I love trying out new burger recipes with different flairs.
Jay found this version in Men’s Health and it reminded me so much of our favorite Banh Mi sandwiches, but in burger form.
Spicy Asian Pork Burgers
What you’ll need:
½ English cucumber
½ cup rice wine vinegar {I like “seasoned” rice vinegar}
Salt to taste
1 lb ground pork
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp fresh ginger, minced
2 scallions, thinly sliced
2 Tbsp mayonnaise
1 Tbsp sriracha
4 sesame-seed buns, lightly toasted
¼ cup hoisin sauce
How to make it:
1. Make the pickles by combining the cucumber, vinegar, and a few pinches of salt in a bowl or jar. Set aside.
2. Preheat the grill over medium heat. Combine the pork, garlic, ginger, and scallions. Gently shape into patties, season with salt, and grill for about 5 minutes on each side.
3. Combine the mayonnaise and sriracha and spread on the bottom buns. Spread the top buns with hoisin and then sandwich the two halves around the burger with pickles. Makes 4 burgers.
They were delish, of course.
Spicy from the Sriracha mayo, sweet from the hoisin and crunchy & tangy from the pickled cucumbers!
I served them with sautéed zucchini and red onion in about a tablespoon of coconut oil ~ my new fave.
*****
Grab the ingredients and grill up some of these this weekend!
Did you know there’s an app for making really good friends?
Yes, it’s called Instagram!
Just by posting pictures and sharing fun little tidbits of your daily life on IG, you can {meet} some wonderful friends. And if you’re really lucky and live close enough, you can even eventually meet them in person. It’s crazy how you can feel like you’ve known someone for years just by making little comments on their photos or texting from time to time.
Several months ago I started following a friend of a friend because she has an eye for vintage, five beautiful daughters, and a weenie dog named Rodeo! Us wiener dog lovers need to stick together, right? She followed me back and we would comment on pictures of our hounds and make weenie jokes. After getting to know her, we discovered that we’re both Libras and I am 11 days older than she is ~ we won’t go into what year! {wink, wink}
Anywhoo, I went and stayed with Richelle in May while down in Mission Viejo for a fabulous Pioneer Woman Potluck hosted by my blogosphere friend turned real life friend, Julie. I met Julie last September at Blog Sugar. Joy’s Hope was one of the very first blogs I read and religiously followed. Julie makes it so easy to want to open up and share the happy things in life which is precisely why I wanted to start blogging myself. I am honored and thrilled to be able to have met her in real life. And because of Julie I was able to know Richelle, too! Social media really is so great.
This weekend Richelle and her two youngest {Kallihan & Kapri} came up to visit us for some pool time and concert in the park action. My kids were so excited to meet some new friends…we had some matching pajamas for the girls all ready and waiting on our guest bed with gift tags created by Elliott…
Friday afternoon’s weather was weird, so we went to see Brave.
We went for a night swim on Friday evening…
{captured by Richelle}
Saturday morning veg-fest…
New Cool Lime Refresher run before hitting the pool again Saturday morning….
{add 2 pumps coconut syrup to make it a tropical treat}
We packed up a picnic and headed to the concert in the park…Led Zepagain!
We sat around the table, sipped coffee and chatted on Sunday morning then had lunch at Souplantation before saying our sad good-byes…
*****
And of course, I love to entertain and cook for a crowd!
{new fave marinade/glaze for chicken ~ 2 tbsp. hoisin, 1/2 tsp. Chinese five-spice powder, 1 tsp. soy sauce and 1 tsp. vegetable oil. just coat chicken with it and grill or bake. from the July ’12 issue of Sunset, page 100}
I mixed up a little adult beverage to sip at the concert ~ vodka, Malibu, pineapple juice, blue curaçao and a splash of Sprite. {as seen in this post}
I’d not yet spotted these on Pinterest, but Richelle had, and quickly gathered the ingredients and got them in a 9X13 ASAP.
Apparently the brownie stuffed Oreos that were flying around the inter webs last year were not enough……
Just line a 9X13 pan with parchment paper. Spread packaged chocolate chip cookie dough on the bottom, followed by a layer of Oreos {preferably double stuffed} and then top off with boxed brownie mix prepared as directed. Bake at 350* for about 35 minutes or until a knife comes out clean. Cool completely {even refrigerate a little} before cutting.
Needless to say they were delish, but something to make very infrequently. They would be fun using the red Oreos during the holidays, too!
*****
All in all it was a fabulous weekend despite an ant problem in our kitchen, Rascal nabbing Kapri’s Ring Pop within the first 3 minutes and me completely losing my cool at the pool with Holden.
Fifty cake balls for a friend and then a dozen asian turkey meatballs for dinner!
I’m getting better at cake balls…I have learned that, if you’re using white chocolate to coat, the best is Nestle Toll House Premier White. They seem to melt down the best and provide smoother coverage. I’ve heard that you can add a bit of Crisco to chocolate to help thin it out, too.
For these, I used Duncan Hines Spice cake mix and DH whipped cream cheese frosting and then the white chocolate and chocolate jimmies. They had a very mild gingerbread flavor ~ perfect for Thanksgiving or Christmas dessert tables.
1 box of cake mix {prepared as directed and baked in a 9X13 pan}, 3/4 {12 ounces} of one 16 ounce container prepared frosting and one whole bag of melted chocolate {or white} chips yields approximately two dozen cake balls. In my short cake ball career, I have learned that you will have a little bit of the mix leftover, but will have run out of chocolate to cover them. So yesterday I doubled the recipe and baked two cakes, used double the frosting and two bags of white chips for 50 cake balls.
Here is a cute cake pop tutorial…just skip the stick process if you’re making cake balls.
*****
And if rolling 50 cake balls wasn’t enough, I chose to make Asian Turkey Meatballs for last night’s din din ~ flavorful and healthy at the same time. The dipping sauce put them over the top! I served them with a little brown rice and some steamed broccoli.
{the recipe makes 12 meatballs}
*****
Alrighty, I’m gonna roll out and get some chores done.
Happy Monday!
P.S. My {webmaster} is conducting some upgrades/changes to Flip Flop Follies and may have made a little mistake while coding…the buttons on the sidebar aren’t linking up right now {and may not even be visible at this time}. Please bear with us until we can pinpoint the problem. Muchas gracias! XO
I just took some romaine hearts and sliced/chopped into bite size pieces.
I added some ground turkey that I browned up with a little green onion, some grated carrot and some TJ’s soyaki sauce. {this is the same mixture for our favorite lettuce wraps, too} I then chopped some veggies…red pepper, red onion, sugar snap peas, more grated carrots, cucumber and cilantro. Throw in some mandarin oranges and some Wasabi Ranch wonton crunchies and toss with store bought ranch dressing doctored up with a few squeezes of lime and some sriracha sauce!
{these are my new fave find}
I layered it in some plastic food storage containers and carried the wontons and dressing separately to toss right before serving.
I was afraid that these containers {5 cups} were a little to small and the portions would leave us still hungry, but it was plenty.
It was reeeallly good. Spicy from the dressing and sweet from the mandarin oranges. Can’t wait to make this again. Next time I’ll use napa cabbage and throw in some toasted sliced almonds for added crunch.
A healthier alternative to your average tailgate grub.
It’s perfect because you don’t need plates ~ just eat it right out of the container.
