Cheeburger, cheeburger, cheeburger no coke, pepsi!

What do you call a cow with no legs? Ground beef :) Now, I should end my post with that phenomenal joke but I will continue because you're probably dying to know what I did with the pounds upon pounds of natural ground beef in my refrigerator. The ground beef is generally saved for taco night and it's generally amazing. Since that would be a four-line post, I'm going to instead talk about these amazing burgers that I made the other night. To begin, I must admit that my mom makes the BEST burgers (for full disclosure I've never had a juicy lucy) so I come from a line of great burger makers. That being said, I'm generally not allowed to make hamburger patties or grill them because they end up being little ground beef balls rather than patties.... but things are going to change! This time I made some mix between a patty and a ball!!! Almost there.

Here's how it all happened...

I got some awesome burger like stuff together and threw it in a bowl with 1 pound of ground beef

I used these things:

Oils and sauces and spices, oh my!

Step 1: Throw olive oil, Worcestershire sauce, soy sauce, salt, pepper, and South African Smoke Spice from Trader Joes. That stuff is SO good and I highly recommend you pick up a bottle next time you see a TJ's.

Step 2: Put a healthy amount of each of those things in with your beef and mix it up real good. You're going to have to use your hands to make the patties so you may as well mix all the stuff with your hands and just get jiggy with it.

Step 3: Start to make the patties. I have no tips for this... Ms. Joy might have some tips so you could consult her. Really I just want the little burger patty press my mom has. Add it to the registry! Until then, I'll do my best!

This is me doing my best

Step 4: I don't have a grill so I just put those suckers on the stove. They had so many fabulous things mixed in with them that I don't think they really lost too much flavor.

Step 5: BACON!!!!!! Here's another little lesson for you. From my experience and generally speaking, people from the south have family rooted in the south for many many many generations. People in the north and midwest can trace their family back to their roots (or ruts if you're from the midwest) outside of the US in 2-3 generations. Example: Whit's last name is Winslow. Winslows are a dime a dozen in Eastern, NC because there was a Winslow that came over on the Mayflower. No joke. Similarly, my dad's side of the family has roots in Tennessee and our family has apparently been traced back to manifest destiny days. My mom's family, on the other hand, is from Cleveland area (I love Cleveland). My grandparents are from Slovenia/Slovakia/Hungary. We love sour cream. In Cleveland there are butcher shops and restaurants serving European fare from people 1-2 generations fresh off the boat. This means a few things: 1) I eat like a boss when I'm visiting my family in Cleveland; 2) I get to stay connected with my eastern European roots; and 3) I get to bring home so many Slovenian smoked meats from artisan butchers whenever I leave Cleveland. My uncle calls my mom and I meat smugglers. He's right. Weeping Radish Brewery in Manteo has bacon artisan butcher made bacon. I suggest you buy all of it and then give it to me for my birthday.

Step 6: Step 5 wasn't really a step.

I think I love this bacon more than most things...

Step 7: Take your delicious artisan butcher cut bacon and throw it in a pan until it's all crispy-like.

Step 8: Put a little Munster cheese on your burgers (I once asked my mom for cheese to put on my burger and she called me high maintenance (again, that's another story for another day)).

Step 9: Remove the burgers from the stove, add your delicious cooked bacon, and some avocado slices. Oh yes. Avocado bacon cheese burgers! How do you think I keep this figure? It's not with salad.

Step 10: Assemble your burgers and enjoy. SO delicious!

Delicious Level: 5/5 Noms (om nom nom nom nom nom)

Difficulty Level: Pretty easy. Bacon access is limited though.

Lesson Learned: Buy a freaking patty press. My inability to make a quality patty is out of control.

Here's to eatin' good and eatin' local! Cheers and uff-da!

Laissez le bon temp rouler!!!!

Tuesday was Fat Tuesday!!! This time last year I was in New Orleans celebrating Mardi Gras with my brother and some of our closest peeps. Traveling to places like New Orleans during Mardi Gras or Brazil during Carnival really makes you understand the culture and atmosphere that surrounds those holidays (if you’re traveling right (that’s another topic for a whole other day)). When James and Parker cooked for us in New Orleans, we ate like kings and queens (Andrew, you’re in the queen category). When we went out to eat, it wasn’t as good (we’re poor people). We had Boudin, won a king cake, and so many other delicious meats and meals.

This Mardi Gras Jordan and I were way too broke to head back down to New Orleans to defend our Mardi Gras Frisbee tournament championship title and drink copious amounts of alcohol for three days. We stayed in Greenville, drank wine and beer, and played Headbanz with the rest of the members of the Tar River Compound (Garrett, Kristy, Whit, Jenelle, Nick, Janna, and Erin).

