A Grind is a Terrible Thing to Waste

As promised, I'm back with a new post (working pants must be on this week...ha).   I really hope this one catches on, you know. It's going to seem ridiculous to some of you for me to suggest that you should go to the trouble of buying, cutting, and grinding your own meat.  After all, isn't it just easier to reach for the "tube o' beef?"  Look....supermarkets have sold the burger lovers across this land sub par product for long enough. Trust me - the difference between the texture, flavor, and mouth-feel of a freshly ground burger and one constructed from prepackaged mystery meat is night and day. Besides, it's really easy to do yourself.

Before I explain the home grinding process, allow me to explain my disdain for the aforementioned tube o' beef. Obviously, the texture is junk because the meat has been squeezed and mashed together for...well, who knows how long. There's more, though. That tube, especially when labeled as "ground beef" or "hamburger meat,"  is just about as structurally diverse as a hot dog. By definition, ground beef can contain cuts from all parts of the cow.  Butchers generally accomplish this by grinding up all the trimmings that are left over at the end of the day from all the cutting they do. There could be some rib bones in there for all you know. Ground chuck, another common burger grind, is made up of one type of cut (the chuck/shoulder) but still consists of trimmings from various cows.  Better, but not perfect. Why?  You see, most of that prepackaged stuff comes from a big slaughterhouse, where countless cows are brought to meet their end. Where there are lots of cows, there's the potential for E.coli. And since we know that ground beef/chuck/whatever consists of leftover cuts from multiple bovines, your chances of winning the bacterial lottery are much greater with the tube than they are with a single cut. To combat this, we've been told that we need to cook our burgers to hockey puck consistency to make double dog sure the bacterial baddies are fried. See where I'm going with this?  If you buy a single cut and grind it yourself, you can cook the burger to whatever level of doneness you prefer. Medium rare burgers become as safe as a medium rare tenderloin when the grinding is done safely at home. Now...let's get down to grinding!

The process begins at the grocery store, where you should be careful to choose the correct cut for the job.  The safest bet is a 50/50 blend of a chuck cut, commonly labeled as "English Roast" or chuck steak, and sirloin steak. Once home, make sure your meat is thoroughly chilled. You can control the amount of fat in your finished grind by trimming your cuts. Once trimmed, cut the meat into 1/2-inch cubes and place 8-10 of them at a time into your food processor. Season with salt and pepper and put the spurs to it.

Pulse the processor blade 10 times, one second per pulse. The finished product should come out looking like this:

Technically, it's chopped beef.  This is a good thing, though.....you'll discover that when you bite into the finished product.  Now this beef is obviously not limited to burger-making...you could chose to make meatballs, meatloaf, or even steak tartare, if you're so inclined. I made burgers, so that's what we're going with here.

Softly form the meat into 5-oz. patties.  Try not to smash them too much...that would ruin the texture your food processor created. A gentle toss back and forth between your hands will form a nice ball that looks something like this:

Once weighed, gently flatten the balls into patties and lightly salt both sides. Make them thinner than you want the end product to be, because they'll plump up during cooking. If you don't need/want to use all of your ground beef, do what the butcher does - wrap it in parchment paper, tape, and freeze until it's needed. Easy, huh?  From here, you can cook the burgers however you'd like. I prefer the tender juiciness of a medium burger, cooked to around 160 degrees. Top it with teriyaki, cheddar cheese, and a slice of grilled pineapple, and you have the Hawaiian, a burger I enjoyed several times while on honeymoon.

Doesn't that look delicious? Wait till the first bite hits your tongue...the texture is amazing. And the juiciness will blow you away. Now you know how the steakhouses do it - just make sure and have plenty of napkins on hand!

BBQ and tree limbs

For several years now, I have battled the constant nuisance of overgrown trees in my backyard. Specifically, I have battled the 4 metric tons of leaves dropped by said trees. This year, spurred on by a fear of another year of back-breaking yard cleanup, I finally decided to do something about it. After a few calls to some very good friends, I had a team ready to trim, saw, and prune the veritable forest that had accumulated out back. We worked for 7 hours at cutting, trimming, dragging, trimming some more, and raking nature's bounty.  Our work paid off, and I now have a neatly trimmed treeline out back and three giant piles of limbs out front. I hope the Maumelle sanitation department is feeling kind when they pass my place.

