Caprese Stuffed Chicken Burgers

I know you guys are probably tired about hearing me talk about my cat these days, but I gotta say: the unconditional love and forgiveness of animals is something that has absolutely amazed me in these past couple of weeks.

Jake still hates his meds (not that I blame him-- I wouldn't like people shoving things in my mouth and down my throat either), but I like to say that he's in denial about them. The easiest way I've found to give him his inhalers is for me to kneel down on the floor and put him between my knees. Every time I do this, he's happy and starts purring and is just generally pleased to get what he thinks is love and attention. I do my best to make it pleasant, speaking in a calming voice and petting him with my free hand, giving him treats, but as soon as he sees the Aerocat, he just goes NOOOOOOPE, and tries to push it away with his paw. Two inhalers, three times a day we do this.

Then he goes on the kitchen table for his eye ointment and his oral gel. I would think he'd start to get anxious on the table, because he never used to be allowed up, so he has to know what's coming. But he's completely relaxed, purring, and lying down to get more pets. He only gets agitated when the oral syringe gets near his mouth, or he sees the eye ointment coming. (Pills are a different story. Pills are the devil. He sees a pill, he's not a happy camper, and if I get it in his mouth, he will cheek it, spitting it out after he gets his treat. Luckily, we finished pills on Monday) Then he gets praise and wet food (his favorite), and when his belly is full, he comes looking for snuggles.

I can't explain to Jake that I'm doing this to help him. I can't explain that he needs the Aerocat on his face so he doesn't have trouble breathing or that the eye ointment will make his eyes feel better, or that the oral gel is going to keep all of his upper respiratory symptoms from coming back. (I don't know what his problem is with the oral gel. It smells like maple syrup. I kind of want to eat it myself) So the fact that he doesn't seem to hold any of it against me and is still my little massive snugglebutt at the end of the day, never ceases to amaze me.

What does this have to do with chicken burgers? Nothing really, except my kitchen table is now a kitty medicating station, so I had to take pictures on a trunk in the dining room library, which involved kneeling on the floor. This meant that a certain furry someone had to come over and help, and mostly did that by getting underfoot and yelling at me for not sitting on the couch so he could snuggle.

Now, I'm not much of a red meat eater. Outside of chili or stew or meatloaf, I will pass. It's not a health thing; I'm just not much of a fan of the taste of beef. Turkey and veggie burgers are more my speed. When ground chicken was on sale at the grocery store, I decided to give some chicken burgers a try.

But, me being me, I wanted to do something special. Chicken burgers can often be pretty bland, so I picked up some fresh basil and some locally grown grape tomatoes (Jersey tomatoes FTW), with the idea of doing some sort of caprese chicken burger. With my general lack of burger-making knowledge, I hunted up this recipe from Domestic Fits, that stuffed the middle with the usual caprese ingredients. I just added some extra seasonings to the meat, et voila. Fancy stuffed chicken burgers ready in under 20 minutes.

The original recipe also gave a tip to simmer the burger in some chicken broth for the last few minutes of cooking to prevent the burger from drying out. I skipped it, because I was lazy, but my burger was plenty moist. I think this can mostly be attributed to the fact that I'm pretty sure the ground chicken I used was dark meat (or a dark/white mix). If you're using white meat, you may want to try the simmer method.

These burgers are tasty and super filling (you're basically getting two burgers in one). I didn't flatten the patties as much as I should have, so I wasn't able to add as much filling as I would have liked, but overall I was very pleased with them. I actually liked them better the next day-- the seasonings in the meat were a little more prominent. You could be totally Italian and serve these with drizzle of aged balsamic or a little tomato sauce, but I liked them with a good dollop of bbq sauce (I've been obsessed with Sweet Baby Ray's lately) on a toasted bun.

For a side dish, I just tossed a little pasta with the leftover filling, some olive oil, garlic powder, and oregano. Then I had to maneuver around a very large, purring furball to take pictures

Caprese Stuffed Chicken Burgers
Yield: 4 burgers

Ingredients
About 1/2 cup diced tomatoes (I used grape tomatoes, but any kind works, or used well-drained canned tomatoes)
Half of a sweet onion, minced
4-6 fresh basil leaves, roughly chopped
1 tsp. salt, divided
1 lb. ground chicken
1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used unseasoned panko)
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. dried parsley flakes
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Pinch crushed red pepper
About 1/4 cup shredded mozzarella
Olive oil, for the pan

Directions
In a small bowl, mix together the tomatoes, basil, about 2 tsp. minced onion, and 1/2 tsp. salt.

