Weekend Suppers

I love weekend dinners. They are more relaxed and after a long week, I usually gravitate more towards comfort foods. Homemade pizza, turkey burgers, nachos, and quesadillas are some favorites! Friday nights we don't eat the the dinning room table and instead curl up on the couch with our food and beverages and begin unwinding after the work week. Last weekend, we stopped at The Wurst Shop in Dickinson, ND, so we had some lean ground beef and bison brats to try. I tried to look up more on the history of this shop, but I could not find anything. The sign is visible from the interstate and every time we drive by one of us mentions wanting to see what it is all about. Inside, we were greeted by the smell of spiced sausage. There were cases with different cuts of beef, pork and bison, plus long ropes of fresh sausage. They also had freezer cases with more meats and treats such as kuchen. Two older gentlemen greeted and served the customers. I am not sure what we were expecting, but it was a quaint place and I felt good supporting a local food supplier.
Growing up, we always had burgers on Sunday night. My dad would usually grill them and we would watch a movie as a family. I have memories of eating juicy pizza burgers and watching Star Wars. Similar to my milk experience (see previous post), I also went through a dislike of beef stage. I could barely choke through half of a burger sometimes before I would say I was full and my family would debate with me all of the reasons why I couldn't (or wouldn't) eat the whole hamburger. My mom would even make my beef patty smaller than everyone else had! Still today I don't have beef burgers very often because I prefer a well seasoned turkey burger instead. I was curious to try out this beef though since it is local and more fresh than what I usually would buy in the grocery store. Last week I had made homemade pizza, so we still had some pizza sauce and mozzarella cheese left over- perfect for pizza burgers!
I added some minced onion, garlic, grill seasoning, and Worcestershire sauce to 1 pound of ground beef. Aaron grilled them until medium well- about 5-7 minutes on each side. When almost done, spoon 1-2 tablespoons of pizza sauce on the burger and top with mozzarella or provolone cheese and heat until cheese is melted.I topped mine with fresh basil to go along with the pizza theme and we ate them in thin buns. Delicious!
Along with the burgers, I made some roasted, Parmesan potato strips.
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Wash and cut 2-4 red potatoes into strips. 3. Spread potatoes on baking pan
4. Drizzle with olive oil and season with coarse salt, pepper, garlic, and Parmesan cheese
5. Bake for about 12 minutes, flip and continue to roast for about 10 more minutes or until browned and crispy.

A fresh caprese salad made a nice side for this Mediterranean flavored meal. Take fresh basil leaves and layer several on top of each other. Roll the leaves tightly and cut thinly with a sharp knife (also known as a basil chiffinade). Cut up a fresh tomato and mozarella cheese (or small pieces of fresh mozarella balls) and mix with the basil. Drizzle with olive oil and season with coarse salt and black pepper. You can also layer slices of tomato, mozzarella cheese and basil leaves and serve on a platter, drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper.
Fresh, juicy watermelon slices made a great ending to our summer supper meal! Enjoy!

Feel free to share some of your own favorite summer meals!