Pizza Burgers and Fresh Cherry Cobbler

Pizza Burger and Fresh Fried Okra
(a combination I'm fairly sure you'll only find in the Deep South!)

I had purchased fresh ground chuck for these burgers yesterday, before Aunt Jean blessed us with the pork tenderloin last night. So, I shifted the burgers to tonight. Larry made these out and cooked them on the grill for us. He usually prepares our burgers, and he says the key to a tender, juicy burger is light and minimal handling of the meat during the mixing and forming of the patties.

Aunt Jean and Dude came over and ate supper with us. We all really liked the burgers, except Larry. He's not big on Italian seasoning, and that was the part he didn't care for so much. I thought it was a good way to mix-up our pizza night a bit. The next time we make these, I think Larry will take out his portion of the meat before adding the Italian seasonings.

Judy brought us some fresh okra from her garden yesterday. Aunt Jean cooked it for us tonight. I think I have mentioned this before, but Aunt Jean makes the best fried okra in the world! She asked if fried okra would go with our hamburgers. We all told her we think her fried okra goes with everything!!

I did receive a thumbs up from Larry - and everyone else - for the Easy Fresh Cherry Cobbler. Larry loves cherries! He said he thought this was his favorite cherry cobbler ever! And he's eaten lots of cherry cobblers! Dude really liked it, too! Like most other in-season fruits and veggies, cherries are fairly reasonably priced at the moment.

I used my Pampered Chef Cherry Pitter I got from Susan several years ago to pit the cherries. It's not an item I use really often, but when I do need it, it works beautifully. I don't think they are available any longer from Pampered Chef, but they are readily available elsewhere. You can halve the cherries with a knife and remove the pit, but this is extremely tedious and time consuming. Cherry pitters, or stoners, can be quite inexpensive. The fresh cherries are so much more delicious than the canned of cherry pie filling, it's really worth investing in the pitter. Here's a link to Amazon, which has a good variety of cherry pitters, in a range of prices:

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw_0_8?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=cherry+pitter&sprefix=cherry+p

Susan, please let me know if I am wrong about PC no longer having their cherry pitter available.

Here's the recipe for the cherry cobbler:

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

Fresh Cherry Cobbler

1/2 cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup milk
4 cups pitted sour cherries
1½ cups white sugar
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
2 tablespoon sugar

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a 9x13 baking dish. Do not brown.

While butter is melting, whisk together 1 cup of flour, 1 cup of sugar, and baking powder. Add milk; mix until smooth and well blended; pour the batter over the melted butter. Do not stir.

Place cherries into a bowl; toss with the remaining 1½ cups of sugar and 2 tablespoons of flour. Evenly distribute the cherry mixture over the batter. Do not stir. Sprinkle with remaining 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Bake for 45 - 50 minutes, until golden brown.

Here's a re-post of the Pizza Burgers recipe:

Pizza Burgers

1 lb. ground beef
1 egg
¾ cup Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon - 1 tablespoon Italian seasonings, to your taste
4 slices cheese - provolone or mozzarella
4 rolls or buns from grocery bakery
1 tablespoon of butter
dash of garlic powder
½ cup pizza sauce - (Make your own by combining a small can of tomato sauce, 1½ teaspoons of Italian seasons and ½ - 1 teaspoon sugar.)

Gently crumble ground beef into a large mixing bowl. In a small bowl, whisk together: egg, Parmesan cheese, onion powder, and Italian seasoning. Pour egg mixture over crumbled meat. Gently combine. Over-handling causes burgers to be tough. Shape into patties. Grill, or cook in skillet, until done. Top burgers with cheese, allowing it to melt while still on the grill or in the pan.

Melt the tablespoon or so of butter; add garlic powder, to taste. Brush tops and bottoms of buns with butter mixture. Toast buns.

Place burgers on bun bottoms. Spoon pizza sauce over melted cheese. Top with other half of bun.