The iBrattleburger

Here is the non-winning filling recipe. I don't have Grotke's roll recipe here, as I haven't asked his permish to use it. Originally it was full of local name brands, which I've omitted.

3 Tblsp Butter
1 large Empire apple
3 large cloves garlic
1 lb. ground turkey
2 Tblsp. maple syrup
1 c. plain yogurt
1/2 c. cheddar cheese

Prep: Mix the turkey and maple syrup together very well. Let marinate in the fridge for at least a half-hour. Peel, core and cut apple into 1/4" bits. Mince garlic. Grate cheddar.

Cook: In a large fry pan, melt 2 Tblsp butter on medium heat. Add apple and garlic. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally, until lightly browned. Let cool. Heat a griddle or fry pan over medium-high heat and add last Tblsp of butter. Form 4 burgers and cook well (about 4 minutes each side) until deep pink disappears. Top with cheddar, cover with lid and turn off heat. With a whisk, add yogurt to browned apple/garlic. Let stand about 3 minutes. Whisk again and...

Assemble sandwich: Slice all buns in half. Form a small hollow in each half. In bottom halves, spoon 1/4 of yogurt/garlic/apple sauce. Top with burger. Eat. Yum.

Update on 6/6: Grotke gave me permission to share his wonderful iBrattleburger Roll Recipe (he's the best baker I've known since Nick Malgieri and he ain't even a pro):

iBrattleburger Rolls (makes 7)
1 tablespoon dry active yeast
1 tablespoon Deer Ridge Farm honey
2 cups lukewarm Brattleboro tap water
22 ounces of King Arthur Bread Flour
3.75 ounces King Arthur Whole Wheat flour
1 tablespoon salt

Mixing
In the mixing bowl of your stand mixer, add together yeast, honey and water. Stir slightly and let it sit until the top gets foamy with bubbles, about 15 minutes. Measure out flour. Add salt to the flour, then sift it. Mix flour with yeast and let it knead for 7 minutes or so in a mixer.

Rising
Put the kneaded dough ball in an oiled bowl. Cover with a wet dish towel. Let sit in a not-cold place until the dough doubles in size, about two hours.

Dividing/Bench Rest
When the dough has doubled, gently take it out of the bowl and put it on a countertop. Divide it into 170 gram pieces (about 7). Do a quick shaping. Cover with the wet towel again and let rest for 15 minutes or so.

Final Shape/Proofing
Do the final shaping for round mini loaves. Lay each of these tightened, shaped pieces of dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet, and cover again with a wet dish towel. Let these sit and rise one more time... about 45 minutes. You can preheat the oven to 425', and put an empty metal pan (for steam) in the bottom.

Baking
As the oven heats up, boil a couple of cups of water. When the oven is hot, the water is boiled, and the bread has risen*:
1. Score the top of each round. Create the "i" shape by pinching the slash closed at the 2/3 mark.
2. Spray mist (wet down) the tops of each loaf.
3. Put the pans in the oven.
4. Pour the boiling water into the hot pan at the bottom of the oven to cause even more steam, and close the oven.
Bake for 15 minutes (until brown), then remove and cool on racks.
*Variations: top with course salt or seeds before scoring.

Pissing Me Off

Lately I'm knowing how my parents felt in the world of fast-changing rules. Since it looks like I'll never be able to post comments on others' blogs without a gmail account, I created one. Except now I have to log in & out of everything when I change pages. Because Blogger won't accept changing my email from the old to the new. And consequently the bloggers I follow won't recognize who I am when commenting because gmail displays my first name, which thousands of others share. But neither can I comment on others' blogs at all with my regular blogger name. What an incredible pain in the ass.

Also, the competition we entered was poorly done; a lot of info was omitted in instructions to the contestants. Knowing that info would have changed our entry. Which seems to me either sloppy or intentional. I won't be entering next year.

It was tough to get to sleep last night so I took melatonin, which produced vivid dreams. In stressful times I dream of past workplaces. Last night there I was, in a Magickal Childe that wasn't the Magickal Childe, with an enormous warehouse instead of the back room that actually existed. Emily and I were searching for a list that Herman had made before he'd died, and kept finding immaterial but interesting things. Other Childe workers made cameos- Randy, Anthony, Steve, Wayne, Peter, even Linda... but nothing got done and things kept changing. It was as frustrating as it had been in real life. And as life is in general.

So it'll take a while to straighten up my head today.

It's a beautiful day. Time to start it over.

And the Winner is...

Apparently not us. Grotke said he perused the table of final finalists and ours wasn't there. Still no official word, so I'm hopeful we lost. Though it would've been nice to have some extra cheese around.

As we said in NY, "Wait til next year!" And with that, I'm off to bed. It's been a long day.

One Down, One To Go

Just heard from my niece; everything's okay with my nephew and he's in Recovery. Hallelujah and we're all glad that's done. Now he'll just mend. We're all relieved.

On to the sammiches, which has Grotke squirrelly. Four sammies are no big deal. I'm just worried we could win.

On Tenterhooks

Today is about living on edge. My nephew is having major surgery, a job that will take 3 OR hours and a lot of prayers to the god/desses as we wait. When it's over he'll have his life and ability to eat back again. It won't be an immediate recovery; there are steps to it. But soon he'll be better than he has been in years and feasting at The Outback.

In comparison, my nerves over the sandwich competition are nothing.

We aren't a hugely expressive family. I guess that comes from our upbringing. My brother takes stress in silence. I write, but don't talk much about it. We've also been through many deaths, which I think has made us even more reserved. If that's possible.

So I won't be blogging til it's all over. Hopefully that will be with good news.