Lentil and Farro Veggie Burgers

You can pretty much combine whatever non-meat ingredients you want, smoosh them into a patty, and fry or bake them ... and you have veggie burgers. Just make a list of ingredients that sound good to you, and go for it. Here's a start:

black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans
lentils
rice, quinoa, farro
mushrooms, beets
tofu
seeds, nuts
olives
cheese (ricotta, soft goat)

Mix in an egg or two, spices, greenery (fresh herbs and/or cooked greens like kale, chard, spinach), chopped onions, and enough bread crumbs to help hold it together, and that's it. It's always good to make extras to store in the freezer for quick lunches.

The following combination I came up with has a nice crunch/chewiness from the farro and sunflower seeds.

Lentil and Farro Veggie Burgers

1/2 cup cooked lentils
1/2 cup cooked farro
5 oz. sliced shiitake mushrooms, sautéed
1/4 cup small diced onion
1/4 cup kale, chopped and sautéed with minced garlic
1/2 tsp garam masala (or cumin)
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1/4 cup raw sunflower seeds
3/8 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
2 eggs
salt & pepper
fresh sage, thyme, parsley, chopped

Combine all ingredients, adding additional bread crumbs if needed, and form into small, thick patties. Remember to do your taste-testing before adding the eggs! It's helpful to refrigerate the patties for an hour or so.

Heat up some extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook the patties until browning occurs on the bottoms, then flip and cook the other side until browned. I cooked mine for about 6 minutes per side, and I also covered the pan for most of the cooking time.

Makes 8 small, thick patties

Wild Sockeye Salmon with Farro and Kale Salad

It's time to take a break from all the searching. Searching for a dentist, an eye doctor, a place to get a haircut and the occasional (although on a regular basis) highlight. After sticking with the same hair salon for 20+ years in Charlotte, I'll be searching for the third one in 5 months here in ATL.

Speaking of searches, I decided to give Angie's List a try. Of course, in order to try it you have to join ... for a price. One would think it could come in handy in a new city. Surprisingly though, I'm finding very few reviews for such basics as dentists, hair salons, movers, etc. If there are so few reviews (in the less-than-five range) in a city of this size, I can't imagine it would be useful at all in a smaller city. I would love to hear what others have experienced with it. Please let me know.

The one meal that I feel pretty confident about cooking well is one that includes fish. I'm sure that's only because I cook fish quite often. I've done a little steaming and roasting of fish, but usually I just keep it simple with a little bit of butter and olive oil in the pan on the stovetop. It's so simple, but lets the particular fish I'm cooking come through on its own -- which makes starting with a good piece of fish to begin with essential. And that statement makes me once again mourn and pine for the Clean Catch fish market in Charlotte. There is no equivalent in this city, and I can't seem to convince the guys at Clean Catch that they would be a huge hit here.

With salmon I like to play around with adding something extra, like a mixture of spices or, as in this case, a brushing of a Dijon mustard and maple syrup mixture. Farro is easy to make and goes well with salmon and, for hubby, a pork chop. I added a simple vinaigrette to boost the flavor -- a bit of Dijon mustard, sherry vinegar, olive oil, and salt & pepper, and I think I may have even added a few drops of maple syrup. The kale salad was from Whole Foods.

Burgs in the Big City

I wish I could say that I created this. A tuna tartare burger with a side of sweet potato tots. It was excellent.

Relocating to a new state, a new city, makes cooking in the home kitchen tough. Especially when home is a temporary, cramped apartment. And not the best of appliances to work with. The stove top gets way too hot, and the oven does too ... and the oven thermometer seems to be lying about that fact. So the baked goods have been a little on the dry side, and there's a lot of boiling-over on the stove top going on.

Maybe it's just another lesson for a beginner cook. Appliances are all different, with their own quirks and nuances.

By the way, I miss Earth Fare (a bit better than Whole Foods, in my opinion), Clean Catch (Charlotte is truly lucky to have such a high quality fish market), The Secret Chocolatier, Great Harvest Bread, Dilworth Coffee (especially the people behind the counter), Daphne's Bakery (in Mint Hill), and especially the Matthews Farmer's Market (again, Charlotte/Matthews is lucky to have such a high quality, year-round farmer's market).

That said, I have gained an abundance of new restaurants to choose from. One of the specialties/obsessions here seems to be the all-mighty burger. There's Flip Burger Boutique for one, where I went pescatarian with the tuna burg above. And there are a lot of really good veggie burgers, too. Farm Burger and the World Peace Cafe both have delicious, non-soy (watching the soy intake; there's too much soy in everything these days) veggie burgers that are just as hearty and tasty as the all-American beef kind (yes, really, Steve!).

Also, aren't those great names ... Farm Burger, Flip Burger?

And, lastly for this post, here's a veggie burger I made in my own lowly apartment kitchen. It's a concoction of whatever was on hand ... pinto and cannellini beans, mushrooms, onions, etc. Pretty good in a pinch, but not as good as a Peace Burger by any means.