hamburger buns and butter

You may (or may not, if you read this in a feed) have noticed that I changed the design of the blog a bit. Please don't mind the current imperfections. It turns out that I'm even busier in the summer than during the school year, somehow. Anyway, I'll get to working on the sidebar and fixing the header and a few other things that need perfecting. Please be patient!


I think that the reason that I'm busier is because I've been spending a lot of time in the kitchen. And I think that I'll try to reduce that for the rest of the summer - I want to be outside and doing fun things with my boys. And the summer only come around once a year. That said, each of these delicious goods required very little hand-on time. Like, 10 minutes. Not even that much for the chive butter. And they're good.

 Making butter in the Kitchen Aid involves pouring in heavy cream and whipping it with the whisk attachment until it separates into butter and buttermilk. That's it! Plop the butter chunks into a piece of cheesecloth and squeeze it out, and you have butter! Knead in some salt, herbs, whatever else you like, and you have a little bit of heaven in your kitchen. Or in your mouth, if you're like me. Save your buttermilk for salad dressing or to fry chicken, and you're all set. Now all I need is a cow...
While I do realize that items like hamburger buns and butter can be purchased at the grocery store in these crazy modern times, it it is sooo much fun to do it myself.  And these hamburger buns are absolutely worth the little effort they require. I (finally - it's been in my binder for about a year - good grief - I just checked the date and could it have been TWO years?) tried Teresa's hamburger bun recipe, and as usual, I said "Why didn't I try this sooner?"  The dough is done in the bread machine, easy peasy, divided into bun-ny blobs and left to rise. Then popped in the oven, and delicious! Soft, perfect texture - we had some plain tonight, but I can't wait to try them with a burger. Oooh, a portobello one would be delicious. With the chive butter toasted onto the bun! Yum.

I much prefer these to the store ones. Although they might look a bit crusty, they're not - the outside is just as soft as one would want it on a burger. And they can also be shaped into hot-dog shapes, if that's the way you roll. (Ha!)

So follow the link to her recipe, and make these!


Happy Wednesday!