Cooking: Hamburgers!

I've never cooked a hamburger. It's probably been twenty or so years since I had anything other than a fast food burger. However, after making meat loaf with tersa, we had a good deal of meat left. I tossed it into the freezer to wait until I could buy buns so I could try making burgers.

Buns in hand, I was ready to cook!

...that statement sounds more wrong than it was.

How hard could cooking a burger be? Shape it into a patty, toss it... um... into a broiler pan? Frying pan? Save me, Google! Okay, frying pan it is! Most sites said medium-high heat, four minutes on one side, two to four on the other. Sounds simple!

How the heck are burgers supposed to stay together? I patted and shaped and pressed my meat (oh baby!), but I couldn't make nice round patties that would stay together. Oh well! Once the frying pan was hot, I tossed the misshapen things in.

The fire department arrived soon after.

Okay, not really, but it was a mad scramble to get the battery out of my smoke alarm.

All sites said to cook it until it was 160 in the center, but I'm starting to wonder how accurate my meat thermometer is. At the eight minute mark (four per side) they were only 100 degrees inside. I checked them every two minutes, but they never got over 130. By the sixteen minute mark (double the time needed for thicker burgers!) I just took them out.

My first thought, before tasting them, was that it was totally not worth it. My apartment was full of greasy smoke. Corner to corner, all rooms, all the laundry I had just washed and hung up to dry, covered in greasy smoke. (I swear, my floors feel slick!) Then I tried one.

Oh. My. God. So good! They were a little (or a lot) burned on the outside and not pink at all in the middle, so I'm guessing they were cooked. So good! I inhaled them. And, unlike fast food burgers, I didn't need to set them swimming in condiments -- just a small dab of mayo and a squeeze of ketchup.

My apartment is still an issue. I think I can only do this when I can have all the windows open (it's hot today, so I have the AC on and everything closed up), and I need to bring my big box fans in and set them up. I can't believe how much smoke these things made! And my poor pan is going to need a scrubbin'.

Still: Best burgers I've eaten in twenty or so years! :D

Cooking: Hamburgers!

I've never cooked a hamburger. It's probably been twenty or so years since I had anything other than a fast food burger. However, after making meat loaf with tersa, we had a good deal of meat left. I tossed it into the freezer to wait until I could buy buns so I could try making burgers.

Buns in hand, I was ready to cook!

...that statement sounds more wrong than it was.

How hard could cooking a burger be? Shape it into a patty, toss it... um... into a broiler pan? Frying pan? Save me, Google! Okay, frying pan it is! Most sites said medium-high heat, four minutes on one side, two to four on the other. Sounds simple!

How the heck are burgers supposed to stay together? I patted and shaped and pressed my meat (oh baby!), but I couldn't make nice round patties that would stay together. Oh well! Once the frying pan was hot, I tossed the misshapen things in.

The fire department arrived soon after.

Okay, not really, but it was a mad scramble to get the battery out of my smoke alarm.

All sites said to cook it until it was 160 in the center, but I'm starting to wonder how accurate my meat thermometer is. At the eight minute mark (four per side) they were only 100 degrees inside. I checked them every two minutes, but they never got over 130. By the sixteen minute mark (double the time needed for thicker burgers!) I just took them out.

My first thought, before tasting them, was that it was totally not worth it. My apartment was full of greasy smoke. Corner to corner, all rooms, all the laundry I had just washed and hung up to dry, covered in greasy smoke. (I swear, my floors feel slick!) Then I tried one.

Oh. My. God. So good! They were a little (or a lot) burned on the outside and not pink at all in the middle, so I'm guessing they were cooked. So good! I inhaled them. And, unlike fast food burgers, I didn't need to set them swimming in condiments -- just a small dab of mayo and a squeeze of ketchup.

My apartment is still an issue. I think I can only do this when I can have all the windows open (it's hot today, so I have the AC on and everything closed up), and I need to bring my big box fans in and set them up. I can't believe how much smoke these things made! And my poor pan is going to need a scrubbin'.

Still: Best burgers I've eaten in twenty or so years! :D

Sad... sort of. (FFXI)

Lottery ended today. I actually did a lot better than last year (two rank 4 prizes, took hides -- last year I got nothing). And, as planned, as soon as it ended I canceled my content IDs.


[Damask is on the list as well, but that's all the window would display.]

It's funny, for the last two months it's been bugging me that I couldn't cancel (I had almost never logged on other than to buy the lottery marbles) but I was still sad to do this tonight.

I'm happy that I'm not leaving with bad feelings, no "give me my five years back! D: ". In a way I wish I could still love the game, but in a bigger way I'm very happy I don't anymore.

I would have enjoyed giving my stuff away, but people who quit always kick themselves for doing that when they come back. I fully intend to never return... but everyone who quits says that.

I wish I wasn't sad over this. I've been wanting to cancel my account, and it's not like I can't come back (for the low low low price of $30! Or whatever the figure they gave was). And not only was I not logging on, I didn't want to log on... so there's no reason to feel sad.

Still: Blah.

Goodbye, FFXI. It was a good five years.

Sad... sort of. (FFXI)

Lottery ended today. I actually did a lot better than last year (two rank 4 prizes, took hides -- last year I got nothing). And, as planned, as soon as it ended I canceled my content IDs.


[Damask is on the list as well, but that's all the window would display.]

It's funny, for the last two months it's been bugging me that I couldn't cancel (I had almost never logged on other than to buy the lottery marbles) but I was still sad to do this tonight.

I'm happy that I'm not leaving with bad feelings, no "give me my five years back! D: ". In a way I wish I could still love the game, but in a bigger way I'm very happy I don't anymore.

I would have enjoyed giving my stuff away, but people who quit always kick themselves for doing that when they come back. I fully intend to never return... but everyone who quits says that.

I wish I wasn't sad over this. I've been wanting to cancel my account, and it's not like I can't come back (for the low low low price of $30! Or whatever the figure they gave was). And not only was I not logging on, I didn't want to log on... so there's no reason to feel sad.

Still: Blah.

Goodbye, FFXI. It was a good five years.