Burgers Al Fresco

April 27, 2012

• Grilled hamburgers with peppers and onions
• Potato Chips
• Crudité
• Henry Weinhard's Root Beer or Sangria

It was the end of a busy week which left little time to spend preparing a meal. We returned from our mini-vacation in Southern California late on Wednesday. Thursday and Friday were pretty normal days filled with work and catching up. The activity level picked up again when we got to the weekend.

Saturday morning we headed to downtown San Jose to participate in the March for Babies, a fund raiser for the March of Dimes, where we walked as members of the Pirate Power team. Following the walk and a brief stop at home we were on the road again, this time to Monterey for the Big Sur International Marathon. I have walked in the 10.6-mile and 21-mile events since 2000 and Diane has joined me the last few years. It's become an annual tradition and this year, as last, we walked together up the breathtaking Big Sur coast in the 10.6-miler.

For many years we would always stop on the way home at a McDonalds for lunch. However, we are now forging a new tradition, taking a different route home and stopping at Gizdich Ranch.  Gizdich is known for its apples and berries which you can buy in season and even pick yourself. Diane has visited there several times in the past to pick berries of various sorts. They are also famous for the pies made in their bakery which also serves sandwiches. We were too early in the season for any of the berries and they had only a few apples on sale from last year. Nonetheless it was a lovely day for a picnic lunch on the lawn adjacent to an apple orchard enjoying their nice, home-style sandwiches. We also bought some of their apple cider to take home.

For Sunday supper we needed something pretty simple. Inspired by the warm, sunny weather (which I, for one, have been yearning for) we have just this week started eating dinner outside on the deck. We eat outdoors for about half the year, so long as it is warm enough to be reasonably comfortable. We have even eaten in the dark, albeit with a floodlight wearing jackets to ward off the chill.

Hamburgers seemed to fit the need for a simple meal. A few days in advance I bought 1⅓ pounds of 80% lean ground beef from the store to make four burgers. I was happy to also find a package of four hamburger buns, rather than the usual eight. I fried some onion and bell pepper in butter to top the burgers along with lettuce, tomatoes, and ketchup. The hamburgers were cooked quickly on the grill. Some potato chips and fresh veggies completed the meal. We had considered stopping to buy sweet corn on the way home, having had our first ears of the season just a few days earlier, but we didn't bother. The corn isn't really good anyway until you can get locally grown product.

You have probably seen more photos of hamburgers than of any other food, and I know my pictures don't compare to those. But I am not a food stylist and I don't paint grill marks on the edges of the burger the way they do for the fast food commercials. However, the hamburgers tasted good and it didn't take very much time, effort, or planning to prepare the meal. That was just wat was needed on this Sunday spring evening.