Meal of the Week: Burgers and Fries

While preparing for tonight's meal, I read a comment online somewhere that said something like "I was too lazy to go to the store to buy hamburger buns, so I will just make them instead." That is exactly how I feel! Whether I am too lazy/too cheap (saving every penny!)/too proud to use regular old hamburger buns, I decided to copy this lady and make my own. And it was great!

After browsing a few bun recipes, I decided on this one from Creations by Kara mostly because of the picture. It also had the fewest ingredients, but I was mainly looking for a light, soft bun rather than one that looked like a bagel.

(Weird picture. I'm showing how elastic the dough is! Perfectly kneaded for 5 minutes)

I halve the recipe and made four perfect buns. I once again turned to the bread hooks on my hand beater- I love those things! This dough came out perfectly. I know if I had done it by hand, I would have over-floured it. I still feel they were a little too dense for my liking- too bready or bagely. But. they were super soft and I think they balanced the burger nicely.

For the burger itself, I just used this recipe from Tasty Kitchen, but I made full-size burgers instead. I love worcestershire sauce, so that's why I decided on this one. The burgers were great! I have made burgers once before, and I learned then how much they shrink when they cook! So this time I made gigantic, very flat patties. Once they shrank up, they were the perfect size for the buns!

I also made some homemade fries- again, I'm cheap! I used to follow a recipe, but now I just cover some potatoes (skins on of course. I love fries with the skins) in oil and garlic salt, and bake them at 450 for a half hour or so, turning every once in a while. We were certainly not disappointed this time. I love homemade baked fries.

This meal took a lot of work. But if I prepped some things before, it would have been a cinch. I could make buns ahead of time and freeze them, make and freeze burger patties, and the french fries really took no work once I got them going. I won't make burgers a ton (not exactly the healthiest meal...even if I do make it from scratch), but it will be a delicious treat when I am in the mood!