Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers

Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers

I am a bad mommy. My oldest son is 7 and doesn't know how to tie his shoes. It isn't for a lack of trying, I have tried many, many times. I blame my husband mostly and his genetics. According to my mother-in-law he was the last kid in his class to tie his shoes. I also blame how kids are taught in school these days. Apparently learning simple skills like tying your shoes is no longer something that public schools teach. Okay. In 1st grade we spent a great deal of time learning to tie our shoes until every kid could do it by the end of the year. The school district that my son is in does not see this as an important skill. They even went so far as to state in a take home note that if my child does not know how to tie his own shoes that the teachers don't have the time to take to tie his shoes for him. I completely understand that teachers are over worked, both of my in-laws were teachers for almost 40 years each. I just wish that some of the skills that used to be emphasized at school such as tying your shoes and cursive would still be viewed as valuable. So I continue to fail miserably at home. I know that a big part of it is that he is left handed. It took working with him for almost a year for him to understand how to hold a pencil and begin to write. I never knew how much harder being left handed makes everything. Hopefully I am not the only bad mommy in the world and that my son turns out to be a normally functioning adult. If not there are always slip on shoes that require no tying what-so-ever. Today's recipe is something that my whole family loves, cheeseburgers. This week I tried a new recipe for Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers from the June/July issue of Taste of Home magazine.

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This recipe has 10 ingredients. It takes 40 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 8 servings. I did make a number of changes to the original recipe. First I make my buns from scratch. It saves money and they taste so much better than store bought. Secondly, I thought that I had steak sauce in the fridge, I was wrong. When I got ready to make the recipe I discovered my fault and decided rather than running to the store in the middle of dinner to leave out the steak sauce all together. My husband is still refusing to clean the rust off of our outdoor grill so I used my indoor electric grill to grill the burgers. The cheeseburgers had a problem with slitting open during grilling. Don't feel bad if this also happens to you, they still tasted fine after they were finished cooking.

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These burgers turned into a mess on the grill. The amount of filling was just too much for the burgers to stay together. The burgers still tasted delicious, they just oozed out their insides a lot on the grill. If you would rather that your burgers stayed intact I would suggest adding only a small amount of the filling to each burger and make sure to form the patties very flat with a good inch or more of space between the filling and the burger edge. The problem was only aesthetic though so if you aren't worried about the way the burger looks, the recipe was fine.

For the recipe go to Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburgers.

Mushroom Stuffed Cheeseburger

Recipe Type: Main

Summary:

A stuffed cheeseburger recipe with mushrooms, provolone, and red and green peppers. Uses lean beef to cut down on the total fat.

Preparation Time: 0h, 30m

Cooking Time: 0h, 10m

Total Time: 0h, 40m

Yield: Serves 8

Orecchiette with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes

Growing up my mom raised tomatoes. Every other vegetable she tried growing failed miserably, but her tomatoes were always beautiful. I absolutely loved the taste of the fresh cherry tomatoes right off the vine. When I moved out and started buying tomatoes from the grocery store I quickly discovered that not all tomatoes are created equal. The grocery store tomatoes were often mealy or lacking flavor. When I met my husband he would take any fresh tomato off of whatever sandwich or burger he was eating. He is not a fan of fresh tomatoes. Since he wasn't a fan I pretty much stopped using fresh tomatoes until I had kids. My kids love tomatoes! When I buy cherry or grape tomatoes for a recipe I literally have to hide them or my two boys will eat the whole container before I can make dinner. Luckily my husband has come around to eating fresh tomatoes when they are in season and we eat them regularly. Given my kids love of cherry tomatoes I was pleased when the November issue of Food and Wine magazine had a recipe for Orecchiette with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes.

This recipe has 7 ingredients. It takes 30 minutes of total time, all of which is active and makes 4 servings. I had no problems finding any of the ingredients at my local grocery store and made no ingredient modifications. I allowed my tomatoes to cook until they were completely broken down since my husband isn't a fan of raw tomatoes. Additionally, I did not add the last tablespoon of olive oil when tossing the pasta. I found it unnecessary and the pasta already had sufficient olive oil in the tomato mixture. Honestly, I was in a hurry when making this dish and while I normally measure out exactly 2 ounces of cheese with my food scale when I made this recipe I just made an educated guess. I followed the remainder of the recipe as written.

I love easy recipes in the summer when my time seems to be limited and this recipe is beyond easy. The prep is minimal and my oldest son was able to help me put everything together. Both my husband and I felt that there needed to be more sausage for the amount of pasta. I suggest using a full pound of sausage and you could honestly even increase the amount of tomatoes. It seemed that there was far more pasta than tomatoes or sausage. The actual taste of the recipe though was delicious and the leftovers re-heated very well for lunch the next day. The recipe states it makes 4 servings, but with a pound of pasta I would say that is closer to 8 servings (at least for my family). Overall a very easy pasta recipe with great flavor from the cherry tomatoes.

For the recipe go to Oreccheitte with Sausage and Cherry Tomatoes.

Saveur Spaghetti and Meatballs

I love spaghetti and meatballs. There are few foods as comforting as a huge plate of homemade spaghetti and sauce. I have nothing against jarred pasta sauce, but it can't hold a candle to day long simmered homemade. Especially in the summer when tomatoes are fresh homemade sauce is delicious from the first to the last bite. Growing up my mother was the queen of doctoring up store bought sauces. She would add onion, basil, and oregano and serve it as homemade. In every other way my mother was a fabulous cook, but pasta sauce was never her strong suit. Luckily I was able to learn to create great tasting pasta sauce from friends and family that I still use as base for my homemade sauce to this day. Always up to trying new things, I was interested when a recent issue of Saveur Magazine had a recipe for Spaghetti and Meatballs combining three types of meat.

This recipe has 19 ingredients. It takes approximately an hour and half to prep and cook and makes 8 servings. I made a few modifications to the recipe. First off I always grind my own meat, which I did with the pork and beef in this recipe. I would have loved to have ground my own veal, but my local stores only carry it pre-ground. Second I was unable to find provolone that wasn't sliced, so I actually had to shred my cheese using cheese slices, luckily it worked pretty well. The biggest changes I made the recipe were the size of the meatballs and the cooking time. To make 6 oz meatballs seemed extreme to me, especially when feeding two kids, so I made my meatballs substantially smaller. I also found that the liquid evaporated from my sauce very quickly, so make sure to watch the sauce so it doesn't get too dry.

The meatballs are the best part of this recipe. They were moist and had a great flavor. The sauce was a little too sweet, it would almost be better on a hoggie with the sauce and banana peppers. However. the meatballs are well worth the recipe and my family loved them. I would suggest adding an additional can of tomatoes to cut down on the sweetness and possibly crushed red pepper. Overall, a kid friendly recipe that still appeals to adults.