rustic buns

Because I have about twelve million recipes saved for trying out, I am hoping to make it through at least one new recipe a week here. It's a small goal, I know, but I'm better with small amounts of changes at a time.

A couple of weeks ago now, Catherine Newman posted a recipe for hamburger buns. I had turkey burgers on the menu the Friday before last, so the recipe was posted at a perfect time for me. I can't remember what we ended up eating for dinner that Friday night, but it wasn't turkey burgers (especially as I hadn't bought turkey yet, at that point). We finally made the hamburger buns on Wednesday. Pic and I got them started. It ended up being something of a seven-hour process, which sounds ridiculously daunting but most of that time involved completely ignoring the dough while we made bird feeders, played on the computer, walked to the store and went to the pool.

Pic with the dough. It puffed up wonderfully. (We let dough rise in my bedroom, where it's warm, hence carrying it around the condo.)

Cardo helped with the end of the process. I made him mark the divisions in the dough. (I always like to rely on him for this kind of thing as I have issues with space relations.) He handed me gobs of dough which I 'shaped' into bun shapes (hey, we formed the burgers, too, so everything was all nice and irregularly shaped). Pic kept my hands floured. We all participated in the painting on of milk and sprinkling on of sesame seeds. Then came the baking in my kitchen nemesis: Il Fornaio (the oven). Ah, well, make do, right? Cardo assured me that the buns cooked through, and he was right.

It took a couple more days to get around to the burgers. We had a very late-night dinner, but it was certainly tasty. Pic and I had walked to the store and I felt like making mashed potatoes, so I got some waxy yellow potatoes. Dinner: herb-and-citrus turkey burgers with mozzarella, spinach and avocado with a side of mashed potatoes. I should say I'm not sure how mashed potatoes are made. I cubed and boiled the potatoes. When they were soft, I added some milk, vegetable broth, salt and pepper and mashed it all up with a big fork. Worked for me.

I ate one of these for dinner and one for breakfast the next morning.

We'll definitely be making our own hamburger buns from here on out. And, once again, I profess my love for Catherine Newman's writing and recipes!