a bit of olive oil and sauté the onion. Add the beef to the pan. I used 85/15 but leaner beef could also be used, Be certain to DRAIN the beef mixture before proceeding.

Step 2—Spray a 4 to 6-quart slow cooker (mine is a 6) with non-stick cooking spray. I used a slow cooker liner for easier clean-up. Spread 3/4 cup of the tomato pasta sauce in bottom of the slow cooker. Stir remaining tomato pasta sauce and 1 can of no-sugar-added diced tomatoes into ground beef/onion mixture. Add garlic & Basil to meat mix.

Step 3—Layer 3 lasagna noodles over sauce in slow cooker, breaking noodles to fit as needed. Top with 1/3 of the Alfredo pasta sauce, spreading evenly. Sprinkle with 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese (It used Italian Blend Cheese). Top with 1/3 of the ground beef mixture, spreading evenly

Step 4—Repeat layering twice more, using 2 lasagna noodles in last layer.
Sprinkle Parmesan cheese over top.

Step 5—Cover; cook on High for first hour then turn down to the Low setting for 2 1/2 to 3 1/2 hours.

The amazing thing about this recipe is it doesn't use ricotta or cottage cheese, relying on the cheese in the Alfredo sauce for the smooth richness. (Click below for printable version)