Brie Burger

I made this burger with brie, carmelized onions and apricot sauce. I had something similar at a build-your-own-burger restaurant. Try it sometime!

This burger is completely homemade, including the bun.

BRIE BURGER
Moomie's beautiful burger bun (recipe to follow)
Hamburger patty (recipe to follow)
1 once brie, melted on top of patty.
1 Tbs apricot sauce (recipe to follow)
Carmelized onion
Lettuce, tomato, pickles as desired.

MOOMIE'S BEAUTIFUL BURGER BUNS (makes 8 buns)

1 cup water

2 Tbs butter

1 egg

3 1/4 cups flour

1/4 cup sugar

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs instant yeast

Place all ingrediants in bread machine and let it run the entire cycle.

Divide dough into 8 equal parts and shape into buns. Place on a greased cookie sheet and let rise for 30 minutes.

Bake at 375 degrees for 12-15 minutes, until golden brown. Let cool before serving.

APRICOT SAUCE

1/4 cup apricot preserves

1 Tbs white vinegar

salt and pepper to taste

Mix apricot preserves and vinegar together. Add a pinch of salt and a little but of pepper. Taste and add more salt if too sweet.

HAMBURGERS (makes 4 patties)

1 lb ground beef

1 Tbs mustard (any kind you like: yellow, dijon, grainy, etc)

1 clove garlic, smashed

1 tsp seasoned salt (regular salt is fine)

1 tsp pepper

Combine all ingredients until just combined. Do not overmix. Shape into 4 equal sized patties. Create a small divet in the center of each patty. Grill or pan fry.

To make the brie burger, melt 1 ounce of brie on each burger.

Lime Cran Apple

Back in March Jeff and I visited my parents in Arizona for a long weekend. We flew on Southwest and they introduced me to my new favorite drink. I ordered a cranberry apple juice and to my surprise, it came with a wedge of lime. Let me tell you, it was delicious!

All you need:

Glass filled about 1/3 to 1/2 way with crushed ice

Cranberry apple juice

Lime juice (1/4 lime if you're using fresh)

I admit, this time around, I only have the bottled stuff. But it still works. But just fill the rest of the glass with the juice and add a squirt or two of lime juice. Stir it up and enjoy!

If using a fresh lime, squeeze the 1/4 of a lime in there and add the juiced rind.

San Francisco

We had an awesome time yesterday visiting San Francisco with Haley and Tyler. Somehow, in more than 10 years of friendship, this is the first time Haley and I had ever been to "The City" together. Needless to say, it was glorious (or glonous). We went to the deYoung in Golden Gate Park and the Legion of Honor by the Presidio. We saw some great art and ate great food.





We started with some mediterranean at Yumma's on Irving and 9th.

Then we went to the deYoung museaum at Golden Gate Park for a little culture.

After driving through the maze of one way streets, we made our way through Laurel Heights and toward the Presidio for the Legion of Honor. It was incredible. The building, the art, everything was spectacular.

By unanimous decision, we decided on some Italian in Little Italy. We were not disappointed.

Haley got squid ink linguini with mussels, calamari and clams.

Tyler got pasta with duck sauce.

Jeff got taglionlini with Italian sausage, porcini mushrooms and cream sauce.

I got the Tre Paste. Chicken ravioli with cream sauce, penne with pink sauce and gnocci with red sauce. I was in heaven.

Afterwards, we got ice cream at Ghiradelli. And some canoli and a giant palmiere for today. But one of the best parts? Hanging out all day with this lady.

It was a much needed getaway with some great company.

Shoes!

I bought new shoes! There are these:





And these:








But these are my favorite:


So I'm a little shoe obsessed! I have no problem with it.

Ben Folds!

Ben Folds was AWESOME! I loved it! He even had a great opening act. We even bought her CD. But the star was definitely Ben. It was just him and a piano. He has so many songs that it would have been too hard to play them all or even all of my favorites, but he played a great mix of so many greats. He even covered a few that were a surprise. Some of my favorites:

The Last Polka - One of my all-time favorite songs of his.

Not the Same - This was one of his encore songs. He got the crowd involved by having them sing the "ah" chord. It actually sounded really beautiful. Good job to us!

Such Great Heights - The second of his encore. I knew he's covered this Postal Service hit before adn seen it on YouTube, but it was even better live.

Purple Haze - Yup, he did Purple Haze on the piano.

Landed - Such a beautiful song

Oh, and both songs where he brought out the drums. So it was actually him, a piano and drums. He had stagehands that brought out pieces of a drum set one by one as he played them. He's actually a pretty incredible drummer. I was very impressed with the whole show. I can't wait til he comes to California again, because I'm definitely going.

Conan!

Yup, we got tickets and it was AWESOME! It was everything we could have dreamed it to be. He even brought the "Walker, Texas Ranger Lever"...oops! I mean the "Chuck Norris Rural Police Officer Hand Pull." For a guy that has never done standup before, he really nailed the whole experience. The only minor glitch was that the guy next to me weighted about 400 lbs, so I really only got half a seat. But the laughter more than made up for it. Sorry the picture sucks. That's what happens when you take pictures with your phone. I'll post some of the good ones when I download them from the camera.