09 April 2016

Hamburger

#AtoZChallenge
Hamburger is supposed to be the next best thing to Deer meat for us.  Those are the two staples in our house with pork being served whenever we wanted a treat.  Well, til it turned out my sons weren’t hunters.  Neither are they fisher type people.  Oh, they were all enthusiastic til they found out they had to do the cleaning, and dressing themselves.  Not something I ever want to do if I can help it.  I know how, just couldn’t do it anymore.  Not even to teach my sons.  It’s a problem that cropped up when I got old enough to think about it.

I see the reason for the offering of asemaa, tobacco.  I think it actually began when I was in the NAM program geared more for doctors than nurses.  Sailing along, doing good with the program til it hit me one day.  I could never be sure that I wasn’t causing pain, even if I was trying to heal, help the person.  So, unless I am in mortal danger, I can’t bring myself to…almost became a vegetarian.  Not quite though.  Long as the deed is done and packaged up, I can eat meat.  So, that’s probably why my sons aren’t hunters and fisher people.  By the by, Can’t remember what one calls fisher people.

To get back to the business of hamburger-I became famous in my family for making the best, delicious tasting hamburgers.  Not sure how that came about.  Used to be, I’d sometimes dread seeing Mom pick up a three pound package of hamburger, lettuce, tomato and fresh onions.  It was a request for hamburgers when we got home.  I didn’t really feel like cooking it, especially on a hot summer day.  Most times, I’d make them anyway.  And sometimes, my sons will ask me to make them.  And sister.  Other times, I’ll just make them.

Well, that’s not the point of this post.  The point is that I was watching one of those cooking shows, Bobby Flay?  He was challenging someone to see who made the best hamburger.  “I don’t use spices directly in the meat.  It reminds me of meat loaf.”  Well, I thought about it as I stood washing dishes.  Cause that’s what I do.  I don’t add anything other than spices to the meat, shape them and cook them.  I’d always have to cook Mom’s after mine and the boys were half finished so that we could all eat at the same time.  She was one of those rare meat people, and I finally got it to a little more done than she really liked.  Sometimes, I’d make potatoes, fries or tater tots to go with.  Usually, we just ate the salad stuff right on it, California burgers.  And one was usually enough to fill us up.  Guess I finally got the measurement by hand down.  Least with the burgers.  And, of course, we made various hot dishes, particularly with wild rice, with hamburger being the main meat ingredient.

So, I added spices directly into the meat and cooked it.  Never once thought about it being meatloaf.  I always thought of meat loaf as being hamburger mixed with something to stretch the meat and make it enough for more people, sort of like a flavoring. That’s what meat loaf is to me.