Bean and Veggie Burgers

I’ve picked up a new habit of watching The Martha Stewart Show and Mad Hungry on weekday mornings when I can. Martha because she makes ridiculous stuff like coffee cream pie and ice cream cake with Jimmy Fallons’ Late Night Snack ice cream, and, well, she’s Martha. Mad Hungry is creeping up into being one of my favorite cooking shows. The host, Lucinda Scala Quinn, has no pretense and her cooking and meals are accessible.

So this, my first foray into veggie burgers, is an LSQ recipe. Chock full of vegetables, they definitely taste healthy. But now that I give more thought to how I could improve or augment the flavor, I realize that these veggie burgers are the perfect candidate for topping with a fried egg. I am a true believer that almost anything can be improved with the addition of an egg. If that’s not your thing, or even if it is, make sure to check out LSQ’s chili mayonnaise recipe as another topping for these burgers.

Cold-Brewed Iced Coffee

I distinctly remember visiting my dentist three-ish years ago and telling him, "No, I don't drink much coffee, my teeth will totally stay this white!" Well, within a few months at my job I picked up the habit. But I haven't gone off the deep end; I'm good with one or two cups a day, maybe more on a leisurely Sunday morning (that's a little backwards, eh?).

Come summertime, I start enjoying coffee my favorite way: cold-brewed. Give it a google for all the good science of it but the bottom line is, cold-brewed iced coffee isn't bitter like hot coffee + ice. Five minutes of work tops and you can have the means for a week's worth of the best iced coffee. I dig it with a teaspoon of sweetened condensed milk stirred in, a la thai iced coffee.

Birthday Peach Pie

Last year for my dad’s birthday, we made him the world’s best carrot cake (thanks to Emily Mueller for that recipe!). This year’s endeavor crept up on the family just a wee bit after having been in Sacramento, CA for almost a week watching my sister in the NCAA women’s rowing championships. BUT, my mom, sister and I pulled it together and made a pretty excellent peach pie.

We divvied up the responsibilities; Ariel peeled the peaches, I made the crust and mom made the filling. The new go-to traditional piecrust in my family is from Cooks Illustrated’s best blueberry pie recipe. Vodka (!) is the secret ingredient. It allows for even more flakiness and tenderness because some of the alcohol burns off during baking. We were also just short on peaches for the filling, so we added one grated apple, which didn’t change the taste but served as an additional thickener to supplement the tapioca.