Blast from my Past week

Hi All (or none)!

Ever had one of those weeks where you just want comfort food? Its easy because you know what to pick up, and you barely have to look at the recipes. That's this week for me. The first meal of the week was Sunday night where we had Lincoln Life Burgers.

I grew up loving these "burgers" which are more like meatloaf patties with lots of onions and sauce. My mom thinks it's because it was one of a couple of things that she ate a ton of when she was pregnant. I think it's due to ketchups "natural mellowing agents" and that everything involved is delicious.

The recipe originally came from a potluck dinner that my grandfather went to when he worked at Lincoln Life Insurance (hence the name). I don't have the name of the cook, so if anyone ever wants to take credit, feel free.

It's really hard to grow up as a kid when someone asks you your favorite foods and you say Lincoln Life Burgers, Tuna Buna and Easy Beefy. We'll get to those others later. (Tuna Buna is slated for later this week!)

Recipe for Lincoln Life burgers follows after the jump.
Lincoln Life Burgers
Active: 15 min
Total Time: 30 min
Serves 4 or more

This needs to be served with mashed potatoes. Pop cut and peeled potatoes in boiling water once you've mixed the sauce and they should all be ready around the same time. Don't use too much seasoning on the potatoes as you'll use leftover sauce as gravy. Peas also go great with this meal, as all my childhood meals, but other veggies can be substituted.

Equipment: nonstick skillet (or electric skillet) with lid, 2 spatulas (1 for raw patties, 1 for done, or clean thoroughly during simmer time). Large saucepot for potatoes.

Sauce:
1 cup ketchup
1 onion
4 tablespoons worcestershire Sauce
4 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon vinegar (white, cider, other mild that you have on hand)

Patties:

1/2 cup milk

1 cup soft bread crumbs (i used 2 hamburger buns because we always have them, they're soft, and cheaper than a loaf of bread)

1 lb ground beef
salt and pepper to taste

Mashed Potatoes:
3-4 boiling potatoes (Yukon gold if you can get 'em)
milk
butter
salt and pepper to taste

• Put water for potatoes on to boil. Scrub, peel and chop up potatoes. Cut onions to a slice or large dice.
• Mix sauce all together in a bowl. I like to do it in my quart liquid measuring cup so I can just measure out the ketchup rather than transferring it from a cup to a bowl.
• Slide potatoes into boiling water (carefully!!)
• Moisten bread crumbs with milk then mix in ground beef and salt & pepper. Form into patties (number might be determined by pan size). For 1 lb of beef, I'd make 4-6 patties.
• Brown patties on both sides (2-5 min per side) on medium-high.
• Pour sauce over patties (cover completely if possible, this is the secret to them being moist and delicious). Wait until sauce starts bubbling then turn heat to medium-low to simmer and cover. After 15 minutes, the burgers should be done. If not, you might want to turn up the heat and wait another 10 minutes (play this part by ear). The burgers should be cooking by the pent-up steam, so a larger skillet might take a little longer to build up the appropriate steaminess.
• Finish up the mashed potatoes with butter, milk and s&p.
• Serve burgers with mash and use the sauce as gravy.