As a reward for their hard work, I prepared dinner for my friends.  We started with an appetizer of grilled brats and sliced cheddar cheese. Dinner included homemade bourbon baked beans, corn with garlic butter, and BBQ pork sandwiches. The pork was smoked for 7 hours over low heat and was tender with a wonderfully smoky flavor. Complimenting the sandwiches were slaw and homemade BBQ sauce. For dessert, we had skillet peach cobbler and homemade vanilla ice cream. I think I put more time into the meal than the tree trimming!  If  you ask me, though, a good meal is always worth the time and effort.  Everyone left with full stomachs and compliments galore. I can't speak for the others, but I didn't get hungry again until around 3pm the next day. Thanks to my brother Matt, Matt Collar, big Clay, and Andrew for all their help. Special thanks to my lovely and patient wife for putting up with our noise as well.

Did you know.....homemade vanilla ice cream is worlds better if real vanilla pods are used? Slice the pod open and scrape the beans out into your milk mixture before scalding. Place the pod into the milk along with the beans to infuse the milk with some serious vanilla flavor. Real vanilla isn't cheap, but there's no denying its superiority over extract.

Dinner is going to be a cabinet cleanout affair tonight. I have an English roast in the fridge that would probably make some nice burgers. Yes, an English roast. It's from the chuck, so all it needs is a quick chop and grind.  What, you've never ground your own burger meat? Check back tomorrow....I'll show how easy it is to grind meat at home.  This is one task that's really worth the effort.

Just Maui'ed, Hawaii recap, more

As all things do, my life as a single (in the government's eyes, anyways) man has come to an end. On July 24th, 2010, I had the great honor of marrying my best friend, favorite person, and soul mate as we exchanged vows in Kaui, HI, in a beautiful beachside ceremony. It was a breathtaking setting made even better by the presence of 19 of our friends and family.  I'll never forget the first glimpse I caught of my bride coming over the hill to meet me. Fellas, if that moment doesn't take your breath away, you might need to call the whole thing off. Here are a few pictures of our ceremony:

Mom with the groom and groomsmen

Rev. James Panui and the Hawaiian duet

The bride and her father walk the aisle. Stunning.

Tiffany places the traditional groom's lei over my shoulders. 

We exchange rings. Mine didn't fit at first...wrong hand!

Best kiss of my life!

Mr. and Mrs. Summitt are presented!

We held the reception at Duke's Kauai, located in the ornate and Greek temple-like Kauai Marriott resort. After a wedding night in Kauai, we took a short flight to the island of Maui for our honeymoon. There, we experienced everything from luaus to mountain climbs to scenic oceanside drives.  Snorkeling was fantastic - the fish were incredibly colorful and vivid.  And the food....well, a guy can just forget about counting calories when in Hawaii. I had melt-in-your-mouth ahi tuna rolls, chowed down on a juicy teriyaki burger (topped with pineapple), and discovered the sugary miracle known as coconut syrup. Hawaii is a foodie's dream come true.  I feel very lucky to have been able to spend 11 days in paradise with my wife. What a way to start a lifetime together!  Needless to say, if you've never been....go!  It's worth the money, I promise. Skip Christmas or something. I posted about 300 pictures of our adventures on my Flickr page, with more to come.   

As all good things do, our honeymoon eventually ended and we had to come back to Reality, Arkansas, USA.  I found that reality hits particularly hard when one feels the first blast of humid 100-degree Arkansas heat after basking in tropical climes for a week and a half. Ouch. Such is life, I suppose. We now begin the arduous process of combining our things and figuring out where to squeeze everything in. I feel a garage sale coming on.  

For those of you wondering about Exit Strategy, we're alive and kicking! My bandmates kindly endured a bit of a layoff during the last few months so their guitar player could go get married, but things will be shifting into high gear soon. Follow us on Facebook for show updates and news. 

Political insanity continued in my absence. Mr. Obama seems to be getting more and more desparate as the days go by. Apparently our president stopped in for a chat with the *ahem* ladies of The View. Can he be serious?  Is this an attempt to reach the common American or something? I suppose at the least he added some much needed estrogen to the broadcast that day. 

That's all for today.  I'll come back later this week with some more thoughts and maybe a food tip or two.  Aloha!