Burgher's Better Burger

A creamy, avocado-enriched cream cheese adds decadence to this burger from the team at Burgh'ers in Harmony, Pennsylvania. 

Ingredients

• Burger Patties:
• 5 ounces portobello mushrooms, chopped
• Olive oil as needed
• 4 cloves garlic
• 4 sprigs thyme
• Salt and pepper
• 15 ounces ground beef
•  
• Spicy Avocado Cream Cheese:
• 1/2 avocado
• 8 ounces cream cheese
• 1/2 jalapeño, deseeded and muddled
• 1/2 tablespoon red pepper flakes
• 1/4 teaspoon fresh lime juice
• Pinch salt
•  
• One red pepper, roasted, peeled, seeded, and sliced
• 4 hamburger buns

Method

Marinate the mushrooms: place the mushrooms in a bowl. Add the olive oil, garlic, thyme, salt, and pepper. Toss well to coat. Refrigerate for 24 hours.

Make the spicy avocado cream cheese: combine all of the ingredients in a mixing bowl. Stir until all of the ingredients as well blended. Reserve.

Place the marinated mushroom and ground beef in large bowl. Use your hands to combine the ingredients into a blend for the patties. Form the mixture into 4 balls of equal size. Smash each ball down to make a patty.

Heat a grill or grill pan over high heat. Place the burger patties on the grill and cook to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium.

Sandwich each cooked patty between the two halves a hamburger bun. Serve the burgers with roasted red peppers and spicy avocado cream cheese on the side. 

Yield

4 1/2 pound burgers

Hamburger Soup

Hamburger Soup

I was humored by an article which appeared in the San Diego Tribune Food Section which included the recipe for this soup. The notation was that plenty of parents and grandparents remember ways they penny-pinched in tough times with frugal dinners like this Hamburger Soup. I hope none of our children read this posting and get the idea that the soup they so enjoyed as a comfort food was a penny-pinching dish and was served because of tough times. It amazes me the difference in meal preparation of forty years ago and today when most foods are prepared from a box, mix, or a combination of both, or with a telephone number for the delivery of their dinner or a drive thru for the pick-up. Forty years ago a convenience food was left-overs.

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Ingredients: 
1 1/2 pounds ground beef, 
1 large onion, diced, 
 1 green bell pepper, diced, 
 2 stalks celery, diced, 
 1 garlic clove, minced, 
 1 (28 ounce can) diced tomatoes, 
 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce, 
 2 (15 ounce) cans kidney beans, 
 1 cup grated or chopped green cabbage, 
 1 tablespoon chili powder, 
 2 handfuls raw macaroni, 
 5 cups water, 
 2 Tablespoons vegetable oil,

Salt, to taste.

***

Directions:

Brown meat in skillet, discard fat. In a large pot, saute onion, bell pepper, celery and garlic in oil. Add meat tomatoes and tomato sauce, beans, cabbage, chili powder, macaroni and water to pot and combine. Simmer for 45 minutes and salt to taste.