Near and dear to my stomach. Food.

Life is too short for boring food.

With costs on the rise, sometimes it is just easier to make it yourself. Or because it is not available where you are. Sometimes, I miss the North.

One of my new favorite things is the smell of food as I come back into the house from outside. The aroma just makes me happy, and hungry again.

I am an ingredient cooker.

And I admit, sometimes just a lazy cook. I am no chef, no formal training, just what I have learned over the years. And often I call my sister for help.

I have found lots of interesting recipes over the years and adapted them for our tastes. A few favorites have been passed down also.

For quite a few months I have been craving something, but I could never put my finger on what I wanted. Not being where I grew up, poses a few challenges there.

Simplicity.

I finally figured it out though. The simple Patty Melt. I quickly found a recipe, and bought fresh ground beef. I wanted it right. I couldn’t decide on the cheese or bread, so I went with simple sandwich bread and American cheese, which I already had, along with sweet onions.

So often you eat at a restaurant and think, that is so complicated, I could never make that at home. Most recipes turn out to be relatively simple, and boy was this one. This is a burger with fried onions on a grilled cheese! OMG it was so simple, and so tasty.

Delish!

I enjoyed it so much. Hubby had his burger on plain bread. And since I made three burgers, I got to enjoy one the next day too! I split the onions for my burgers. Hubby got to taste mine, so he will be having the full experience next week.

Future plans.

This craving helped do some good in the future. I will no longer have to buy burger buns and toss the package six weeks later because we didn’t eat them. New ground beef has been bought, seasoned and in the freezer. Quicker, easier meals are on the menu.

My rendition of the recipe is below. More information on ingredient cooking coming in future blogs, along with easy meals and some meal planning ideas.

Bye Y’all

Robby Lee

Patty Melt Recipe

• Sweet Onions – sliced
• Oil of choice
• Butter (optional)

Warm pan and add 1 tsp of oil of choice

Slice onions. Put in pan and sauté at med-high to your level of doneness.

If you want them browner, add the optional butter.

• 1 lb ground chuck
• Onion and garlic powder
• Meat tenderizer

While onions are cooking, mix spices into meat. Divide meat into 3 or 4 pieces. 3 is a thicker burger, 4 are smaller. Form into patties.

Remove onions to a bowl and keep warm. Put meat patties into pan and smash them with a spatula, as far as you can. Turn after 4 minutes. Cook another 4 minutes.

• Butter
• Cheese of choice
• Sandwich bread (or bread of choice)

As your patties are cooking on the 2nd side, butter one side of all the bread and place butter side down on a warm griddle pan. Add slices of cheese to each piece of bread. Add a spoonful of onions to one side (or both!) of each bread slice. Grill bread until browned on the bottom to your liking. When done, plate pieces of bread with onions, add patties, then other side of cheesy bread.

Slice on the diagonal and serve cut side down, with pickles and ketchup.

3 to 4 servings

Notes: if burgers are thick, you can increase cook time to 5 minutes per side. Or once they are cut, if it is too pink for you, place cut side down back on hot griddle for a minute.

I usually cook two at a time, then add the last 1-2 patties to the pan. When cooked and cool, I refrigerate for another meal or two.

The usual recipe uses Swiss cheese, but American cheese was nice. Some restaurants use sourdough bread or rye bread.

When I find the recipe, I started with I will link it.