cook-eat-write

Okay, that's not super out of the ordinary since I typically go every Sunday, but today I had a mission! I was in the mood to cook something new and yummy, and so I needed the appropriate supplies. Today's meal was Southwestern Bacon Cheeseburgers and Tex-Mex Mashed Potatoes. Sooooo original for me, right? Okay maybe I do a lot of potatoes, but THEY ARE DELICIOUS SO STOP LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT.

Okay, anyway. The potatoes! They were really frikkin' good! They were a cool twist on a standard favorite. The burger was great too, juicy and flavorful.

Tex-Mex Potatoes: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/food-network-kitchens/tex-mex-mashed-potatoes-recipe/index.html

Burgers: http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1926,147164-235200,00.html

Ease of Preparation: 1.5 Burgers / 1.5 Potatoes

Taste: 3 Burgers / 3.5 Potatoes

Feeds: 5 Burgers / 10 Potatoes

This meal is a cool way to incorporate southwestern/mexican food flavor into a typically very american dish. In order to turn the regular burgers from the linked recipe into super awesome southwestern burgers I topped them with Monteray Jack cheese, bacon and my delicious guacamole. I put some mayo with taco seasoning on The Parents' burgers but not mine since I have a strong distaste for mayo.

Overall very good. I think these burgers were about 500 calories total (which is pretty damn good for a bacon cheeseburger if I do say so myself).

The mashed potatoes were quite good as well. Just a little bit of crunch from the veggies in them, and very creamy and flavorful. 

Suggestions / Changes

Other than my southwestern additions to the burgers that I mentioned above, I did made several other changes - particularly to the potatoes. Instead of milk I used about 3/4 cup sour cream in the mixing of them. I find this yields a creamier mashed potato. Also, I mixed in about 1.5 teaspoons of Mexican seasoning (the kind you use to make taco meat). That gave them some really great Mexican food flavor and color. I didn't add any salt because the Mexican flavoring added enough on its own.

As for the burgers, the only change that I made to that recipe was that after 15 mins of cooking time I put the cheese on top of the burgers, then I let them cook for the last 5 mins. Nice and melty!

More pics of the yummy!

Awwwwwwwwww Yeaaaaaaahhhhhhhh!

Recipes property of: Food Network (http://www.foodnetwork.com) and Anonymous of cooks.com (http://www.cooks.com)