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| First regular red tomato -- to be picked tomorrow! |
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| Hot dog buns made with a 1-tablespoon retractable scoop -- balls of dough smoothed together |
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| First picked grape tomato! |
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| Giallo Matisse...my soon to be countertop! |
These are the ramblings of a self-described wheat, grain and gluten-free “gourmet girl” that loves to cook and eat good food. I love creating and sharing recipes and photographing “beautiful food”. In July 2012, I eliminated wheat, grains and added sugar from my diet and rediscovered real, whole fresh foods again and effortlessly lost 65+ pounds. Join me in my wheat, grain and gluten-free journey. See how easy it is to enjoy grain free gourmet, one meal at a time! Welcome to my blog. Enjoy!
Saturday, June 14, 2014
Grilled Chipotle Cheddar Burgers & Uncured Organic Beef Hot Dogs
We had a long and busy day here today. We got up early and were on the road by 8:00 this morning, headed downtown to look at granite again. I wanted to look at a slab that our granite installer had sent me a photo of because he felt it was the best match for what I described to him I was looking for. It ended up being exactly what I was looking for! I wanted something with both cool and warm colors and I wanted it to look like stone with lots of movement (swirls, variations, shades, etc.). I also wanted it to have some gray in it to complement the stainless steel appliances I'm getting. We've looked at lots of granite and quartz over the past month. After a while, it all begins to look the same. We debated between granite and quartz and in the end, I preferred the natural look of granite opposed to the more consistent look of quartz. So, we finally found and chose our granite today...the color is called Giallo Matisse. We went all over the place today -- over 100 miles of going all over the Atlanta area looking at kitchen stuff. We even managed to stop at Costco, too. We came home briefly to refrigerate our Costco purchases and have a little lunch. It was after 7:00 p.m. when we finally got back home from the long day of excursions. I decided to keep dinner simple and made grilled hot dogs (Applegate's Organic Uncured Beef, made with grass fed beef) and Chipotle Cheddar Burgers (ground round mixed with shredded sharp cheddar cheese and ground chipotle powder). The burgers turned out great with the chipotle and cheddar. I also finished up last of the leftover Broccoli Cheese Casserole from a few days ago. Today was an exhausting but rewarding day. I can check granite off my list...and now focus on the rest of the kitchen...the sink, backsplash, appliances, faucet, hardware, etc. I snapped a few photos below of our meal as well as a sneak peek of our granite slab, soon to be my new kitchen countertop. Enjoy! :-)
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9 comments:
Love your granite choice! New kitchen is on my bucket list, maybe someday ; ) Is there a recipe for the burgers or just a little of this and that? They look delicious! Need something different to try and I happen to have some ground meat sitting in the fridge waiting or me!
Hi Lisa,
Thanks! There is no "official recipe" -- meaning I didn't measure -- but I can tell you what I did. I had about 1.15 lbs ground round. I added about 1/2 teaspoon onion powder, and close to 1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder (caution...it was kinda spicy...so add a little less if you don't like spicy) and about a rounded 1/2 cup of shredded cheddar cheese plus 1 generous squirt of ketchup (no HFCS) -- it was probably close to 2 tablespoons to help moisten and mix everything together. I mixed and divided it into 4 patties. The chipotle added a smoky spicy flavor and it was toward the end of my burger where it seemed a hair too spicy -- so it is entirely possible I just didn't mix it evenly and got a couple spicy bites! Hope that helps. :-)
That does help! I just mixed up a little less than 1.5 pounds of chuck and made 4 patties for later in the week. Thanks again :)
Hi GGC,
You sure have your work cut out for you, but when all is said and done you're going to end up with a gorgeous kitchen!
Thanks, CyberSis,
As most things do...this has turned out to be a bigger project than it did when it was only "in my head"! ;-) I was feeling pressured to do everything at once but for the life of me I can't decide on appliances.. My sink and faucet should arrive tomorrow (well, since it's after midnight...technically "today")...and I'm going to have the counter, sink and faucet installed now and do a bit more research about the appliances and when I feel more confident about that...have them installed. I thought I knew exactly what I wanted until I started reading reviews! :-)
Hi GGC,
That, to my mind, is an overwhelming project! You're wise to take your time. Reviews can be a mixed blessing, can't they! I don't think I've ever come across *any* product that doesn't get at least *some* terrible reviews ... confusing to say the least. If you give it time to "gel" it'll start to come together at some point ... you'll know it when it happens. Lots of luck. I don't envy the "process" but I'm predicting that I will be *very* envious of the result! :-)
Hi CyberSis,
I've only been thinking about updating the kitchen for a couple years now...LOL. I've finally decided to take the plunge and thought I'd read Consumer Reports, visit a few showrooms and "boom" be on my way. Well...no, when it comes down to making THOSE kind of decisions...it's actually harder than I expected. My sink and faucet just were delivered today so I can call the granite man so they can come back and do the template now. I would have liked to have decided on a range at least by now but don't want to be rushed. I've read some pretty scary reviews of all the brands I "used to think" were good. Seems like they don't build anything to last and some are just down right dangerous. I read at night until my eyes are blurry with this stuff. LOL Guess I'll know when I know! ;-)
GGC,
You might want to check out induction cooktops. VERY PRECISE TEMPERATURE CONTROL. Does not heat up your kitchen. The only drawback is that your pots have to be magnetic. Easy cleanup for pots and cooktop. I bought a portable one to try it out and for outside near the grill to boil water for corn (before grain free!). Loved it so much I had one installed for my cooktop.
Hi there,
I've read some about induction cooktops but don't know anyone that actually has one. Good to know you are please with it. I have a brand new set of cookware as well as a number of Le Creuset pieces -- I would need to make sure they would still work on it also. I couldn't imagine telling my hubby I need a new set of cookware too! LOL :-) I will check them out though...thanks for the the tip/info!
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