Happy 4th of July! Ready for some fun in the sun? Or a quiet, relaxing day? I have to say, one of the best 4ths I've ever had was a few years back when John and I went on a long bike ride followed by a picnic of fried chicken, fresh cherries, cheeses, and white wine. The. Kill.

But of course I like a good party too (who me?), so today we're on for our Annual Super Duper Shubert Coopster 4th of July Celebration, having Shuberts and Stace & Coop (obv!), as well as Harry Cunliffe, Debbie & Stu The Wine Genius Williams, and Debbie's sister Michelle over to swim, dine a la potluck, and see fireworks. I'm grilling burgers & ribs, and making new potato & green bean salad and some simple veggies & dip. With tasty appetizers, salad, and dessert contributed by the group...KA-BLAM we're going to have a meal! Yeah, baby!

Moderate it: I'll personally make a lameass attempt to fill up on salads and veggies and enjoy the whole burger-rib-beer-chip-dessert thing in moderation. Hope you fare better in your moderation efforts than I'm about to! Enjoy your holiday!

Now we're talking, now it feels like summer. The catmint in our yard is in riotous, excessive bloom, a purple explosion ironically contained in tidy, linear beds. Virtually alive with honey bees, the effect is stunning as I sit here on the deck, in my robe, with a cup of coffee, on a sunny-cool Sunday morning. (If any of my neighbors can see me, good morning to you.)

Yeah, it's nice to be home, even from Italy. Bzzzz...

We embraced our return to the states with a late afternoon Little League baseball game followed by burgers on the grill. Hot juicy damn that burger tasted good! Just...yum. I topped mine with nothing more than sauteed mushrooms, but John and Nathan went the distance. In a nod to all the simple, beautifully prepared food we had in Italy (sigh), I made up a little warm potato dish - halved new potatoes tossed with (La Finca veggie share!) arugula, capers, sliced roasted red peppers, garlic, olive oil, and red wine vinegar. The heat of the potatoes wilted the arugula and brought out the salty goodness of the capers and peppers. Nice alongside a burger or chicken or fish or even on its own. (Recipe posted in comments, below.)

Today we're on for more baseball and grillin', baby! Along with the arugula, my veggie share included bok choy. A quick saute with lots of garlic, minced jalapenos, and a splash of soy sauce should add crunchy-salty-heat to the shrimp and steaks I'm going to grill (yep, double-beef, bit of a planning goof, but I doubt anyone will complain...). Maybe I can convince Stacey, Cooper Cuteness, and Levi Sizzle to join us...

Happy Sunny Sunday!

Moderate it: ah hamburgers, so good, so potentially not-moderate. I've never been a thick burger girl, so I either cook a small one for myself, or cut a large one in half, then in half again lengthwise, and voila, a thinner burger. I eat mine open-faced, topped with veggies (raw onions, sauteed mushrooms, tomato in season - you know the yummy drill), alongside a salad, and it's all good.

Brrrgrrr, rarrr! I made hamburgers last night and oh my, I haven't had one in so long, it tasted incredible. I didn't actually grill 'em, but still, the homemade version is just "summer" to me, it was really fun. I did a quick saute of mushrooms and spinach to have alongside - or on top! - and the whole thing was just ridiculously yummy. For your perfect burger:

1. Buy best-quality ground beef, not too lean. (Then, skip the cheese. If you have enough fat in the meat, the cheese just makes it over-the-top, IMHO; if you disagree, absolutely go for cheese! As the pic demonstrates, it looks pretty damn good!)
2. Gently work some salt and pepper throughout the meat before you form the patties.
3. Gently form the patties (if you pack 'em, you puck 'em), until they just hold together.
4. Press the center to make it a bit thinner than the rest of the burger (the sides seize up as the burger cooks, making the middle thicker, and making the burger harder to cook evenly).

Grill 'em, fry 'em, broil 'em. I always cook Nathan's until well done (at least 160 degrees), but John and I prefer just a hint of pink.

As much as I'd LOVE to put down a batch of crispy frites to go with the perfect, juicy burger - the rules of moderation require a big salad or other veggies alongside instead. Sniff. Nah, just kidding, the above mentioned spinach-mushroom saute was delicious. And a crisp salad can definitely be a nice foil for all that richness, something tangy especially. Tomatoes, scallions, radishes. Load it on the burger, eat alongside as well - NICE!

Hello? Moderation? Anywhere? Anywhere?

After a lovely date-night feast (such as at Mission on Tuesday night), I would normally shoot for a much lighter day the next day(s). With lots of exercise. You know, to balance it all out. Moderate a bit? Ha. So I took off yesterday morning for a brisk (and insanely, miserably hot) walk/run. Off to a good start, even though I felt like I'd been hit by a truck. For lunch, one of my beloved black bean burgers, in one of my beloved French Meadow sprouted grain tortillas, with peppers, avocado, arugula, and salsa. Sublime. Healthy. All good.

