BBQ Baby Burgers

I have a few blogs that I follow that post very yummy recipes, my favorites being The Pioneer Woman Cooks and Kayotic Kitchen.  I love the way that they display their recipes step by step, with great color photos and descriptions.  I tried a recipe from The Pioneer Woman that we all LOVED and I tweaked it a little, and wanted to share my version of the recipe here.  (If you want to see the original recipe, click here.)

BBQ Baby Burgers

First of all, I prefer the term baby burgers, as the term "slider" always meant to me that the burgers are so greasy they slide right out of the buns.  So, that is not what I wanted to call these delicious, succulent burgers!!  So, baby burgers they are!!

We begin with the ingredients:

Ground meat, yellow onion, butter, Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce, Tabasco Jalapeño sauce, rolls and salt and pepper.

Start with ground beef (or any other kind of ground meat, like turkey).  I use the ground beef chubs from Costco (only 9% fat) and cut them into slices while they are still frozen.  Then I let them thaw in perfectly shaped patties.

Dice the yellow onion into small pieces.

I like the Colombo Potato Rolls, as they are the perfectly round size for the burgers, but you could use Hawaiian rolls, dinner rolls, etc.  Cut them in half.

Spread butter each of the roll halves and set them aside for later.

Season the meat well on both sides with salt and pepper.

Place butter in a large skillet and let it melt.

Add the patties and cook them until they are done in the middle, about 3 or 4 minutes per side.  I had never cooked meat in butter before this, but it is absolutely delicious!!

Remove the patties from the skillet and set aside.  If there is more than 2 tablespoons of grease in the skillet, drain off all but those 2 tablespoons.  With the 9% beef I use, there is barely any grease at all.  Put the diced onions in the skillet and saute them until they are soft and golden and lovely.  I love onions sauteed in butter.  Such a wonderful smell!!  Breathe it in!!

Now add in the BBQ sauce to the skillet and stir it up with the sauteed onion.  I use the Jack Daniel's BBQ sauce because the original recipe calls for whiskey and BBQ sauce (if at this point you are more interested in the original recipe, click here.  Haha!!).  With the BBQ sauce you get the flavor, but not the alcohol.

Add in some of the Tabasco Jalapeño sauce (the original recipe calls for actual jalapeños, but that is too much for my kids.  Kevin would love it though!) to give it a little kick.  Or a lot of sauce if you want a big kick!

Reduce the heat to low and then add the burgers back into the BBQ mixture and coat them on both sides.  Let the patties simmer until everything is hot and beautifully bubbly.  Isn't that gorgeous?!!

Place the buttered rolls in a skillet and grill them until they are slightly browned and crispy.

Now take one of the deliciously yummy burgers out of the sauce and place it on the bottom bun.  Goop a little bit of extra BBQ mixture onto the patty and finish with the top bun.  Enjoy!!  These burgers are a little piece of heaven!  So very good!!!!

Ingredients:
2 pounds of ground meat
salt and pepper
4 tablespoons butter
1 whole large onion, diced
1 bottle of Jack Daniel's Original No. 7 Recipe BBQ sauce
Tabasco Jalapeño sauce 
12 whole dinner rolls, split

Merry Christmas!!

I think that a good sign that the economy is improving is when we can afford to send out Christmas cards again. Ha!  So, here is our Christmas card/letter this year!  We hope you have a lovely holiday season and that you all have a marvelous 2012!!!

Marking the scriptures

Sometimes we get so used to things that we hardly even notice that they are there any more.  Such are the marks in my scriptures.

This morning while I was reading my scriptures, I was reminded of a funny thing that happened many years ago.  It jumped out at me so strongly that I said "I have to blog about this!!"

When Amanda was about two years old, she watched me as I studied and marked my scriptures.  One day I came in and found her with my scriptures and a black pen, and she was "marking my scriptures"!

Initially, I was horrified, but how could I get mad at her.  She was doing something that I had modeled for her to do.  (Just not in MY scriptures!! D-oh!!)  She was helping me to mark my scriptures.

When I see these scribbles in my scriptures it makes me laugh and reminds me how much our children watch us closely and learn from the things that we do.

Now that Amanda is in Seminary she has asked me questions about marking something in her scriptures and I am glad that I set a good example to her of making the scriptures your own.  HER own. : )

Straight hair

We have been trying to get Amanda to do something with her long blond hair for ages, but the most she will ever do is put it in a ponytail for basketball.  The other day a friend of hers offered her $5 if she straightened her hair the next day.  So, Amanda asked me if I would help her.  (She won't do it for her parents. but she will do it when a friend pays her.......hmmmm.......)

So, the next morning we spent 20 minutes straightening her hair.  (I didn't even get a cut of the money.  What's up with that?!)  The girls at Church didn't believe she would do it, so we took photos as proof.

Katrina liked the way that Amanda's hair looked and asked if we could straighten her hair as well.  I thought it would be really hard with her curly, curly hair, but it turned out great!!

Wow!  They both said that they got a lot of compliments on their hair, but I have said don't think they are going to do this very often.  It is a lot of work for Mom! : )

Canning Pickles

I love this cartoon! (by Pat Bagley)

I had my first experience canning today! Thankfully I started with something fairly easy so I wasn't overwhelmed and never wanted to do it again. We had a class in Relief Society about Pickling and I was very excited to try it!



I got all the ingredients together and this morning I cut up cucumbers and onions and put them in a bowl with a sweet pepper and salt and let them sit for three hours.



I drained the cucumbers/onions and put them in the brine to cook.



When they were hot, I put them in the jars and put the lids on. I boiled them for 10 minutes to seal them.



