Walking in Pemberton & A Dinner Revisit

  Saturday stayed grey and I should have taken that nap I was wanting. If it could go wrong it did. Sunday was only slightly better and that is just because I knew it was a Murphy's law kind of day and did only what I had to.
  I slipped away Sunday afternoon and took a walk with my camera in a little town called Pemberton. 

There are the usual beautiful old buildings.

 A creek that we have kayaked many times. 

A lovely old cemetery that was so very peaceful to walk through. Walking in cemeteries has always brought me a calming peace like no other place. Is that strange?

 There is a wonderful antique shop where I came across a boat load of Fiesta Ware.

 The bowl I covet is a little pricey and I would rather a different color so leaving it on the shelf wasn't that hard.

 I saw my first cream soup bowl. Everyone seems to go nuts for this bowl. Cobalt blue is a beautiful color for the soup bowl. I would have liked to have brought it home but I was a good girl and left it on the shelf.

 The turtles sunning themselves were to cute not to take a minute to picture. I loved how the bigger turtle clowned for the camera before he jumped the log and swam away.

 Among all the big beautiful old homes and buildings I found the cutest porch I have ever seen. It actually boarders on art in my mind. They even made a sweet little flower garden in the sidewalk that was artful too.

 Directly across the street from that porch is a bed and breakfast that looks like it would be fun to stay in. It would be a great chance to see inside one of those big old beautiful homes. I love the whole look of this place, including the street lamp in front of the B&B.

 After that wonderfully relaxing walk I was pretty sure I had left my bad or no luck weekend behind me. It seemed that way all through dinner and into the evening. It seemed that way as I turned in for bed. It seemed that way right up until the first crack of thunder jolted me out of a sound sleep and my bed just in time to see in the lightening's glare. Did I mention Sunday was beautiful sunny blue skies and big fluffy white clouds. Well it was and on days like that I like opening my sun roof as I am driving around. Are you seeing where this is going. Well if your vision has a jammie clad women armed with lots and lots of towels charging out the door in the pouring rain, thunder and lightening then you are on the right track. My car is all dried out and looking good now in the light of day.I thank God for that crack of thunder because it rained all night long and it rained hard.Lets hope that's all Murphy's law has in store for me.
   " What Was Dinner" Today I decided to go back in my files and revisit a dish that was worth repeating. Instead of rewriting the recipe I figured I wrote it so well the first time I would just share it as I wrote it in the first place.
Burgers and Beer that would be the title of last nights dinner. Using a dark stout beer and frozen french onion soup I try a new twist with my classic meat cake recipe.
   To start I mix together 1 egg, 1 lb ground meat,1/4 cup milk and my seasonings Salt, pepper, garlic powder, onion powder,dried basil,dried Oregano, nutmeg,allspice and cardamom. I then make extra thick patties and place them in a hot oven safe skillet. Don't mash them down with your spatula just let them cook untouched until browned flip once and let that side brown untouched as well.

I then removed the burgers from the pan. I added a med sliced onion and a cup give or take of sliced mushrooms,cooked til the onion was soft and translucent . I degazed the pan with 8 oz of Guinness stout from a can and let that cook about 5 minutes, then  I added the frozen soup defrosting it first, about a cup. I turned the oven to 425 when I started cooking the burgers on the stove.After letting the beer,soup and meat drippings cook together for about 5 minutes I removed the pan from the heat and added my beef patties back into the pan I covered the pan tightly with foil and placed the skillet into the oven lowering the oven temperature  to 375 set the timer for 30 minutes and went and wrote yesterdays blog.  
 When the timer went of I removed the foil and let everything continue to cook another 30 minutes.My sides were simple and good. Bill was bored yesterday and had gone foraging coming home with fresh picked  asparagus so that was a no brainer, I steamed the fresh veggies with butter and lemon till the asparagus was just tender. The lemon smells so good as it wafts around the kitchen.Boiled potatoes rounds off this meal perfectly.The kitchen smells so good and I am drawn back in time to the happy childhood memories of dinner and fun.

I normally make meat cakes on the stove top with a mushroom gravy and while it is always very good cooked like that I will be using beer and the oven method from here on out. The Texture was beyond words, it was every thing and I mean everything you ever want from a meat cake. Moist, velvety and full of taste.         
                 Well I am hungry now so off to the kitchen I go to whip up yet another amazing dinner!