And then...a very snacky afternoon (which happens once in awhile and I usually just go with it; I figure if I'm really listening, and eating from true hunger, my body knows better than I do when it needs some extra fuel). Followed by a thunderstorm and power outage, which fizzled our healthy dinner plans and sent us scurrying out the door for lights-out treats at Bacio. Despite all their lovely salad options (that place knows how to make a salad), I was truly starving for major, beefy protein, so I had...a brrrgrrr. Not just any burger, but the (whisper) Bacio Burger (I didn't read the menu carefully and thought I was getting a plain burger with the usual sides - lettuce, tomato, raw onion, pickles, etc...uh, nooo). Topped with some amazing creamy sauce, and cheese, and sauteed onions, and tomato, on a toasted bun no less - could you find more ways to add fat to a burger? - it was one of the most decadent, delicious burgers I've ever had. Dang, it was that good. Naughty, killer good. Ouch! The whole experience totally wiped me out and I was asleep by 9:30 last night, sensory overload, bam.

So today, let's start again. A day full of lovely vegetables and fruits is in order, with a long bike ride, and lots of water. Basically an Un-Bacio-Burger Day. Enjoy yours!

A quick post here since for some strange reason, I'm pretty tired tonight, even after a nicely moderate, party-free day. It's in honor of moderation, in fact, that I thought I'd share an interesting observation. I had two burgers today, one for lunch, one for dinner. Doesn't sound moderate, I know, but stay with me. The lunch version was a black-bean burger (Morningstar Farms), on a toasted Lite Thomas whole-grain English muffin (I love English muffins, and this version packs 8 grams of fiber and only 100 cals each), with a few avocado slices and a dab of salsa piled on as well. It was...incredible.

The second burger, for dinner, was the real deal: 90% lean ground beef, grilled, on a sesame seed bun, with tomato, lettuce, and pickles. I made it quite small to keep it somewhat healthful, and loaded up on the veggies. It was also delicious, but you know what? And here's the observation: the black bean burger was BETTER! I mean, I know that I love black bean burgers, but nothing beats a great hamburger, so I'm a bit surprised. But hey, I've never tasted the two (sort of) against each other, after a full week of rich holiday tasties (including hamburgers on the 4th). I guess my bod was ready for something, uh, lighter. More moderate. No! Plus, crazy as this will sound to you burger lovers out there - the spicy-salty-creamy-chewy thing the black bean version had going on pushed more flavor buttons than the beefy version. (Not that I'm giving up hamburgers anytime soon, mind you - even after watching Fast Food Nation - oh no.) I really like knowing that a meatless, much lower-calorie, high-fiber version satisfies me just as well as the beloved calorie-bomb version. Yeah, it's good to know.

So that's it. Not that fascinating, sorry. I'm weird, I know, that little moments of naturally-occurring moderation really jazz me, but I can't help it. My quest lives on...

Happy 4th of July!

Looks to be a lovely day for barbecuing and hanging by the pool - good thing that's our plan! Stacey and Cooper, and Suz, Cory, Vivian, and Sullivan are all coming later this afternoon for some food and fun before we head out on the golf course for fireworks. We didn't know there were fireworks right here in the 'hood the first summer we lived here, but we figured it out pretty fast as we were driving by the entire neighborhood walking toward our house! It's so sweet - no parking, no traffic, just a bag of chips, a cold beer, some bug spray, a chair, and we're out the door, yeeaah.

Simple food today - guaaaahcamole with chips and raw veggies (a nod to moderation; there, I'm done) at the pool; Suz's deviled eggs (she's the deviled egg queen, yum); grilled burgers and dogs with all the fixin's (including a little guac that I set aside, there's is nothing like guac on a burger, The Kill...); a big salad with grilled tomatoes and onions; and Suz's blueberry kuchen for dessert. How fabulously, patriotically red (tomatoes), white (eggs), and blue (kuchen), eh? Hope you have plans for a tasty, Festive 4th as well!

Friday Morning Coffee with Suz! On Tuesday! We're not hitting many Fridays lately, nor much coffee for that matter, dang. Hate when life gets in the way of my good times! But hey, we slid in a round of coffee and chat this morning and it was great, as always.

Baseball tonight so I grilled early (really early!) burgers. Hard to keep a hamburger relatively light, but I did my best by 1) buying extra-lean ground beef, 2) making myself a damn small burger, 3) eating it on only half a bun, and 4) topping it off with loads of yummy veggies - pickles, little avocado, tomato, sweet onion, and arugula. Killer, I must say. Filling too! Hey, a Salad Burger! Oooh, I like that name! Salad Burgers RAWK!

I started the long process of planting pots of annuals and herbs today. Takes me several trips to the nursery, but that's OK. I love it, love picking out the plants, love digging around in the dirt, love how it looks when I'm done. And with herbs, lettuces, and tomatoes, love to eat the harvest! Soon enough, soon enough...