Seasonal Sundays (Week 38) Burger Season!

This week's recipe collection features seven burger recipes: some for the grill and some for inside; some for the stove and some for the slow cooker; some meat- and some plant-based. What binds them is what makes for happy cooks and happy eaters, casual family-friendly comfort food at its finest. Fingers crossed that here you'll find lots of easy-dinner inspiration and with any luck, one or two recipes destined as "keepers" in your own recipe repertoire ...

~ Skip Straight to the Good Stuff ~

~ PIN This ~

Welcome to Seasonal Sundays ...

As ever, thank you for welcoming me into your InBox and RSS feed reader. It's your kitchens, your lives, I conjure while writing ...

Hear me out. Let me make the case that the best (the only?) season for burgers is late summer and fall.

Sure, sure. Perhaps mine's a minority viewpoint. Haven't all the magazines and cookbooks and bloggers tempted us with the glories of the grill these past summer months?

But harumph. But phooey.

Who wants to stand outside (let alone stand over a hot grill) when it's hotter-than-you-know-where? Give me a salad supper or a summer soup any day the temp goes above, hmmm, let's say 80?

Anyway, that's why as I write this very minute in the middle of September in the middle of the country, there's good burger thawing and I'm dancing back'n'forth between real sides or just cuttin' up some tomatoes and cookin' some greens.

See? It's burger season!

About the Photo By Popular Request, a Little Insight into the Top Image: Last week, my husband surprised me with a Fri-Date trip up the chairlift in Grafton, Illinois, a small rivertown that sits right on the Mississippi upriver from St. Louis. The views on the ride are spectacular (especially going down) and at the top is a restaurant with a big patio overlooking the town and the river and a not-too-shabby charcuterie plate ... nothing much better on a pretty September afternoon. St. Louis locals and visitors, it's much recommended!

In Praise Of ...

• ... these Kona Non-Stick Grill Mats, first recommended by my Toronto cousin, we're now on our third year of using these on the gas grill, especially handy, if, um, some, um, body, isn't, um, faithful, um, about, um, cleaning the grill grates.
• ... day-after-day of warm (70s!) and breezy (with a touch of cool) late-summer days, starting just after Labor Day and continuing, if the forecast is to be believed, another week or two???
• ... earbuds that don't hurt and don't even go into your ears. Wow. What a difference these bluetooth wireless earphones (affiliate link) make in my life. I listen to a lot of books on tape and podcasts, when I'm walking for exercise, working around the house, even in the car while driving. But earbuds make my ears sore after a short while and so somewhere around here are two sets going 100% to waste. THESE are different. They sit outside the ear, on that little area between your cheek and the ear canal. And it's magic, how they work. First, they don't cancel out outside noise, so I can carry on a brief conversation without turning off my book/etc. Second, they don't cancel out outside noise, so important when walking for exercise when you totally need to be situation-aware. Third, they don't cancel outside noise but nobody else hears what you're listening to, this really helps my husband whose own hearing aids interpret my books/etc as crazy-loud gibberish aka NOISE. Fourth, they're light and easy to operate. A couple of flaws, for me, though not deal-breakers. They're not good for listening while lying down, if you wanted to listen in bed but not disturb someone nearby, say. They also don't seem to play well when in the car with bluetooth, I've figured out a way around this but it's kinda annoying. Much recommended!

May I Suggest ... a Link?

Let me just presume that if you're reading this, well, you're both a cook and a recipe collector. Don't the two kinda go together? And that means you tuck aside interesting recipes all over the place and then, dang, where is that chicken recipe that looked so good anyway? Here's an idea. Start a folder on your phone, call it "Kitchen Parade" or "Alanna" or whatever makes best sense to you. Then save the recipes you're most interested in right there in one place. Easy Peasy.

• Start here?
• Burger Recipes
• Hot Off the Grill

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SEASONAL INSPIRATION: Let's Cook Some Burgers!

• THE RECIPE Green Chili Burgers Just good meat with a good green salsa.
• TOPPED WITH Green Chile Sauce (Salsa Verde) New Mexico-style salsa verde. (PIN This)

• THE RECIPE Spinach Burgers A meaty burger laced with fresh or frozen spinach, moist & juicy.
• ANOTHER TAKE Homemade Black Bean Burgers Easy, cheap, fast and best of all, tasty!

