... And the Burger Jumped Over the Moon...

I'm just getting back from getting a bunch of campers checked in for the weekend. I like doing check-ins... but I don't like doing check-ins late at night. I get all amped up and then have trouble sleeping. So, in an effort to slow down my brains... I give you... a story you didn't really want to know! I warn you.

In high school, I worked at Hardee's. It was quite an experience. It's actually where I was working when Zeke and I met. Anyway, Hardees was on this "low carb" kick for a while (are they still? I don't even know anymore...) where you could buy a burger with no bun. Just the extremely fatty beef patty, onions, pickles, ketchup, mustard, mayo, wrapped in lettuce. Healthy.

A lot of people who choose this option didn't realize at first that there was, in fact, no bun. Even though it said it on the sign. To keep people from getting mad, if somebody ordered the Low Carb burger, the cashiers had to explain exactly what the customer was getting themselves into.

One day, a middle-aged guy came into the store and ordered a Low Carb burger. I was working the far right hand register. I remember this vividly. Now, he didn't really seem like the low-carb type. He seemed like the "I've worked a hard physical job all day and just wanna eat" type. So I, of course, explained that there is no bun, just lettuce. He nodded, I explained again, and he stuck with his Low Carb order.

When the burger was finished, he took his to-go bag and walked away. And then walked back into the store about three seconds later, all red in the face and frowny, demanding to speak with my shift manager. I watched (more like eavesdropped) from the sidelines. The customer was pissed. Apparently he didn't realize that there was no bun. Um, duh, sir, duh. My manager tried to diffuse the situation, but the customer got more and more worked up until finally...

He threw the burger.

At my manager. The customer had pretty good aim, too. It bounced off the manager's shoulder, smearing ketchup and mustard and mayo, and hit the floor, still lovingly wrapped in it's lettuce. No bun.

And that was the only time I've ever seen a grown man throw a burger at another human being.





You can't say I didn't warn you.

Taco Casserole

Taco Casserole! 

I asked Zeke what he was hungry for last week, and he said, "Casserole." He's an easy to please kind of man. And I love him for it. So after I exhausted some of my classic casserole recipes (Tater Tot Casserole, etc...), I found this great one! It's easy there aren't too many ingredients to hunt for, and I had almost everything on hand. You can add more veggies to the casserole if you'd like, like black olives, peppers... but I don't like olives and we didn't have any peppers. 

  

1  pound ground beef 

1  can (16 ounce) refried beans

1  jar (16 ounce) salsa

1  package (1 ounce) taco seasoning mix

2 1/2  cups coarsely broken tortilla chips (I just guesstimated, here)

4  medium green onions, sliced (1/4 cup)

 2  medium tomatoes, chopped (1 1/2 cups) 

1  cup shredded cheese

1  cup shredded lettuce

Brown the ground beef and drain the excess fat. Add the refried beans and salsa to the skillet, and heat over medium until the mixture begins to bubble. 

Prepare a 2 qt casserole dish by putting the crushed chips on the bottom. I also used this time to chop up my tomatoes.

When the beef mixture is bubbling and heated through, put the mixture over the chips in the casserole dish. Add half of the chopped tomatoes on top, and cover with the shredded cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for about 20 minutes. 

Put the rest of the tomatoes and the shredded lettuce on top of the casserole. 

You can also add more crushed chips on top! 

Taco Casserole!

 Yummy!

Dinner Tonight!

Tonight, I splurged. Instead of using camp food, like I have been a lot, I went big. I got ground beef... from a grocery store. I know, I know.

Zeke's brother (I'd call him LB, Little Brother, but that abbreviation now looks super mean-spirited... so we'll go with BB, Baby Brother. And now he sounds like a Korean beauty secret. Maybe TB? Teenage Brother? ...Now he's a deadly disease. Man. This is a hard one. Okay. JB it is. Because his name starts with a J. So there.) is visiting.

JB's here for a week, and I thought that I should probably feed him. At least a little. So I went big, and bought ground beef.

(Bet you didn't think that I'd ever come full circle, huh?)

Hoisin Beef with Rice Source, notes by  Little Wife

2 Tbs fresh orange juice

1 Tbs cornstarch

1 lb ground beef (see? I knew I couldn't call him LB!)

1 Tbs sesame oil (I used olive)

 2 Tbs ginger, minced (I used powdered)

2-3 cloves garlic, minced (I used powdered)

2-3 green onions, chopped

1/4 c hoisin sauce

-Combine orange juice and cornstarch, set aside. 

-Saute meat til cooked, drain and remove from skillet

-Stir-fry ginger, orange peel if desired, and garlic in sesame oil

-Add green onion, stir fry for one minute

-Return meat to skillet, add hoisin and stir

-Add orange juice mixture and stir until sauce thickens

Little Wife Notes: 

I served this meal over rice, which wasn't what the original recipe called for, but it made more sense to me. I doubled the sauce and spices, but the meal still didn't come out "saucy" enough... I don't think that you'd need much time for the sauce to thicken. Next time I make this dish, I think I might use the original recipe idea- serving it on a tortilla. Flavor was good, overall, and it was a pretty easy meal to make.