Saturday, December 27, 2008

Summer In...December?

My thermometer recorded a maximum temperature of 74 degrees today. It was so warm and balmy that I managed to spend a few hours outside enjoying the break from single digit temps. I enjoyed watching the ducks digging in the muddy bank of the pond and the chickens grazing in the lawn. Just a few days ago the chickens wouldn't even come out of their snowed-in coop! All the snow is gone now. They were catching frogs by the pond this afternoon!

We took advantage of the warm weather to get some outdoor chores done. Derek cleaned the chicken coop while I rinsed and squeegeed the cement floor in the garage and hosed down the garage rugs. The coop was pretty messy after the ducks spent a night in it last week. They emptied out the water and made a wet mess of the floor. Now the chickens have some fresh, dry straw in their coop.

It was so nice outside that I fired up the grill and made one of our family favorites: Man Burgers. I put my brand new food processor to work shredding cabbage and carrots for homemade coleslaw to go with the burgers. The bread maker did the work making a batch of dough for a baker's dozen of honey-wheat sandwich rolls to hold my gigantic burgers. Jim was busy with a customer in the shop so I plated up two burgers and some cole slaw and some Jello squares for them both and took it out to them. Less than a minute after I got back in the house I got a call from Jim on my cell phone. He just had to tell me that the burgers were the most awesome burgers ever! That made me feel good.

If you want to try a Man Burger, here's how to make a batch.

2 lb. ground beef or ground sirloin
1 heaping Tbsp. of steak seasoning--I use McCormick's

1/4 cup fresh French bread crumbs
1 egg
Big splash of A1 Steak Sauce or Worcestershire sauce

Form into 6 big patties and grill till they'd done the way you like them. I also like to grill some onion slices while the burgers are cooking. They're great on top of a big, juicy Man Burger! Also, a half-and-half mixture of ground turkey and ground beef will make a leaner burger if you'd like to eat less fat. You can't taste the turkey at all! I've been known to mix in a bit of minced onion or minced green peppers into the beef mixture too. Yummy!

The warm weather isn't going to last. It's going to be in the 30's tomorrow, but that's still better than 4!

7 comments:

  1. Oh my goodness, it was even warmer there than it was here! I think our high was 68. Our enclosed porch (breezeway), which has a 2-foot-thick concrete floor covered with tile, had a 1/4-inch layer of water floating on top. I had to put down rugs so we wouldn't slip and break a hip or something. Now the wind is blowing about 40 miles an hour. Geez, this has been a weird winter already and it has barely begun. Can't wait to see what Mother Nature has in store for us!

    The Man Burgers sound dee-lish! I think I smelled them cooking when I went outside. :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I'm salivating, gonna have to try that recipe.

    Our temp yesterday was just in the 50's but it was nice and sunny.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow! What a blast of summer! I can't imagine!! Sigh...my chickens, guineas, turkeys, and peafowl have been in their coop for over a week...I'm definitely going to have my work cut out for me!!
    Those Man Burgers sound great and the name made me smile! I'll have to give those manly burgers a try!! (It won't grow hair on my chest will it?):P

    ReplyDelete
  4. We've had some nice temps lately but nothing like yours. How lucky!

    Your burger recipe sounds like something the guys at my house would eat. I'll have to try that next week.

    ~Sharon

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's been unusually warm here too-kinda weird. The man burgers sound Yum!

    ReplyDelete
  6. The man burgers sound great. I know the men here would enjoy them. I'll have to give them a try soon. Thanks for sharing

    ReplyDelete
  7. So glad you are having warm weather. Have a blessed new year! blessings, Kathleen

    ReplyDelete

Thanks for your comment! I may or may not be able to reply to comments depending on how busy I am.