In a large bowl, add the ground chicken, remaining salt and onion, bread crumbs, minced garlic, oregano, garlic powder, parsley, black pepper, and crushed red pepper. Mix until well incorporated (don't overmix or the meat will be tough).

Divide the meat mixture into 8 equal sections and form into patties. On 4 of the patties, create a depression in the middle and add about 1 tbsp. of cheese and about 1/4 of the tomato mixture (eyeball it so you don't overfill it. Top with one of the remaining patties, and pinch the edges to seal it.

In a large skillet, heat the olive oil over medium high heat. Add the burgers (don't crowd the pan-- work in batches if necessary) and cook about 4-6 minutes per side, until each side is golden brown, and the chicken is cooked through. Serve hot.

Recipe adapted from Domestic Fits

Mmm, melty good stuff

Bowties Are Cool Blueberry Goat Cheese Pasta Salad

It's Saturday! You know what that means, kids: It's Doctor Who time!

Yay!!!!!

In case you missed it last week, I'm doing a new weekly series in honor of Doctor Who's 50th anniversary this year.

(Btdubs: Feel free to share your thoughts on last week's episode, The Bells of St. John. It wasn't my favorite episode, but I now totally get why Oswin was such a genius, and why the daleks turned her into one of them (although, I still don't get why the daleks would make other people dalek when they view everything else as inferior. They're not cybermen for crying out loud. They don't do upgrades) Annnnnnd discuss)

This week we're still focusing on the newest Doctor, because if he's only taught us one thing, it's that bowties are cool.

Source

On the interwebs, I read that Matt Smith's costume was originally supposed to be completely different and kind of pirate-y. I also read that Steven Moffat (executive producer and head writer) was completely against the idea of a bowtie, but that Matt wasn't really the Doctor until he donned the tweedy jacket and the bowtie and then started to pretend that his pen was a sonic screwdriver.

Side note: How adorable is Matt Smith? I want to shrink him and keep him in my pocket. Is that weird? I think that might be weird.

Given the inherent coolness of the bowtie, there was no doubt that I would make something with bowtie pasta for this series. My original thought was to do that trick where you dye the pasta by adding food coloring to the boiling water. Just a few drops it said. That's all you'll need, it said. It's so easy, it said.

It lied. Like a rug.

Instead of lovely TARDIS blue bowtie pasta, I had sad little grayish bowtie pasta. Those bowties were NOT cool.

Disheartened, I went to Home Goods for some retail therapy, where among other things, I found elderberry white balsamic vinegar. I was intrigued (and my brother immediately started quoting Monty Python), and grabbed it. Then I was watching Diners, Drive Ins, and Dives, and they made a pie with blueberries, goat cheese, and fresh basil. That flavor combination sounded fabulous, but we all know that I have some issues with pie.

Then suddenly, like an invasion of Sontarans, it struck: Blueberries. Blue, like the TARDIS is blue. With a fruity balsamic vinaigrette. In a pasta salad. A bowtie pasta salad. Which would be cool. Literally. Because it's served chilled.

...

My mommy thinks I'm funny.

Time itself must have bent over backwards to get me to make this salad, because it is officially my favorite salad in the history of ever. I'm not usually not a fan of the sweet/savory combo, and I never like fruit in my salad, but for some reason, this hits all the right notes. The firm pasta, the lightly sweet homemade vinaigrette, the bitterness of the spinach, the tang of the goat cheese, the slight tart of the berries, with the underlying note of the fresh basil. (The tomatoes are really just there for color. I picked them out afterwards. They didn't really go. Hashtag foodbloggerproblems)

Best. Salad. EVER. And also one of the prettiest. :3

Whovian or not, there are three facts that must be universally acknowledged as true:

1. Bowties are cool.
2. This salad is awesome.
3. And this is me almost every time I go to cook something:

Source

"What are you making?" "I don't know. It's a thing in progress. Respect the thing!"

Blueberry Goat Cheese Pasta Salad {Printable Version}

Yield: 6-8 servings

Ingredients

1 box (16 oz.) bowtie pasta

½ cup fruity white balsamic vinegar

½ cup olive oil

2 tsp. spicy brown mustard

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp. sea salt

½ tsp. freshly cracked black pepper

½ tsp. dried oregano

1 pint fresh blueberries

½ cup fresh basil, julienned

4 oz. goat cheese, crumbled

12 oz. fresh baby spinach (or your favorite lettuce)

Optional—cherry tomatoes

Directions

Cook the pasta according to the directions on the box. Drain and rinse well with cold water. While the pasta is cooking, mix together the vinaigrette: in a small mixing bowl, whisk together the balsamic, oil, mustard, garlic, salt, pepper, and oregano until smooth. Refrigerate until use.

