How to fail at making burgers

It's the effort that counts right? That fact that I tried? At least they looked pretty normal... even if they tasted like crumbly rocks.

First off let me preface this with the fact I have never made a burger at home in my life.
So I was a little clueless where to start to make a home burger. I knew first I needed meat...which was a small problem.

You see I have a horrible aversion to raw meats of any kind. I hate touching raw meat, beef, chicken, turkey, anything. Its icky. I also can not stomach to eat anything off the bone. My friends tell me I am a freak. Oh well thats not the only freaky thing about me! ;)

So to avoid my raw meat conundrum I normally buy frozen boneless chicken strips to cook and eat a lot of meatless dishes. That wasn't going to work for this, I wanted a burger damnit!

I found these raw burger patties, to avoid having to touch ground beef. That was probably mistake number one. 

Having never made a burger and being without a grill, I proceeded to ask everyone I know how to cook a burger stovetop. This lead me to get a lot of conflicting advice everything from "just throw it in a pan" to "butter the pan, add X seasonings, x ingredients, then add burger"

I decided to take the simplest advice and go with just throw it in the pan. Added a little salt and pepper. I was anxious about the greasing popping and afraid of them being undercooked and burned all at the same time... so I constantly was checking them. Probably, mistake number two.

They started to look hideous and crumbly but were still all bleedy in places... where were my pretty burgers? 

photo from stock.xchng

I also don't like to eat anything with pink. I let them cook a little longer to try to avoid any pinkness in the center. Pulled them from the pan to cut them open and be sure they were not pink. 

Satisfied I was not going to die from having to eat anything still pink. I forgot I needed to melt the cheese on them. Because cheese makes everything better. So I stuck them back on the pan for a minute. Mistake number three. 

..... and well I slathered them in ketchup, put them on a nice whole wheat bun next to some very delicious cajun seasoned sweet potato fries and hoped for the best. 

Well sometimes hope just ain't enough. My poor burgers were very tough, crumbly and tasted like cheesy, ketchuped rocks. 

Oh well, you can't win them all right? I learned a lot from this experience and will be re-attempting the home burger in the near future.  

Dishes Done!

Oh blog! I have not forgotten you, I just keep getting sidetracked! Drat!  Lots of updates coming however. :D

In the meantime, a tip for a daily chore...
A helpful tip that seems so simple and yet I know of so many who do not do it.  Including myself and my roommates until recently. None of us really mind doing the dishes, all of us are somewhat lazy though and our kitchen could rival this...

Seriously, why didn't I think of this foil contraption? Would have helped at some points! 

But now no more! For the past two and a half weeks we have successfully kept no more than 4 dishes in our sink at any given time. 

Doing the dishes as you go. My mom always preached it to my siblings and I as kids, but I never listened until now.

It literally takes only a minute to rinse the dish immediately and place it in the dishwasher. Not a lot of scrubbing or elbow grease because it hasn't sat getting crusty for a week (or five).  Once the dishwasher is full switch it on. Whenever you have a few minutes, empty dishwasher, begin process again. OMG THIS IS SO SIMPLE,  I am on my way to being all tidy and neat!  

Now I enjoy the serenity of a clear sink....and it really makes me want to be in the kitchen more! 

This is not my actual sink. I am not that cool yet.... 

Alright that is all I have for now. More food adventures in the future (including a fail at burger making D: ) and lots more about cleaning coming up. Me and my one roommate have jump started spring cleaning and have cleaned everything!  Well almost...