Voilà!! I have beautiful jars of Bread & Butter pickles. They are delicious!!

First Day of School 2011-2012

Hooray for the first day of school!



It has been a great summer and we have had a lot of fun, but we are all glad for the beginning of school and the return to schedules! The school district made a bunch of changes this last year and so the school across the street from us, which was only 5th and 6th grade, is now K-6th. Woohoo! So, both Rebecca and Katrina will be walking across the street to go to school! (No more car pooling for Lora!!)

On the 9th of August we went to the High School to register Amanda for her Freshman year. (Yikes! Already!!) We got her all signed up and her scholarship from last year got her a yearbook and her gym clothes. She got the classes she wanted and she and all her friends were standing around comparing schedules. Amanda will be taking:

1st period - Percussion
2nd Period - PE
3rd Period - Honors English
4th Period - Ag Earth Science
5th Period - Social Science
6th Period - Honors Math - Geometry
7th Period - Keyboarding

Yesterday we received the STAR testing results and the girls did very well. Katrina was too young for STAR testing, so nothing for her, but Amanda scored Advanced on everything (even the things she professes to "hate". Haha!) and Rebecca was high Proficient in English and Science and Advanced in Math! We are so proud of the girls and how hard they work at their education.



Katrina is starting 1st grade at Liberty Elementary this year and is very excited!



Here she is in her classroom. Her teacher, Mrs. Kass was a teacher at Sun Empire last year, so she is comfortable with a teacher she already knows. There are a few kids from her class last year and she came home telling me all about how she made a new friend at school. She said, "I asked her if she wanted to be my friend, and she said yes!" Isn't making friends so easy when you are a kid?!



Rebecca is starting 6th grade at Liberty Elementary, and her teacher is Mr. Sanchez. Rebecca is very excited to have a teacher who is a man, as she has never had one before. When we went to Back to School Night earlier this evening and we were sitting in Mr. Sanchez' class he said something about this being the Honors class. I glanced over at Rebecca and she whispered, "I just found that out today." We were completely unaware, but very happy to find out that Rebecca is in the Honors class this year! She worked so hard this last year to keep her grades high and it paid off!!



Amanda is starting 9th grade, a Freshman at Kerman High School! Go Lions!! She is happy to be in Percussion again and her Ag Earth Science teacher is a very good friend of ours, so she is happy to have her as a teacher. Amanda plans to try out for the basketball team again this year, will continue in CJSF, will continue volunteering at the Library, and starts Seminary at the beginning of next week.

This is going to be a great year!!

Family Adventure Day!

It's our 4th Annual last-weekend-of-the-summer Family Adventure Day!



This year we decided to head back to the beach. We went to Morro Bay. We haven't been there for about nine years, so we figured it was about time to go back. Lora's mom was visiting, so we took her with us to Atascadero, where we met with Uncle Rich, who took her to visit with Aunt Lindi.



We drove into Morro Bay and went out to the Rock. We ate lunch at a park, with a seagull standing hopefully by. Nearby a boy started throwing french fries to the two birds that were there, and within a minute, he was surrounded by over thirty birds, including six pelicans!



We left the park and drove to the Historical Landmark and got the answers for an Earthcache. We discussed how the rock was formed, whether by volcanic activity or erosion, and decided that it was both. It was originally formed by volcanic activity, but over the years has eroded to the shape it is now. We enjoy those kind of caches.



After the cache, we drove to the Morro Bay Aquarium. We have been here before, but Rebecca was two years old. The girls got some fish chum to feed the seals that are in the front of the aquarium. I can't believe those seals don't weigh a ton with all they get fed all day long.






The aquarium has seen better days. They used to have an octopus (see the photo of Rebecca when she was two), and the fish look a bit tired. It was fun though. They still have the shark, the anemones, the abalone and the horseshoe crabs. They did have a few fish I don't remember seeing before.



These fish seemed really interested in Rebecca! : )

When we left the aquarium we went to The Shell Shack and the girls got to pick out several shells. Then we walked around the shops, saw some of the sights, and let the girls each pick out a tshirt. We walked along the decks and we tried to get a photo of all of us, the long-arm way, with the Rock in the background. A waiter from the restaurant in front of us came out and offered to take a picture of all of us. The photo was slightly out of focus, but it was very nice of them.



We went up to the Morro Bay Natural History Museum. This is an amazing place! We strongly recommend this museum!! It has some of the most inventive displays we had ever seen. There were earphones shaped like "Rocky" that told the kids facts about Morro Rock. There were displays with drawers underneath them, and each drawer had even more displays in them. There were cylinders that had different pictures of different aspects of each of the ecosystems. There were really cool pull-out "windows" that showed the food chain. There was a great display that as you turned the "wheel" the louvers rotated to show different information. There was also a whale skeleton that the museum had put together themselves. Very cool!!












Lora's mom met back up with us and went down to the beach for a little while.




After cleaning up the sand from the beach, we went to dinner. We checked out a few places, but finally decided to go to the restaurant where the waiter had taken a photo of us. It was called the Flying Dutchman. We had a long wait for a table, but the food was worth it!



Amanda, Rebecca and Kevin had the fish and chips, Katrina had the chicken strips, Mom had the clam chowder in a bread bowl, and Lora had the special which was bacon-wrapped teriyaki tuna with jasmine rice, baby vegetables and cucumber salsa. Mom said it was the best clam chowder she has ever had, the fish and chips weren't overly greasy like some places, and the special was really good! We made sure to tell the manager that we came back because of his employee. They really appreciated hearing that!



Then, we drove home. : ) As usual, a lovely end to the summer!

To see all the photos from our Morro Bay adventure CLICK HERE