The Tiffany Burger

I make the best burgers.

THE BEST.

And I am not one to brag about my cooking too much.  I mean, really, I can cook, you have all seen evidence of that.  My food is pretty good.  It is tasty, for sure.  Tasty and brag-worthy are two very different things. But my burgers?  They are off the hook.  I have been told that they are better than In-n-Out Burgers on more than one occasion by more than one person.  For those of you that do not know, that is pretty much the highest compliment a burger can have... at least in my book. 

Here is the thing: In-n-out burgers are amazing because the meat is juicy, yes, but mostly because of what they put ON their burgers.  They have this amazing sauce, fresh ingredients, bread made fresh and not dry.  For fast food, In-n-Out is king.  Shoot, for food in general In-n-Out is king.

The thing that makes my burgers so good is not really what I put on them, but what I put IN them.  Wanna see what I am talking about?

There you have it: The Tiffany Burger.  (Not to be confused with burgers made of Tiffany...)

So, what's the secret?  Ketchup and onions, garlic and salt (or garlic salt...), breadcrumbs, Parmesan, and the best ingredient: chopped up basil leaves.  Wowser, this thing kicks some serious burger-booty.  Build it on a simple bun with your basic condiments, the ketchup/mayo/mustard variety, and top with cheese, tomatoes, and more basil.  I don't even flatten them in a real way, I just kind of mix all the ingredients, grab a handful, smoosh just enough to make flat-ish, and throw them in the pan.  Or the grill.  Anyway you do it will pretty much yield the same result: mind-blowing.  A treat for your taste buds, to say the least.

There you have it, my total bragging about my food.  You know what?  I don't even feel ashamed of this unabashed boasting of my skills.  Try one tonight, and you will see for yourself.

Paulo can't have just one... but they are so filling that his belly probably wishes he could.

COST = $7.95        PER SERVING (4) = $2

An All American Classic: Tuna Casserole

My love of tuna came early on.  It might be attributed to the fact that my grandpa worked at the Starkist headquarters and therefore I had a lot of it when we were visiting him.  In fact, when I was a little girl with pigtails in my hair and small enough to still sit in the chair on the shopping carts, my mom would push me around the grocery store, checking off her list, while I would be singing, "My Grandma makes the tuna, my grandpa makes the tuna.  If you love tuna then YOU LOVE MY GRANDPA!"  (This was during my phase when I did not yet realize that the world was not a musical like "Annie".  This singing was not limited to just tuna.  My poor mother.)

Later, after years of tuna sandwiches for lunch (alternately switched with PB&J... no turkey and cheese for me, no sirree!), I hit a vegetarian streak in my life.  I gave up chicken and hamburgers without that much of a problem.  But I sure did miss those tuna sandwiches!  Luckily for me, there was Tuno.  Yes, Tun-O.  Looks kind of like tuna, smells kind of like tuna, comes in a can like tuna.  Except that can doesn't just say, "Dolphin friendly" on it.  Oh no, it says, "Tuna and dolphin friendly".  I don't think it was soybean friendly, though...  Apparently I liked it enough because I ate so much of it that for Christmas I got a shipping box full of cans of Tuno.

I kid you not.

I snapped out of this fake-meat mode when I moved for a bit to the beautiful islands of Micronesia to teach school.  You don't eat fake meat in Micronesia, you eat fresh-from-the-sea meat or chicken-snatched-from-the-bushes meat.  That, and canned meat.  Spam, people LOVE spam over there.  Me?  Spam?  Nah.  But the love of canned tuna came back along with the experience of eating fish straight off the bone.  Both were delicious, but only one made a killer sandwich.  Tuna sandwiches, tuna dip, grilled tuna Reuben's... I was the Bubba Gump of tuna.

(Enjoying some of that fresh fish in Ebeye)

This being said, I guess there should be no surprise that we eat a lot of tuna casserole in our home.  The great thing is that even though this is a simple food, the Brazilian half of our extended family thinks that it is a gourmet dish simply because it is not common in Brazil.  Imagine my relief when I have the pressure of making something fabulous to feed my mother/father/sister/aunts/uncles/cousins-in-law and they ask, "Ooohhh, do you think you can make tuna casserole?"  And then they turn and smile at each other, sending the same message back and forth: Tonight we are going to be eating GOOD!

The great thing about this dish is there is no-one-way to do it.  Basically, if you have the main ingredients of Cream of Something (mushroom or celery) Soup, Tuna, and noodles, you can change it up however you want.  Below is the Tiffany version of Tuna Casserole.  I make it without a recipe and sometimes add more or less, but this is what I did today and it was great.

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pack egg noodles
• 2 cans tuna
• 2 cans cream of mushroom soup
• 1 heaping Tablespoon of mayonnaise
• 1/4 cup milk
• 1/4 onion, chopped
• 1 half bag of frozen peas
• Mrs. Dash or other seasoning
• salt and pepper, to taste
• bread crumbs

DIRECTIONS

1. Preheat oven to 425.  Bring water to boil in large pot and add egg noodles.  Cook for 7-8 min.
2. Meanwhile, in large mixing bowl add the rest of the ingredients except the bread crumbs.  Stir in egg noodles after they are cooked and drained.
3. In large casserole dish, dump contents in and sprinkle bread crumbs on top.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.  (Remove the tin foil for the last 5-7 minutes to give it a golden crispiness on the top.)

COST = $6.70        PER SERVING (4) = $1.68
Plus bread w/ butter and sliced tomatoes = $1.93 per serving