I love cute food :)

No crazy new recipe today- just a little fun with food!! I bought ground beef to make burgers and then decided to hit the bakery for buns (too late to bake them). My bakery had big bags of "Slider" buns on sale...so dinner was decided! To have a little fun with them, I decided to serve them three ways.
First, I used the lid from my peanut jar, lined with plastic wrap to make the right size burger for my buns. 1 and 1/2 lbs of ground beef gave me 14 mini burgers.

I seasoned both sides with salt and pepper and took them to the grill.

For toppings, I used Cheddar, American, Pepper Jack, Tomatoes, Onion, Lettuce, Homemade Chipotle Mayo, Bacon and Sautéed Mushrooms.

Aren't these little slider buns adorable? Can't wait to make my own!

Tons of tiny burgers cooking on the grill...with a delicious side of grilled zucchini.

And the finished product...Pepper Jack with Sautéed Mushrooms, Cheddar with Bacon and Chipotle Mayo, and classic American with tomato, onion and lettuce.

Served with a side of grilled zucchini and Roasted Carrots and Radishes. A perfect "summery" dinner :)

And Robyn enjoyed her first cheeseburger with a huge helping of ketchup!

I love a good Burger and Fries!

Some days- I love to cook so much, I just can't stop!! Today was one of those days- so I have to include two recipes this time. First, I made Honey Wheat Sandwich Rolls to serve as our hamburger buns for dinner. 60 degrees, sunshine and melted snow mean it's time to bust out the grill!!!
For these rolls- you will need:

Bread Flour
Wheat Flour
Dry Active Yeast
Vital Wheat Gluten ( I added this)
Salt
Honey
Milk
1 Egg
Butter
Heat 1 cup of milk and 2 TBS butter for 1 minute in the microwave (I add the additional 1/4 cup of milk after to bring the temp down a bit). Add to it 1 1/4 tsp of dry active yeast and 1/4 cup of honey. Let stand for 10 minutes until foamy. Add in 1 cup of Wheat Flour, 2 cups of Bread Flour, the salt, 1 tsp of vital wheat gluten and 1 egg, beaten. Knead for 10 minutes adding up to 3/4 cup additional bread flour, as needed. When dough is smooth- it will look like this:


Allow to rise for about 45 minutes and then roll out and form into balls or cut with a biscuit cutter. This dough is so soft and wonderful to work with!!

The recipe makes 16 dinner rolls- I made 8 Hamburger buns instead.


Cover buns and allow to rise for 1 hour- until doubled in size. They will look like this:


Bake at 350 degrees for 10-15 minutes and brush with melted butter when you pull them from the oven. The result is soft and gorgeous buns!


I made the buns in the morning- less to do at dinner time.

This is my Oven Fry Recipe...French Fries without the Fry.
About 1 hour before you wish to eat, preheat oven to 450 degrees and place a foil lined baking sheet on the bottom rack.
Wash one large russet potato per person and slice into 4 planks. Slice each plank into four sticks and place on a microwave safe plate.


Microwave for four minutes and toss onto the hot baking sheet (Microwaving the potatoes dries them out so they crisp better). Spray the fries with a little cooking spray and about 2 TBS of olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and toss to coat. Put on bottom rack of the oven.


After about 20 minutes- remove the baking sheet and toss the fries. They will look like this :


Place back on the lower rack for an additional 10-15 minutes until golden brown.


Serve with a freshly grilled burger, placed on the beautiful wheat bun! Delicious :)