Can y'all believe it is July already?!

Yeah, me either. All in just a bat of eye.

I thought Christmas was yesterday. No really.

I did. 

Kinda. 

So are y'all ready for this 4th of July?

On a Thursday?!

Yeah, me neither. 

I am ready however to chow down. 

Who doesn’t love a grilled hamburger?

If y'all are saying, “me!”–I can’t hear you. 

Y'all just need to eat some damn meat.

Get over your holier than thou diet, health reasons + whatever else might be limiting yourself to.

One hamburger ain’t gonna kill ya. 

Especially if your buying a quality locally raised product such as this one. 

Y'all are getting a good deal here. 

An entire menu. 

An entire menu’s worth of recipes in just one post.

It’s Christmas in July.

You’re Welcome.

Well, you’ve clicked through + made it this far. 

So what’s the menu you ask? 

Here y'all go:

Goat + lamb burgers with heirloom tomatoes, purple onion, feta + tzatziki

Padron pepper kebabs with cherry tomatoes + purple onion served with lime crema.

Corn on the cob. 

Rubbed with olive oil. Grilled, without the husk.

Until a few kernels start to pop. 

Sprinkled with salt + chili powder–then slathered in St. Agur blue cheese. 

That was your first recipe right there, folks. 

Potato salad with cilantro dressing.

Onto the sauce!

Lime Crema

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: none

Yield: about ½ cup

¼ white onion, chopped

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

a few/tiny handful spearmint leaves, chopped

lime zest from 1 lime

juice from 2 limes

4 tbsp sour cream

2 tbsp mayonnaise

Salt to taste

In a small bowl add sour cream + mayonnaise. Give it a quick stir.

Next, add in the rest of ingredients. Stir until well combined.

this is for those delicious Padron pepper kebabs.

Now for the kebabs.  

Yeah, we’re calling em kebabs, not skewers. 

Yes, I know there ain’t no meat but I likes it better than skewer.

I just did tomato, pepper, onion, onion then repeat with starting with the tomato. 

Now, why are these kebabs so dang special? 

Cause they are Pardons–the quick + dirty on em is that about 1 in 10 are hot. Could be light your ass up hot hence the pairing of them with lime crema. 

Now onto the … burgers.

Tzatziki

Prep time: 5 mins

Cook time: none!

Yield: about a cup

This tzatziki is a little different in the fact that y'all are probably familiar with dill variety on y'alls gyros. 

I just went ahead + threw the whole kitchen sink of delicious in there.

Wait.

I am losing y'all …

Back to the sauce:

2 cups greek yogurt

1 medium cucumber peeled + grated

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ cup basil, chopped

small handful of  spearmint, chopped

small handful of dill, chopped

juice from one lemon

zest from one lemon 

salt + pepper to taste

Whisk together all ingredients in medium sized bowl. 

Refrigerate until y'alls burgers are ready.

For your Goat + Lamb burgers

I did one pound of goat + one pound of lamb.

Here’s the spice mix I made:

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tsp dried basil

2 tsp fennel seeds, ground in spice grinder/coffee grinder

½ tsp garlic powder

½ tsp onion powder

small handful parsley, chopped

1 tsp salt 

1 tsp pepper

I added 1 egg yolk for each pound of meat so the patties would stay together. So in this case two yolks should suffice. 

I mixed all this up into the raw meat with ma hands.

To make the patties I used two small plates.

I placed the plates face down + covered the bottom with plastic wrap.

I grabbed what I thought looked like what the largest meatball would make. Rolled it between my palms then placed it on one of plates then carefully pressed down slowly for desired thickness. 

It worked out to be about ¼ lb patties. 

So y'all should get 8 burgers out of the deal. 

Y'all remember the doneness test? 

Yeah, I don’t think so…here’s the link. 

Next up…

Uh oh. 

I am losing y'all again. 

Potato Salad with Cilantro Dressing

Prep time: 15 mins– chop, chop!

Cook time: 15–20 mins 

Yield: a lot for one hungry lady

Y'all should really make this a day ahead.

For the cilantro dressing: 

½ cup mayonnaise

¼ cup olive oil

½ bunch cilantro, chopped

2 tbsp Zatarain’s Creole mustard

1 tbsp rice vinegar

zest from one lemon

1 tsp salt 

whisk together mayonnaise, olive oil, creole mustard, rice vinegar, zest + salt until incorporated. 

Toss in cilantro, give it a few good stirs until well combined. 

Set aside. 

Now to the potatoes

10 small/medium red potatoes cut into half then quartered.

3 hard boiled eggs

¼ purple onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground mustard

1 tsp dried oregano 

½ tsp cayenne powder

Y'all can boil your taters to your preference. 

Mine is somewhere between firm + ready for mash.

I test my boiled potatoes by stabbing them with a fork–if it takes a few seconds for them to slide off then they are ready.

If y'all can’t stab with the fork because they a)fall apart or b) won’t stay on the fork then they are over done.  Y'all might get a mashed tater salad situation going on when adding the dressing but hey, that might be your preference. 

Drain the boiled taters in a colander + allow to cool.

This should take about an hour. 

Give a few tosses while they are in that colander.

Speed things up a bit. 

Next, grab a medium size mixing bowl. 

Add the boiled taters + dry ingredients. 

Mix until combined.

Add salt to taste. Yeah taste that boil dry tater mix. 

It’s delicious. 

You may not want to add the dressing. 

If y'all feel that the taters are still too warm. 

Wait a while. 

Then add y'alls dressing.

Refrigerate for at least an hour preferably overnight. 

That’s it!

That’s y'alls 4th of July–should you chose to do so. 

Boom!