Apple Pork Burgers

Yesterday was spent traveling for work. Almost 16 hours on the road and in traffic almost the entire time. Being a stress eater, I start craving foods one can never eat while traveling like juicy skillet fried burgers. First thing this morning, I searched through the hundreds of saved recipes across multiple apps and cookbooks and landed on Apple Cheddar Pork Burgers. All I have to say is, my oh my...

Modifications Made:
Instead of using bagged shredded cheese, I used mild block cheddar cheese. Wanting a juicy burger, I was worried the potato starch used to keep the pre-shredded cheese from sticking would alter the final burger product. Fresh rosemary was omitted as it was not available. Finally, not wanting to cheap out on the juice home fried burger experience, I splurged from the plain old burger bun and sprung for a potato bun. Toppings were simply extra cheddar cheese, mustard, and lettuce as I wanted to patty to be the star of the show.

Scaled for Likability: Great
This was everything I was looking for in a skillet burger. The burger was juicy and the flavors of the apple, cheddar, and pork paired fantastically. Using iceberg lettuce offered additional crunch factor. Skillet frying the potato bun allowed for a crunchy outside yet soft inside to catch all the wonderful juices. Next time these are made, to the pork I would add 1 tablespoon of mustard, 1 tsp of salt, and increase the apple quantities. Also, to take this burger to the next level I would add slices of bacon to the top of the patty before I added the additional cheese.

Better Than Campbell's Old Fashion Vegetable Soup

Went to the store with the hopes of gathering fresh produce for soup. With more than 45 people in line for two packages of any meat product and the produce section containing only avocado, orange, and most randomly, strawberries, I settled upon canned soup. Well not canned soup since that section was still void of food, too. Instead soup made from canned goods as the canned vegetable section had been mostly restocked. Soups like this 15 Minute Vegetable Soup are ideal in dire food situations such as current times. Modifications Made: Plain petite diced tomatoes omitted, frozen carrots instead of canned, green beans and corn undrained, peas omitted (gross, nasty little pods), one cup celery, three cups diced potatoes, one can tomato sauce, two beef and two pollo de tomate bouillon cubes, six cups water. Once onions were softened, carrots/celery/potatoes/juice of green beans and corn, sauce, bouillon cubes, water were added and allowed to simmer until carrots almost tender. Green be

Papas a La Mexicana (Ranchera)

It is a crying shame that there are six hens and not a egg in sight. What am I supposed to do with homemade ranchero sauce? Thankfully with a few quick searches of the internet a recipe from my hometown newspaper was discovered: Papas Ranchera . Not once in the thirty years I lived in my hometown did I ever eat at a local food joint serving papas rancheras. No time like the present to remedy this cultural dish. Because this recipe is hidden behind a paywall (grrr...) I have included it here for you: Servings: 4-6 Ingredients: 1 pound potatoes, diced 1/4 cup vegetable oil 1/2 large onion 1 1/2 medium tomatoes 3 jalapenos 1/8 teaspoon garlic powder 1/2 teaspoon salt 1/2 cup juice from canned tomatoes Instructions: Fry potatoes in vegetable oil until lightly browned (about 4-6 minutes). Saute onions, tomatoes, jalapenos until soft. Add garlic powder and salt. Add tomato juice until vegetables are covered (may need to add water). Bring to a boil and then add potatoes. Cover and reduc

Sour Cream & Chive Scalloped Potatoes

Can't believe the Month of the Potato is over. There are so many more potato recipes saved. Guess I will have to work them into another month. Last week's scalloped potatoes were one of the best new recipes during the month of potatoes. With today being the last day in the Month of Potatoes, I decided to go out with a bang by cooking another batch of scalloped potatoes but this time sour cream and chive. The Best Scalloped Potatoes , or so they said. Modifications Made: Recipe was reduced by half. Mayo was omitted and one entire package of chives were chopped and added to sauce before pouring onto layers. Scaled for Likability: Good Betty Crocker Sour Cream and Chive Box Scalloped Potatoes were the standard for this recipe. These were a family favorite for years but have long since been discounted. Bummer. Trying to replicate this seemed easy enough. Alas, it was not. These had a nice texture but were too oily from the cheese and did not contain enough onion, garlic,

Eating Waffles

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