• THE RECIPE Oil Tanker Burgers Stacked so high, you might call 'em Super Tankers.
• ANOTHER TAKE Skillet Burgers with Tomato Gravy Burgers cooked right in the skillet with my "homemade marinara".

• THE RECIPE Falafel Burgers (Lentil Burgers) A Middle-Eastern favorite shaped in American-style burgers.
• ANOTHER TAKE Chickpea Cakes with Cucumber-Yogurt Sauce A vegetarian meal in 30 minutes.

• THE RECIPE Minnesota Sloppy Joes Sloppy joes made from scratch in the crockpot.
• ANOTHER TAKE Slow Cooker Vegetarian Lentil Sloppy Joes A little bit spicy, many rave reviews.

• THE INFO Ten Tips for Better Burgers Ten easy tips for grilling juicy burgers. (PIN This)
• MY RECIPE COLLECTION Burger Recipes Beef, chicken, turkey and plant-based!

• THE COLLECTION Let's Cook Some Burgers! On the grill and inside, meat and plant-based.
• AND ANOTHER Sheetpan Suppers Usually a protein and vegetables roasted together in the oven.

What's New?!

Wondering about a recipe from the last while? Check Recent Recipes from Kitchen Parade and Recent Vegetable Recipes from A Veggie Venture.

• THE RECIPE Sheetpan Salmon with Garden Hash & Creamy Avocado Sauce One pan, one oven, one magnificent meal. (PIN This)

Compliments!

• A BIG FAN! "I've been making Ina's tabbouleh for YEARS!!! I like to use quinoa instead of bulgur, quinoa is gluten free and higher in protein. I also like to add feta. That makes it more of a main dish that I can take to work with me." ~ T (PS I love her quinoa idea, especially since it's so much easier to find than cracked wheat!)
• THE RECIPE Ina Garten's Tabbouleh Salad It has a secret ingredient! (PIN This)

Looking Ahead ...

• September 23rd - the first day of fall in the northern hemisphere
• October 1st - Alanna's Unofficial First Day of Fall
• October 9th - Canadian Thanksgiving
• October 9th - Columbus Day
• October 31st - Halloween
• November 1st & 2nd - Days of the Dead (All Saints)
• November 11th - Veteran's Day
• November 23rd (early! nice!) - American Thanksgiving
• December 1st - Alanna's Unofficial First day of Winter

Looking Back ...

• Fall Is for Vegetarians (Week 37) (PIN This)
• Lazy Weekend Breakfasts (Week 36) (PIN This)
• Summer's Not Over Yet (Week 35) (PIN This)
• Memorable Summer Sides (Week 30) (PIN This)
• Zucchini Season! (Week 29) (PIN This)
• Melon Season! (Week 28) (PIN This)
• Summer Potluck Favorites (Week 27) (PIN This)
• Summer Ice Cream (Week 26) (PIN This)
• Summer Sandwiches (Week 25) (PIN This)

Déjà Vu

Something useful ... or thoughtful ... or interesting ... or fun ... from Seasonal Sundays, this same week.

Aha! It was exactly four years ago this week that I launched Seasonal Sundays!

That first newsletter is both much like and much different than this, the 148th, yes, I count ...

But all this time later, I find that writing each newsletter not only grounds my work week but also inspires my own cooking. For example, I'd forgotten all about Slow Cooker Tomato Grits and promised myself to put Easy Green Chile Chicken Enchiladas on our own weekend menu.

Anyone here who remembers that very first newsletter? If so, THANK YOU! It means the world to be invited in your kitchen every week.

A Quick Peek Into a Real-Life Kitchen

Just so you know, everything's not all pretty pictures around here, in the background is a pile of dirty dishes. And just like many (all?) of us, come five o'clock, I too draw a blank about what to make for supper, despite so many recipes I so dearly love. Here's a quick peek from the last week, not including the Simple Lentil Salad with Seasonal Vegetables, Sautéed Red & Yellow Pepper Relish and Green Chile Sauce (Salsa Verde) on repeat this time of year. I know I'm going to sound all gushy this week but isn't that the glory of part-summer, part-fall September?

