The Taste of Home.

Wait – let me stop and unbutton the top button on my jeans. 

Okay now I can take a breath and tell you this story.I almost named this post ‘Ode to a hamburger’  but on second thought, maybe that would have been too romantic.  On maybe Wednesday of this week, Camillo said, “I stopped at the butcher and bought hamburger meat so you can cook us a hamburger.” I almost groaned out loud thinking ‘oh hamburgers here are sooooo baaaad.  not at all worth the calories.’  Background:  to buy hamburger meat you have to stop at a butcher and have it made fresh, that sounds good but they double or triple grind it – put it through the grinder until it has the texture of water soaked bread and there is no fat on the meat (good thing for your body) to add flavor while grilling.   But to the shock and dismay of the butcher Camillo insisted on only one pass through the grinder and to use type A  meat.  (whatever that means)

By Friday my mind (and body) got into the idea and I started planning the meal.

This morning I thawed the meat and thought about going to spinning class so I deserved to eat a hamburger with BUN.  But didn’t – sat in front of the computer reading the news, making comments on FSO blogs and answering emails….. I know I burned at least 250 calories doing this finger tapping workout.   This afternoon at exactly 1:00, I put the meat in a bowl, salt and peppered it, added about a tablespoon of vegetable oil and set it aside.  Cleaned and thin sliced a couple of medium sized white potatoes – set them aside.  cleaned lettuce, sliced tomatoes, sliced onion put on two small plates and set them on the table….

NOW the good part.  Sautéed in butter - mushrooms, onion and crushed garlic in a small pan.  Removed them from the heat…. put the drippings on a flat skillet and grilled 3 hamburger patties.  (rare!) Meanwhile in a small pan I fried the potatoes in hot oil till crispy (here called batata Portuguese) at home maybe could be considered homemade potato chips.

Removed the hamburgers, sliced the buns (store bought Brazilian style buns) toasted them on the grill, set the hamburger with mushrooms and onions, open faced buns and potatoes (chips) on a plate with the lettuce etc. on the side.   Did you notice I don’t have a photo?  Jeeze, they were so good.  They tasted just like home….. sorry I forgot to stop and take a photos – next time okay?