Holla ya’ll!
We are well into January here in Philadelphia and you know what’s wonderful? Today we received our first snowfall. The snowfall itself is not actually all that wonderful, but the fact that it took so long to get here is pretty awesome. I mean winter is already like almost half over. I love it.
You know, about a year ago, a couple inches on the ground would have caused me some serious panic attacks. “OH NO WHAT IF IT SNOWS MORE WHAT IF IT ICES OVER MY CAR WON’T GO ANYWHERE OMG WILL I HAVE TO WORK FROM HOME MY BOSS WILL HATE ME WHAT NOW I SHOULD JUST CALL OUT SICK UGGGGHHHH I FUCKING HATE IT HERE IF ONLY THEY WOULD PLOW MY STREET I NEED AN SUV!!!!!” That was pretty much my instant, standard response as soon as the first snowflake fell and it would only intensify from there.
But this year is oh so different!
For one thing, my old evil boss, who hated letting people work from home even in inclement weather, was fired in May. He was replaced with two awesome, truly caring individuals. I am so thankful every day for having them in my life now. Having them in place makes my life so, so, so much easier. For another thing, I just bought a new car a couple months ago – a 2015 Dodge Durango – so AWD is also a part of my life this year.
It’s amazing how just these two things have lessened the amount of stress and anxiety that I felt almost daily, a year ago!
Now I can take a snowfall for what I think it should be – a perfect excuse to stay inside and make slutty food and drink hot chocolate. Or whiskey.
Take this chipotle cheeseburger patty melt. I had been tossing this idea around in my head a while and finally had a chance to make it recently and O. M. G. I hadn’t been so sure about chipotle mayo with beef – it goes SO WELL with chicken and almost everything else on the planet…. well now I’m wondering why I even doubted it to begin with. Cuz guess what, it was fucking awesome.
I feel like my recipes can take a lot of effort, and for that I apologize, but not really, because I feel like slutty food, like beauty, takes effort. And if you came here looking for 30-minute-or-less meals, or one-pot wonders, well you might have stumbled onto the wrong blog. But please stay a while and give my recipes a try. They are rewarding! You can believe me, because I hate waiting to eat and I hate doing dishes.
Serves: 2
Ingredients
2-4 slices sourdough bread (see notes)
1 1/2 cups shredded Monterey Jack cheese
1/2 small yellow onion, diced
1 large jalapeno, diced
1/2 lb. ground beef, formed into two burger patties
Chipotle Mayo
Softened butter
Directions
1. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray with your favorite cooking spray, and add the diced onion and jalapeno. Saute until soft and the onion begins to brown, about 5 minutes. When tender, remove from skillet into a bowl and return the skillet to the stove.
2. Butter one side of each bread slice, and place bread butter-side down into the skillet, as if you were making grilled cheese. Divide the shredded cheese into four equal portions, and top each bread slice with a portion of shredded cheese. Keep an eye on your bread and make sure you don’t burn it. Turn the heat down if you have to; but make sure the cheese melts. Cover the skillet if necessary to allow the cheese to melt.
3. While the bread and cheese are getting cozy, grill burger patties to your liking – we like cooking them in a cast iron skillet.
4. When the bread is golden brown and delicious and the cheese is melted, remove them from the skillet to a plate. Top one slice for each sandwich with some of the jalapeno-onion mixture. Place a juicy burger patty on top of the jalapeno-onion mixture. Top with chipotle mayo and the other slice of cheesy bread. Smoosh down to make it slutty, and eat!
NOTES
For the sourdough bread: I get a sliced sourdough loaf from my grocery store’s bakery, and they call it “panini bread”. It’s more rectangular than round, and is perfect for, well, paninis. If you are able to score this type of sourdough bread, cut one slice in half to create the ‘bun’ for your burger. Two slices of this rectangular bread would be too big, and you’d have to fashion yourself a long rectangular burger patty, which would be weird. If you find sourdough bread that is more rounded, more like sandwich bread than panini bread, then form your burger patty so that it will fit the bread slices nicely.