• THIS WEEK Maybe for the first time, I used heirloom tomatoes for this great salad, and oh, twas good. For the homemade croutons, so important, nothing dusty and store-bought here, please, for the first time I bought a par-baked loaf of French bread, it finished baking in the oven in just ten minutes and then I cut it up for croutons, looooots of croutons. Panzanella is a feast, dinner itself.
• THE RECIPE Panzanella The classic Italian tomato and bread salad, worthy of an occasion. (PIN This)

• THIS WEEK Oh, this hit the spot! My husband came home with a big roll of summer sausage, the zucchini is still so pretty and I just knew, yes, this'd be dinner. I used up some close-to-sell-by-date Roasted Roma Tomatoes and would do that again under the same circumstances. I served it with white rice but wished I'd had a cauliflower for smooth, tangy Cauliflower Cream instead.
• THE RECIPE Balkan Summer Sausage Stew Rustic rib-sticking fall fare. (PIN This)

• THIS WEEK Oh, we l-o-v-e this Dorie Greenspan cake! If you snag some Italian plums, go for it but I also think it would be great with figs and maybe Concord grapes (would I seed them??? maybe not!). Anway, a real winner.
• THE RECIPE Dimply Plum Cake A rustic, barely sweet cake topped with jammy plums. (PIN This)

Just Updated!

• THE RECIPE Light Tomato Basil Quiche Make-ahead, light and healthy. (PIN This)
• ANOTHER TAKE Farmers Market Quiche with Crispy Potato Crust A CSA favorite, bits of different vegetables in an egg-milk-corn milk mixture.

Something to Read

Whalefall (affiliate link) by Daniel Kraus of The Shape of Water fame. Wow. If non-fiction is learning through information, then fiction is learning through imagination. And boy it takes imagination, for the author and the reader, to imagine the struggle to escape the inside of a dying whale. There were times I had to put this book down, it was just a lot. But it's not just the young man's struggle with the whale, it's also his struggle with his relationship (and loss) of his father, of becoming a man himself. This is an amazing story, it won't leave you fast.

A Turn of the Mind (affiliate link) by Alice LePlante is another book that seeks to capture the unknowable, here, what's happening inside the mind of someone with progressing dementia. It's fascinating and there's a twist(ed) ending I sure didn't see coming.

Tom Lake (affiliate link) by Ann Patchett. Imagine being quizzed, at length, by three grown daughters, some decades hence, about an ill-fitting love from your youth. Tom Lake was a slow start for me but I'm glad I stuck out until the end. Interestingly, I said much the same thing about her book The Dutch House, which I'd have sworn I read just last year but in fact, it was in 2019. Anyway, it too was a slow start with a surprise finish, also a sort of whodunnit except all mystery, no murder.

NO TIME TO READ? PERHAPS YOU DO! How I Read 4X More This Year Than Last What I gave up, how I read so much, what I read.

Don't Be a Stranger ...

I'd love to hear from you. Comment, send me a quick e-mail (my current address is in the FAQs), dot-dash in Morse code, build a fire for smoke signals, launch a message in a bottle, send a Christmas letter, get the dog to yip, toss me a note wrapped in a rubberband, write a message in the sky, scratch a note in the sand, listen to a seashell, tuck a question into a plastic Easter egg, whatever.

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Kitchen Parade is written by second-generation food columnist Alanna Kellogg and features fresh, seasonal dishes for every-day healthful eating and occasional indulgences. Quick Suppers are Kitchen Parade favorites and feature recipes easy on the budget, the clock, the waistline and the dishwasher. Do you have a favorite recipe that other Kitchen Parade readers might like? Just send me a quick e-mail, you'll find my current address in the FAQs. How to print a Kitchen Parade recipe. Never miss a recipe! If you like this recipe, sign up for a free e-mail subscription. If you like Kitchen Parade, you're sure to like my food blog about vegetable recipes, too, A Veggie Venture. When you make my recipes, I'd love to know your results! Just leave a comment below or better still, on the specific recipe's page.

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