SUNDAY: Cheeseburger in winter time.
Monday, February 9, 2009 at 12:37PM 
An all Alabama take on a classic American dish: the cheeseburger with fries. Nothing like shaking off the winter blues (although it feels positively spring-like recently) with a good old American burger. Last night we did just that. I whipped up some buns out of our Elmore County wheat, Rashmi sliced some fries from our stockpile of sweet potatoes, and we made venison burgers donated by our friend Jessica. Top it all off with Wrights Dairy cheddar, and fresh arugula straight from our front yard tossed with a little oil and vinegar...you got yourself a meal! We were also fortunate to serve homemade ketchup that Rashmi's parents made from their garden last year, and pickled green tomatoes that my Aunt Diane generously donated to our cause. The only casualty here was our pizza stone which tragically broke after baking the buns on the grill. He will be missed, but a replacement is soon on the way. Recipes for such a simple dish seem a little unnecessary, but I will tell you that my secret to good burgers is a little Alabama Sunshine hot sauce, some Dales, and a generous glob of local honey. The honey helps congeal everything and also imparts a little sweetness to mix. For those of you who might nitpick my inclusion of two Alabama products that most likely don't contain all Alabama ingredients, I ask you to leave your grievances at the door. I'm off to raid the fridge for leftover burgers!
This is the first of a series of posts we'll be doing about our meals this week, just to give you a sense of what we're eating here in the dead of (spring-like) winter. Check back throughout the week for updates.
Reader Comments (4)
Please tell us how you use your pizza stone. I'm not familiar with a pizza stone, and I may not be alone . . .
A pizza stone is basically a stone designed to fit in the oven to both withstand and hold extremely high temperatures. Most conventional home ovens only get to about 500 degrees, and a true wood-fired pizza oven will get much hotter. So the pizza stone is meant to replicate cooking in these environments and also help cook breads more evenly. In my opinion it's a must have for pizza, and a helpful tool for any bread baking. I'm searching for a replacement now, but I'm leaning toward http://www.amazon.com/Old-Stone-14-Inch-16-Inch-Baking/dp/B0000E1FDA" REL="nofollow">this one.
I got mine from Pampered Chef and we use it for everything. It has developed a fine, dark patina over the years and has a handy wire holder to pick it up with.
I have a lot of 1/2" quarry tile that i use for my baking now. (my pizza stone died last year.) i had to get a whole case of tiles. have been sharing them with family, so if you want 6, these 6 x 6 tiles are perfect for 2 rows of 3. i sometimes set up two racks to bake more bread, but usually i do just one set at a time.
the tiles were about $1 each.