If you know me or have seen any of my photography you know, that I love making some good old-fashioned food porn. I know it gets a bad rap and that it’s called “girly” (as if that’s a bad thing), but whatever. Nothing pleases me more than putting together a delicious, good-looking meal.

Here are a couple of recipes that I stand by and I wanted to share them in conjunction with my piece about learning to cook.

First a sort of healthy meat sauce, Second, a mixed green salad that’s so pretty you’ll want to bust out your iphone and put that shit on instagram, and Third a burger recipe so unique you’ll impress all your friends and lovers at your next BBQ. Enjoy! I hope you get like super fat!

Spaghetti Sauce

1 28oz can of crushed tomatoes (San Marzano is my favorite but any other brand will do)
1/2 an Onion
2 Shallots chopped-if you don’t have them don’t worry
1 carrot finely chopped
1-3 cloves of garlic -depending on your tastes
1/2 teaspoon of dried basil or 2Tbsp chopped fresh basil
1 bottle of red wine-any kind will do
1 pound of ground beef, lamb, or turkey -You might want to use less oil if you choose ground beef because it’s more fatty than the others.

Salt and pepper to taste

Heat a teaspoon of olive oil on medium heat and add your shallots, carrot, and whole cloves of garlic-yes you can leave the skins on. Cooking garlic this way allows it to get sweet and mushy. Let the veggies become translucent and then add your meat.

Cook the meat until it is browned but not fully cooked-drain the fat and set the meat aside.

Put the tomatoes, onion, and butter in a heavy saucepan along with your meat and sautéed veggies. Now, for the fun part-uncork that wine if you haven’t already. Pour in enough wine so that it covers the ingredients in the saucepan-drink the rest or add more if you want to.

Let this simmer uncovered on high heat for 15 minutes and then lower the heat so that the sauce is simmering slowly for about 30 minutes if you’re hungry or an hour if you’re patient.

Stir occasionally with a wooden spoon. Make sure most of liquids have cooked down, until your sauce is nice and thick.

Remove from heat, and take out the onion. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Bust My Cherry Burgers

1 lb 80% ground beef or if you are feeling super fancy 1/2 lb of brisket and 1/2 lb of short rib ground together by your butcher

2 cups fresh cherries, finely chopped
1/2 cup coarse dry whole-wheat breadcrumbs or Italian bread crumbs
2 or 3 cloves garlic, minced add more or less depending on your tastes, I used like 5 cloves
1 and 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon salt-use salt liberally the beef will absorb it well
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Make sure your beef is fully thawed

So I basically used a combination of burger recipes to come up with this one, and it’s my absolute favorite. Finish your beer beforehand because you need to be prepared to get your hands messy.

Combine everything into a large mixing bowl.  Mush it all together with your hands until you are satisfied that everything is totally mixed.

Now that you have your mixture form your patties-make them as big or small as you want. I personally like mine plump and compact.

One of the many resources I used when putting together this recipe was this New York Times article.

The best and most useful quote was this:
“One small shaping trick will help it cook better. The first thing you do is take your thumb and make a well in the burger-Dimpling the patty, helps it cook evenly, and you won’t be tempted to smack it down and lose all the juice”

Quick, Easy, Yummy, and Stolen from Nigella Lawson Salad

1 Egg
1 Package of mixed greens
A dash or so of Red Wine vinegar
5 or 6 Slices of Brie

This recipe originally came from good old Nigella Lawson and you can find the original here:

Feel free to make the recipe as originally intended, I just modified it to suit what I had time for and what was in my kitchen.

Boil the egg for 4 1/2 minutes- carefully peel and leave whole and set it aside.

Throw some greens in a bowl-however much you usually add when making salad. Add the red wine vinegar. Lay the slices of Brie on top and then add your egg. Consume with bread and white wine.

—

By: Lizzie Ford-Madrid