Bread and Wine: Mar-a-Lago Burgers

Hi, meet out family's new favorite burger.

I mean, seriously, any recipe that can make a turkey burger actually CRAVEABLE and BEAUTIFUL is a keeper. I had my suspicions about this one, what with all the crazy ingredients and really, let's be honest,  A TURKEY BURGER.

But no, it really is that good.

As Shauna says herself, it is kind of kooky, but what good stuff isn't?

Pull up a chair and let's eat.

The Recipe: Mar-a-Lago Burgers
Ingredients: Scallions, celery, Granny Smith apples, olive oil, ground turkey breast, salt, black pepper, Tabasco, lemon juice, fresh parsley, mango chutney. Special sauce: mayonnaise, ketchup, Tabasco, mango chutney

Intense, right? And I thought the Farmer's Market Potato Salad was a lot. So obviously it made complete sense for me to make them on the same day, you know, because my kitchen wasn't crazy enough.

Yes, it is a lot, but in a good way. We actually eat a lot of turkey burgers in our house, mostly for health reasons, lean protein and all, but they often befuddle me. Why must they always be rather dry? What can I add to get the "bird" taste out? I've added oregano and paprika before, which really is delicious, but still, I miss the oil and really the "body" you find in a beef burger.

Enter Mar-a-Lago burgers.

The scallions (fancy green onions), celery, and apples are cooked until soft BEFORE going in the meat. It adds oil and density without a lot of weight. Bonus is you get the teensiest hint of holiday flavor with that green apple. The mango chutney adds that "cranberry sauce" element to the turkey without being overwhelming.

The recipe says to make the burgers and to let them chill two hours before cooking. Given the said state of my kitchen, I had time to let them chill for one hour before cooking. They were delicious. The batch I cooked the next day had had the opportunity to chill all night and they were also delicious (I didn't notice a discernable difference). But what seasoned food isn't a bit better for having a long sit? I liked Shauna's recommendation to make them the night before they're wanted. Plus, you need a minute to recover from all the chopping.

Both batches turned out beautifully though. I fried them on a cast iron skillet where they seared darkly while golden juices running around them. I think they might be the prettiest non-beef burger I've ever seen.  I stacked them on wheat buns with Monterey Jack Cheese and special sauce (Shauna recommends White Cheddar, which I didn't have but when I tried it later when I HAD gone to the store, it really was good). The family loved them, and I had to make more sauce (it's the mango chutney--creepy sounding at first then love at first taste).

A highlight: my 20 month old son tasting the burger, then grabbing the entire patty and stuffing it into his mouth.

The Chapter: "The Mayor of the River"
It's fitting to write about this chapter tonight, a chapter where Shauna writes about celebrating her sailor brother. I got off the phone tonight with my own brother after a nice, comfortable hour talk, the first one in a while. A good brother is severely underestimated and under-valued. Tiny parts of me wish that I had had a sister growing up, but I wouldn't trade this brother of mine for the world. Like Shauna's, he brings out so many things in myself I know I wouldn't see otherwise. He understands and shares experiences with me that are singular. Ever since we were little kids he's helped me become more me. That's so worth celebrating.

Shauna writes about cooking her brother's return home meal when he comes back after a two-year sailing adventure around the world. She, the married sister with two babies, finds freedom in an open kitchen and lots of food to cook, to meditate on, to allow her to get in her groove. She thinks of and prays for her brother, the bachelor, the mayor of the river, while she works.

I love this and I have notes all over the page where she talks about needing to get away to the kitchen to think and chop. Chopping, shucking, prepping, mixing are all centering guides, reframing her mind, coaxing her back to centeredness and prayer.

I have felt this so much this week--another week of ear infections, another week of off-kilter sleep, and scrimped time. I have missed my long times of focus for cooking, but I am learning that some seasons that is not in my wheelhouse. I am in multi-task mode, chasing kids while stirring burgers, fixing tea sets and getting out play-doh for little people while measuring potato salad. I do find I envy my brother (and other childless individuals) in those moments. I miss the easy freedom of fully-possessed hours. I miss fewer distractions and more opportunities to focus, even as I think my babies' laughter and cuddles come straight from heaven.

But even more than my focus on cooking, my focus on relationships has suffered tremendously since I catapulted into Parent-Land. Whereas it used to not be unheard of my brother and I to spend three or fours a week on the phone talking about writing and creative theory and church liturgy, we now go weeks without a text and maybe a month without a phone call. He is busy at work; I must put babies to bed and clean house before I sleep myself. No lie, it's been a challenge to stay connected.

Interestingly a little bit before I started this blog, my brother and his wife upped their cooking interest and enthusiasm to start a supper club at their church. The share a meal with a gaggle of people once a month, everyone bring something. It is sweet, simple and about as easy a means of ministering possible. My brother and I seem to have both found food to be a major connecting point with people,  and even as our lives change and grow we still share so much in common.
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There goes food again, doing that connecting thing that it does. Again.

I think this is a great and good a reminder as any to those of us with family. Staying connected can be a challenge, to say the least, as we grow older. Seasons, kids, priorities, responsibilities mold us and shape our days, no matter how much we swear we'll still be cool when we have kids. This chapter, Shauna's reflections, are really a reminder to keep coming to the table, to keep breaking and sharing the sacraments of love and relationship and life together. Doing so is essential to fueling the relationships closest to us.

And we might as well begin with burgers.