One Laborious Labor Day

Pin It Now! Man! What a fast summer! Can you believe it has already come and gone?! Shew!! I expect that everyone has had a wonderful Labor Day!

...Mine? ..Thanks for asking!

Well, let's just say DapperDan and I had a Labor Day full of 'ahem' labor.

Our day began at approximately 7:30. As the alarm began her lovely chiming, we were awoken with smiling faces (hmm.. that was perhaps a stretch)... As the alarm began screaming, we were waking up with moderately content faces.

My plan: run 12 miles. DapperDan's plan: hike with Daisy Mae the hound dog and our good friend Chris and his bear of a dog Ratchet (an Alaskan Malamute).

I proceed to run about 2 or 3 blocks, realizing that my ankle has too much pain already to go on another 11.8 miles. Sad and dejected, I turn around and come home. I hike with DapperDan, Chris, Daisy Mae the hound dog, and Ratchet the bear. It was great fun!

We return home. 9:00AM. DapperDan runs to the local mom and pop hardware store for paint (since we were planning on painting our front door) and I proceed to make 40-some hamburgers and about 60 hamburger buns, amid breaking bowls and fighting flies.

SCREECH. Woman, you said what?!

Yes, I actually was in the kitchen all day. All dern day. Why? You might ask. Because we had a super awesome picnic on Tuesday evening for which I volunteered to bring the hamburgers and buns. Of course, I must bring homemade stuff!

Making the hamburgers was quite painful, to be quite honest. The smell was so enticing as I was assembling the ingredients, but I had to wait a whole day to eat them! I was in utter pain, I assure you!

Making the hamburger buns took quite some time. The first 2 dozen were perfect and came out well. As I was making the second batch of 2 dozen buns, I some how decided it was an excellent idea to accidentally send my really good mixing bowl crashing to the floor, with the dough inside, causing glass to shatter and go EVERYWHERE, including within the dough. Yikes. ...Major yikes!

Welp, I got the mess all cleaned up and continued making the dough!

I finished making the rolls at about 2:00PM. Not too bad! Aside from breaking a bowl (about which I am still heartbroken) ...and fighting the swarm of flies.

Halt! You did not mention the swarm of flies.

Remember when I said that DapperDan was painting our front door? Yeah, 'course ya do, we removed it from the hinges to paint it, creating an open invitation for any creepy crawler that cared to come in! At one point, I'm certain we had.. oh gee... about 40 flies in the house, hanging out in the kitchen. Okay, yeah, um, ew? Oh and I fought off a stray cat at one point later in the day. But no birds got in, fortunately. That was a once-and-done occurrence.

Side note: I'm pretty sure you haven't lived until you've chased a random bird out of your house. About a month and a half ago, one was in our house, we're still puzzled as to how it got in, but fortunately it left unscathed and I did not pass out from having a weird bird in my house.

Needless to say, the front door looks GREAT! Two boxes of fly tape later, we only have about 15 flies in my kitchen, and the food turned out to taste so good! The barbecue was a TON of fun, as our Tuesday nights always are at the Secular Oratory.

Hamburger recipe cut in half, and then half again, and then in half again!
Yields: 8 to 10 burgers
Before:

AND

After:

AND


Ingredients
2 to 3 lbs 80/20 ground beef
1/4 cup Worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup beer
1/2 vidalia onion, chopped
1 tsp sea salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp sage

Directions
1. Combine all of the ingredients in a large bowl.
2. Separate into patties, however large or small you like them!
3. Allow to marinade for an hour or so (or if you're me: overnight!).
4. Throw on the grill and enjoy!

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Hamburger Buns
Yields: 10 buns


Ingredients:
4 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 TBS sugar
1 cup milk
1/2 cup water
4 TBS butter, melted
1 egg, beaten + more egg for an egg wash

Directions
1. In a saucepan over medium-low heat, cook the milk, water, and butter, for approximately 2 to 3 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, combine all of the dry ingredients.
3. Add in the milk/water/butter until well mixed, then temper in the egg.
4. After well combined, knead the dough on a well floured surface for approximately 5 minutes. If the dough begins to get too sticky, add more flour.
5. Separate the dough into 10 pieces. Round it out until it's the shape of a ball and flatten. Place onto a greased/parchment-paper-lined baking sheet. Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to sit for 25 minutes.
6. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees while the dough is resting.
7. Bake for 15 minutes or until the rolls begin to golden
2. In a large bowl, mix together 1 3/4 cup flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Mix milk mixture into flour mixture, and then mix in egg. Stir in the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, beating well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface, and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
3. Divide dough into 12 equal pieces. Shape into smooth balls, and place on a greased baking sheet. Flatten slightly. Cover, and let rise for 30 to 35 minutes.
4. Brush some egg wash on top of the rolls. Bake for 15 minutes, or until the rolls begin to golden.