                This little get together and celebration was somewhat of a last minute decision. Since we had some pork sausage in the refrigerator that we had no idea what to do with, I figured we’d make a makeshift (wordmaster word) jambalaya in the crockpot. Here’s how that went down:

• 4 pork sausages 
• 1lb chicken breast
• green bell pepper 
•  1 large onion 
•  2 ribs celery
• 1 can chicken broth 
• 1 28oz can of diced tomatoes 
•  2 teaspoons Cajun seasoning
• 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 1 tsb dried pasley
• 2 cups cooked rice

Step 1: Cut everything into little bite size pieces and throw that junk into a crock pot (except the rice. Don’t cook the rice yet)

Step 2: Set the crock pot for whenever you’re going to come home to eat the food

Step 3: Your peeps are arriving so go ahead and make the rice. This is my little twist which I enjoyed a lot! If your jambalaya is looking really watered down in the crock pot then substitute the water for cooking the rice with the juices from the jambalaya. You can mix half water/ half jambalaya juice but I had a lot of juices so I just cooked my rice completely with jambalaya juice. 

Step 4: Throw the rice in the crock pot, stir it up, serve yourself, and then tell everyone it’s ready.

Serve and enjoy!

Jordan likes it

Step 5: Have a friend make the beignets. They’re delish

Step 6: Bead up! It’s time to party!!!!

Delicious Level: 5/5 Noms (om nom nom nom nom nom)

Difficulty Level: SO Easy!

Lesson Learned: None? That was really really really easy.

Here's to eatin' good and eatin' local! Cheers and uff-da!

Little darling, stir it up!

After reading this you may rethink my qualifications for having a cooking blog. I've never made stir fry before. I've never even cooked rice before. There! I said it! phew glad I got that off my chest!


We had some new beef stir fry meet ready to be cooked so I figured I'd go ahead and tackle it. We didn't have soy sauce (bought it, left it in Raleigh), sesame oil, peanut oil, or cooking wine. We also had no rice, carrots, onions, or bean sprouts. Basically the only thing we had in the fridge was the beef stir fry meet. Oops. In insight next time I make this meal I'll probably make it a 'clean out the fridge' type deal.

What you need for beef stir fry a la alison:
1 onion
3/4 cup of sliced mushrooms
white rice (or whatever kind of rice you choose to use)
1lb beef stir fry meat
head of broccoli (is that a measurement?)
handful of beansprouts (somewhere between Shaq's handful and Jen Arnold's handful)
Peanut oil
Sesame oil
vegetable oil
white cooking wine
soy sauce
garlic clove
ginger root (Ginger?! Whatcha doin, Ginger?!)

No, not that Ginger!!

Step 1: Find all of these things.
Step 2: chop up all the vegetables into delicious sized pieces and mix them together (bean sprouts are fine the way they are (just like you ;)))
Step 3: chop up the garlic and some ginger (Ginger?!) and throw it in your massive pan that you will use non stop throughout this meal. Make sure it can hold ALL the crap you plan to throw in it. Seriously.
Step 4: Chop up your stir fry meat into little cubes.
Step 5: Throw some peanut oil, sesame oil, vegetable oil, soy sauce and some of that nice cooking wine into a pan with your garlic and make it nice and steamy in your house. This combo should make your house smell like an Asian restaurant (in a good way). If it doesn't smell like an Asian restaurant then add some more of your favorite oil from the ones you already put in.
Step 6: Toss in the meat! Oh yeah! Cook it on medium heat so it slow cooks and cooks evenly. Your apartment should smell like deliciousness even more now.

This picture reminds me... go ahead and cook your rice. It doesn't have to be hot when you add it into the pan, just cooked.

Step 7: Remove the meat from the pan and put it in a bowl beside the stove. Add some more veggie oil and some more of that rice wine... maybe some more of the other oils too if you're feeling saucy (see what i did there?). Make sure it's all mixed up real nice like.
Step8: Throw all your veggies into the pan and stir it up. It should continue to smell like delicious. If it no longer smells like delicious then you put something gross in your stir fry. Don't do that again. Stir the deliciousness around for a while until it's all coated in the sauce and make sure the broccoli is cooked all the way. Your mushrooms won't cook through because as we learned from Julie and Julia, you can't crowd the mushrooms if you want them to cook and honestly we just threw them into a big ol' pot of grand central station at 5pm so you're a little S.O.L. on the 'not crowding' thing.

Step 9: Throw the Meat in. This will make it browner and meatier and deliciouser. If you don't eat meat, I don't know why you read this blog as all of the recipes have amazing meat in them. You should start eating meat.
Step 10: Seriously. Start eating meat. It's so good if you do it right :D
Step 11: Add the rice and keeps stirring. 

Good grief that looks amazing.

Step 12: Put it on a plate and freaking crush that stuff! It was super tasty.

Step 13: Say bye to your man as he walks out of the house for the weekend, leaving you with this:

Oops. That was way too many dishes for this simple of a meal. My b.

Delicious Level: 4/5 Noms (om nom nom nom nom) - Super delicious but still haven't topped those short ribs!

Difficulty Level: Kind of a pain in the neck in terms of cleaning up and having enough hands to get it all cooked at once but overall it was pretty easy.

Lesson Learned: Use less dishes. Dear lord.

Here's to eatin' good and eatin' local! Cheers and uff-da!