Mix the cooked pasta with the blueberries, basil, half of the goat cheese, and about half of the vinaigrette (and cherry tomatoes, if using). To serve, line the bottom of a serving bowl or platter with the spinach, and top with the pasta. Sprinkle the remaining goat cheese on top, and drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette.

Serve cool.

Tip: Salt the boiling water for more flavorful pasta. I usually cook the pasta 1-2 minutes less than the shortest cook time on the box because I prefer it more firm.

Recipe by Kim

It kind of looks like it's crying, doesn't it?

...

OMG, don't blink, it's the weeping pasta salad!!!!!

Spaghetti Squash with Browned Butter and Goat Cheese

I think people expect receptionists to have secret, exciting lives. I got back to work this week and people kept asking me if I did anything cool or went anywhere exciting.

The real answer of cooking food and chasing down the cat so he doesn't try to make friends with the contractors' power tools did not seem to satisfy them.

So I told it in a different manner. I went to this super cute place, totally my style. It was under construction, which kind of sucked, but it was pet friendly and really comfortable. There are plenty of places to read and relax, lots of shopping, and there was a gourmet cook that was out of this world.

People were rather more impressed with that and asked me where I went.

Chez Kim, of course.

See, I don't really have any coworkers, other than G who I do security with, and who was the receptionist before me. I'm pretty much by myself all day, everyday. And while I know pretty much everyone, and everyone knows me, no one really knows me, if you catch my drift. I don't have water cooler chats or get to talk to people that sit near me. Maybe that's why people assume that I have a secret life. Shh, I'm Batman

G tries to convince people I'm funny, but no one believes her. I told her I don't believe her, either. She laughed.

Anyway, back to my original point. When I said that there was a gourmet cook, G laughed, but everyone else was curious.

Who's doing the cooking? they asked. I could almost see the gears turning in their heads. Boyfriend? Does she have a boyfriend? Would we know if she had a boyfriend? She's not married is she?

Me. I'm doing the cooking.

And then I got weird looks because you're apparently not supposed to cook for yourself when you're on vacation. But a) I like cooking, and b) I wouldn't have gotten this spaghetti squash, because no one else had the recipe. I didn't even have the recipe until I finished cooking it. Because that's how I roll.

Creamy and cheesy and buttery and ooey-gooey goodness. Browned butter and goat cheese and garlic get mixed to make a super creamy, decadent sauce. You've got the natural sweetness of the squash, then I added some fresh basil, some crumbled bacon, and some seasonings. I added some mozz on top for extra gooey melty-ness. And it was good.

I took healthy stuff and I drowned it in the thoroughly unhealthy to make it some nummy, nummy goodness. That fact is not lost on me.

And if I may suggest-- keep a bodybuilder on call to help you cut open the squash. That sucker was not giving it up. I had to break out the big knife, and klutzy me is normally kept far away from such sharp implements of doom. (oddly, I did not cut myself. But I did burn my thumb pretty badly.)


Spaghetti Squash with Browned Butter and Goat Cheese {Printable Version}
Yield: 4-6 serving

Ingredients
1 large spaghetti squash
¾ cup unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
4 oz. goat cheese
4 strips cooked bacon, crumbled
¼ cup roughly chopped fresh basil
½ tsp. sea salt
¼ tsp. freshly cracked black pepper
Pinch dried sage
Shredded mozzarella, for sprinkling

Directions
Preheat the oven to 375°F. Cut the squash in half lengthwise, scrape out the seeds, and place flesh side
down on a baking sheet. Bake 30-50 minutes, until the skin can be pricked with a fork. Using a fork,
scrape the flesh away from the skin into long “noodles.” Discard the skin.

While the squash is cooking, melt the butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat. Add the minced garlic
and continue to cook, stirring constantly, until the butter turns a light golden brown. Remove from heat
and let cool slightly.

Mix together the cooked squash, browned butter, and all remaining ingredients except the mozzarella,
until well combined and creamy. Add to a baking dish (a 9-inch pie plate should work, depending on the
size of your squash), sprinkle with mozzarella, and bake 5-10 minutes, until the cheese is melted. Let
cool slightly before serving.

Recipe by Kim