well folks, toots has the pics, but I'd say this was one of my faves so far. i don't even feel like i'm gonna puke, or like i needed 2 mouths for all the meat tonight. the perfect ratio of meat to cheese to spinach to spreads to bread. yum.

i definitely feel like miss daisy now.

toots drove you around in a 54 Packard in a suit and hat while you ate?

imagining 2 mouths. Russian to be exact.

good times....good times

Schwetty Balls!

<press play>










Well I declayuh...

Another spot-on list of fixins': brie, spinach, tomatoes, stone-ground dijon mustard and apple butter on freshly-baked brioche. Shera and berliner were right - whoodathunk this particular taste combo would work so terrifically together. It was like a Margaret Mitchell novel in my lil' ol' mouth.

My only complaint was the brioche, which was a bit too crumbly and didn't rise as much as I thought it should. But we scoured four counties for a baker that carried it, and considering I haven't been serious about breadmaking in almost two years, it was pretty scrumptious and I'm sure it will make a wealthy southern widow some smashing French toast out on yonder veranda...in the morrrrrrrrrrning...

The side was supposed to be okra, but ol' Toots left those at home in the icebox, so Mammy Fem went with baked squash and taters drizzled in olive oil.

The Miss Daisy (stateside)


Unibroue Éphémère Apple Ale, my answer to the question "What would Jessica Tandy drink?" (Shera's answer was "chilled white wine.")




Our score:
and a half Morgan Freemen. (Docked half a point for the bread.)

so, the MISS DAISY.

first I must say, the idea of that burger is much better than I expected before. the combination of sweet and salty turned out to be perfect for a burger of this kind.

because of its french appeal I chose the Galerie Lafayette here in town, which is the berlin store of the one in paris.



so I went out for some shopping in the fancy Friedrichstraße, to watch some pretty girls with bags from expensive boutiques as a side-effect.

I was part of it with my own bag from the lafayette.





I bought a brioche from the pastry there, along with some good brie from here. almost liquid, as you can see on the photo.
the miss daisy requires tomato and spinach, I got both there as well. I love cœur de bœuf-tomatoes, not only for that purpose. the spinach had to be young enough to be served as a salad, so there it is.



the grandma of berlinerin had made some apple-chutney and just because she really knows how to do that from her own apples and there was something named apple butter in the recipe, I took this one as a sauce, and some dijon mustard.



the beef was from the same source as last time, sea-salt and pepper and some Piment d`Espelette. I used a skillet grill-pan this time:



after the slices of the brioche were toasted, I put them in the pan to fry one side gently in some french salted butter, the one with the little crunchy sea salt crystals inside, which turned out absolutely fantastic.

the result:





served with a red wine from the bourgogne, the perfect match.

that tomato looks alien and delicious

Damn.

Well done fellas.

I would fuh both burgers and also do something naughty with that perfect tomato in Berliner's pic.

DAMNATION. Berliner that looks incredible. Toots, good effort.

btw toots, thumbs up for your effort to bake a brioche. I guess this is one of the most difficult and time-expensive things to do in pastry-universe. I own a recipe-book of Paul Bocuse and since I saw what he wrote down there I knew that the french must be even more crazy than I already thought they were. it's 4 pages of constant action, paired with sometimes 6 hours of waiting, then 10-12 hours of waiting and so on. altogether you need almost 24 hours, and you need some perfect timing to fit in a normal amount of sleep in between...

jeeeeeeeeeeezus. both look damn good, but when i opened up berliners burger pic in another tab full scale, i felt like i was looking at something truly magical.

good job bros.

yeah, i had to pick one of the 4 hour versions because of time constraints

i've had a few baker friends in town offer to help out from time to time on some of the harder to find breads

we'll see. this is fun

you know the best part of making these cheeseburgers? TWO days of culinary heaven. i just used up some of the leftovers and feel as though i may need a change of pants. i used the brioche to make french toast, then spread peanut butter and apple butter on top, and topped off the whole mess of it with some sweet, dark, Vermont maple syrup. heaven.

Approved.

Those burgers looked damn skippy too.

That seals the deal. You're in.

shera could do shots of top shelf syrup, she loves it so very much

make that THREE days of leftover heaven. today for lunch, i had a spinach salad with dijon mustard, apple butter, the leftover hamburger patty, the leftover brie, tomato and a little drizzle of olive oil. damn, i love having burger night at my house!

Dark, grade A, but more so, grade B is pretty hardcore, too. ...and I've been given a mug of syrup at a friend's sugarhouse. It's intense.

Maple Syrup cocktails:
http://www.thatsthespirit.com/en/drinks ... ktails.asp
http://www.cocktaildb.com/recipe_results

i have been drinking maple syrup out of the jug since i was old enough to unscrew the lid. i might need an intervention soon, but until then, its pure maple syrup for me. what i have now was brought directly from Morrisville, Vermont, to me in Oregon. its dark, grade A and ooohhh so tasty. i could live in Vermont, just for the maple syrup. i may have a problem...

oh holy night! that gave me a chill of happiness down my spine. now i'm sitting here with my empty bottle of maple syrup, thinking about cutting it open to get the little crystals of candied maple out of the bottom.

When / if I move out of state, I'm going to have my parents ship it to me monthly. I also have a small collection of maple syrup cookbooks I'm pretty proud of.

There is no good clip of Super Troopers chugging syrup on youtube. Bummer.