Sammy Night: Burgers and Fries

One of our favorite places to eat in San Antonio was Bigz. They have great burgers, amazing homemade potato chips with a creamy dip, and Mexican Coke in a glass bottle. Who could ask for more? Except that they have a large, multilevel deck for outside dining and a huge field for playing soccer and running around. Right before we left SA, they began construction on a playground. We loved to head to the gym and then an early dinner where we ran into friends from school, church, and the neighborhood. Unfortunately, there was no place like that in Fayetteville and there is no place like that anywhere near Needham. The closest thing to a "burger joint" is called Wild Willy's and it is a horrible imitation of a Texas-style restaurant. So disappointing!

Instead of going out to grab burgers, we started buying fresh burgers from the butcher counter at the grocery store. We buy sliders for the younger two, regular hamburger patties for the girls, and Neil and I get a huge gourmet burger that either has pepper around the edge or green peppers and shredded cheese mixed in. We buy some nice rolls instead of the tiny store brand buns and nice sliced cheese. Tonight I ate a salad with my burger and I made sweet potato fries for everyone else. The seasoning was great, but they were super time intensive and hard to get consistently crunchy. I think it would be better to buy ready-made fries and add the seasoning.

Here are our Burger Nite tips:

• Use Deli Thins for a bun. This is what I use so that I can trade the calories for a slice of cheese.
• Buy White American Deli Classics sliced cheese or a sliced cheese tray from Costco. It is a lot of cheese, but if you make grilled cheese sandwiches, DIY Lunchables, and burgers it is a great deal.
  
• Put the thicker patties on the grill first. Sliders and gourmet, or pub, burger patties are much thicker than the standard burger.
  
• A healthy option, if everyone is having a burger, is a piece of grilled chicken breast on a deli thin. (Marinade: Use a little grapeseed oil to coat the chicken breast with your fingers and then rub in some Kosher salt and pepper. Or marinate it in light Italian dressing. Or oil and rub dry Italian dressing mix into the chicken.)
• Neil likes to use a bag of lettuce shreds on his burger instead of one large piece of lettuce.
  
• Serve your burgers and sides in a red plastic basket with wax paper or a colorful printed napkin. We have red baskets and bright blue baskets that I found at Target once upon a time. Eating out of these feels just like being at a restaurant.
• If you forgo fries, a great salad for the burger is Catalina Salad. I've included that recipe as well because I love to make it on burger nite.
  

I am so excited about something new that I tried tonight. Back in San Antonio, another of Neil's favorite burger places was Gourmet Burger. Maybe he loved it because kids ate free every Wednesday; regardless, they made unconventional burgers-they had themes and a variety of topings. I decided to forgo mayo and ketchup tonight and replaced it with the broccoli slaw from the other night. (In case you don't remember, it was broccoli slaw mixed with sour cream and lime juice.) This time I added some Kosher salt and pepper. This was a good imitation of Gourmet Burger! I am going to eat my burgers like this from now on.

Baked Sweet Potato Fries by Paula Deen, with my changes
3 sweet potatoes (The recipe calls for 5, but I do not have a pan large enough to accommodate that many fries.)
Grapeseed Oil, enough for tossing the fries
House Seasoning (or salt, pepper, and garlic powder in a 4:1:1 ratio)

Preheat the oven to 450F. Line the pan with parchment paper. Peel the sweet potatoes. Slice them into 1/4-inch slices and then slice those slices into 1/4-inch slices again. (This sounds confusing, but you are making vertical slices into the potato and then taking each individual slice and cutting that into 1/4-in wide french fries by slicing vertically again.) Toss with grapeseed oil and sprinkle with seasoning. Lay on the pan, so that they are not "overcrowded" and not overlapping. (Thanks for being specific there, Paula.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, stirring at some point during cooking.

Catalina Salad, by Cindi Carr
Lettuce, washed, dried, and torn into bite-size pieces (use any kind you have in your fridge, romaine or a lettuce blend is fine)
Catalina salad dressing, reduced fat or reduced calorie is fine
Ranch style beans, 1 can (You will not use the entire can-eyeball how many beans you would like in your salad.)
Carrots, tomatoes, etc
Shredded cheese
Fritos (You won't use the entire bag either-just as many as you want.)

Mix the lettuce with whatever diced or sliced vegetables you normally add to a classic salad. Then add the Ranch beans, shredded cheese, and Fritos. I use a slotted spoon to add the beans so that I can add the right amount of beans and just the right amount of sauce-just a little. Add a few tablespoons of Catalina salad dressing. Toss to coat everything, adding more salad dressing as needed, a few tablespoons at a time. Yum! I realize that this is not specific either, but the amount of dressing depends on how many ingredients you add to the salad. However, if you add too much dressing, the salad will be soggy.