Homemade food is healthier, tastier, cheaper and can be altered to handle almost any food-related allergy. Additionally, cooking makes you feel accomplished, knowing how simple most cooking is.

In today's post I'm sharing with you how I make:

Simple Cheeseburgers

Before you start, preheat the oven to about 350F - that's roughly gas mark 4 or 150C in the UK.

So, I start with some ground beef. (Best if it's at room temperature!)
I've got probably about two pounds here - though I didn't weigh it. It's not critical with this recipe to know exactly how much it is. (At least, not for home use.) This time, I was using 90/10, so 90% lean, 10% fat. It's not super important to the recipe which one you use.

Per pound of meat (roughly), I added:

• 1 egg, room temperature
• 1 Tablespoon onion flakes
• 1 Tablespoon Italian seasoning
• 1/2 Tablespoon garlic granules
• 1 handful old-fashioned oats

(Instead of oats, you might use rice krispies, bread crumbs, sesame seeds... You can add different seasonings - or extra seasonings.)

This is why you want the meat room temperature (and the eggs too, really).
The best way to mix up ground beef is with your (freshly-washed) hands! Get in there and squidge everything together.

I grab a handful of mixture and use my hand to form a patty in the palm of my hand. (My mother taught me to put that on a cutting board and use a fork to pat it down nicely, but I find that using my hands works pretty well and dirties fewer dishes!)

I've got a dozen patties on my baking sheet lined with a silicone baking mat. The mat makes cleanup a breeze and helps extend the life of modern non-stick baking sheets which tend to scratch and peel way too quickly! (That's why I bought them.)

Put the burgers in the over for about half an hour.

Meanwhile, prepare the cheese - if you want cheeseburgers.

I am using a cheese slice, which (for me) is the easiest way of getting the slices for cheeseburgers. They don't have to be perfect.

I have classmates who produce milk for Tillamook, so I use it whenever I can. They have a great reputation in the town I grew up in, so are worth the effort.

(I buy it at Sam's Club, which has the best price of any cheddar in my area. I've already worked out that the savings on cheese alone justifies the membership cost.)

I also assemble the "extras" for the burgers... slices of tomatoes, pickles... mixed salad since that was what I had on hand.

At last, the burgers are done. I take them out of the oven and add on the cheese slices quickly.

I return them to the oven for a couple of minutes - just long enough to melt the cheese.

Finally, I get to assemble my supper.

We were out of bought ketchup that day - and I forgot that I had some homemade ketchup to use...
You might like to have yours with buns or other sauces... but this is how it was for me this time.

Previous recipes in Lori's Cookbook

Crossposted at Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu, Hyperspace

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Lori Svensen
author/designer at A'mara Books
photographer/graphic artist for Viking Visual
verified author on Goodreads
find me on Twitter
blogging on: Steem, Whaleshares, WeKu, Hyperspace

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