The Best Burgers...

These are the best hamburgers I have ever had. With a dollop of homemade sauerkraut they are so simple and so satisfying.

The trouble is, now that our cowshare is done and this being drought-laden California, meat shares are a bit thin on the ground right now, especially for a family that needs a quarter. So we are on a wait list, and meanwhile I simply do not buy factory farmed meat, even supposedly nicer factories like Whole Foods. If indeed, that is the case. To buy pieces of different animals as needed goes against our family's philosophy of how we get and use our food - that we procure one animal for however long we can use it...8 months, one year...that is acceptable.

So we held out as long as we could, and then finally John went back to Prather Ranch and started to pick up a family-sized pack of ground beef every few weeks again because vegetarianism simply won't work for us. (We are also eating chicken, but again, it's an expensive thing to do when done right, not to mention, again, the whole ideology of how the animals ought to be raised.)

This leads into the way that I have been figuring out to add healthy filler to a few pounds of ground beef to make it go farther as amazingly tasty burgers. I used the food processor to chop up veggies on hand, in this case onions, garlic and mushrooms, sautéed them with red wine vinegar and a bit of salt and pepper until they were cooked through with the liquid reduced, then cooled the mixture and added it to ground beef.

I'm sure that you could use any ground meat - chicken, turkey, elk, buffalo...

Did I say that it was amazing? If I can take a picture before the next batch disappears I will post it!
They are Paleo-happy and GAPS conforming....

Amazing Economical Burgers

Makes about 9-12 burgers.

Ingredients

• 2 medium onions, quartered
• 1 lb mushrooms
• 2 cloves garlic
• 1 tb butter
• 2 tb olive oil
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1-2 tb red wine vinegar (I used Pinot Noir vinegar, but regular red is good, too)
• pepper to taste
• 2 lbs pastured ground meat

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Chop the onions, mushrooms and garlic in a food processor by pulsing until fine. Sauté with butter and olive oil on medium heat with red wine vinegar and sea salt until both cooked through and so that the liquid is reduced. Put the mushroom/onion mixture into a bowl and set aside to cool.

When cool, blend by hand with the beef and form into palm-sized or slightly larger slightly rounded patties in a 9"x13"pan.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until slightly pink inside.

Serve with the condiments of your choice...

Vanilla cupcakes (g-f/d-f) with CHOCOLATE frosting (paleo)

 

These are based on Glutenfreegoddess's vanilla cupcake recipe and Elana Amsterdam's Paleo Chocolate Frosting (links below).

We brought these in to school at pick-up today for Valentine's Day and I was surprised at how popular they were. The frosting was just insane. They are also exactly the right size to give to an 8-year old after school so that they don't go completely bonkers for the next 30 minutes followed by a bottomless freakout while the sugar leaves their system.

Speaking of which, as usual, I cut the sugar in half, made it rapadura and filled it in with xylitol.

Other tweaks: I almost never use as much salt as these recipes call for. In this case I used 1/4 teaspoon, or just enough to intrigue the baking soda.  If you are not a coconut milk fan, this could work with other non-dairy milks. Just make sure that they are unsweetened, or leave off some of the sweetener.


G-F/D-F Vanilla Cupcakes:

Makes 24 teeny cupcakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup sorghum flour
• 1 cup potato starch (not flour)
• 1/2 cup rapadura
• 1/4 cup xylitol
• 1 teaspoon guar gum
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 
• 1 cup coconut milk
• 1 whole egg and 1 egg yolk, beaten
• 3 tablespoons melted coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 teaspoon lemon juice

Preheat oven to 350F. Line a teeny cupcake pan with paper or parchment liners.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the dry ingredients: the flour, the starch, the sweeteners, the guar gum and the leavening. Add in the coconut milk, the egg, coconut oil, vanilla and lemon juice. Beat with a mixer until blended, but be careful not to overbeat.

With two small teaspoons, fill each liner. (We gave each one a chocolate "heart" by 1/4 filling each one, adding 2 chocolate chips, and filling them up the the 3/4 mark with batter.) Smooth out each top with a knife or spoon.

Bake 15 minutes or until a skewer poked into the center of one comes out clean.

Allow to cool a few minutes in the pan, then remove and let cool entirely on a wire rack.

Unbelievable and Addictive CHOCOLATE Frosting:

• 2 cups soy-free dark chocolate chips (we used Guittard's which contains sunflower lecithin instead of soy).
• 2/3 cup coconut oil
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract

Warm the chocolate chips and oil in a small pan on very low heat or in a double boiler, stirring constantly until melted. Turn off the heat and add the vanilla. Refrigerate until just barely set, about 30 minutes. Spread on completely cool cupcakes. Refrigerate to make sure it stays solid enough to stay in place. (Elana says to hand-beat it out of the refrigerator, but I found that it spreads just fine without that step.)

Fair warning to the unsuspecting innocent: I had to make myself put it away because it is fudgy and addictive. It is also perfect with a spoonful of nut butter.

From Karina at Glutenfreegoddess:
http://glutenfreegoddess.blogspot.com/2009/08/vanilla-cupcakes-with-mocha-icing.html

From Elana at Elanaspantry:
http://elanaspantry.com/paleo-chocolate-frosting/