{"id":282,"date":"2011-01-30T09:46:09","date_gmt":"2011-01-30T09:46:09","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/homeshuling\/2011\/01\/best-burger-ever.html"},"modified":"2011-01-30T09:46:09","modified_gmt":"2011-01-30T09:46:09","slug":"best-burger-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/homeshuling\/2011\/01\/best-burger-ever.html","title":{"rendered":"Best. Burger. Ever."},"content":{"rendered":"

I stopped eating meat in my early teens, for reasons that I can no longer clearly recall. I know I was influenced by the “veggies” at my labor zionist summer camp, and that saying that I didn’t eat meat simplified my mixed feelings about observing kashrut after transferring from a Jewish day school to a mostly non-Jewish prep school. Eventually, my social consciousness caught up with my real-life practice, and I became increasingly committed to the ideals of living meat-free.<\/p>\n

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And then I became pregnant with my second child. And suddenly I had an unbearable craving for meat. With Empire poultry readily available at our local Trader Joe’s, I began incorporating chicken and the occasional turkey breast into our family’s diet. But red meat was definitely the final frontier. While I held some vague, hopeful notions that Empire’s “free-roaming” chickens had a quality of life a few steps above the average factory-farmed bird, I was unwilling to buy cows raised the way, well, that most cows are raised in this country. <\/div>\n
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About a year ago, our local Chabad began hiring a kosher butcher to slaughter a local, grass-fed, pasture-raised cow, and offering kosher cuts of beef for a donation. From time to time I bought stew beef or a brisket. I discovered, much to my surprise, that I. LOVE. Beef.<\/div>\n
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Recently, Chabad offered ground beef for the first time. And I decided it was time for my first hamburger in close to 30 years.<\/div>\n
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In honor of the occasion, I decided to go all out. First, I made homemade hamburger buns.<\/div>\n
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I shaped the patties without overhandling the beef, according to Mark Bittman’s directions.<\/div>\n
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And while my husband grilled the meat, I sauteed onions and mushrooms over a low flame to go on top.<\/div>\n
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For sides, I roasted some locally grown carrots in all sorts of stunning colors<\/div>\n
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\"IMG_0092.JPG\"<\/a><\/span><\/div>\n
and some yukon gold potatoes.<\/div>\n
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B’tayavon!<\/div>\n
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At $8 a pound it’s not an inexpensive dinner, but I’m of the minority opinion that beef actually shouldn’t be cheap. It’s a delicacy. And while I don’t expect to eat red meat more than once or twice a month, I am already looking forward to my next burger night. <\/div>\n
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Have any favorite toppings and sides to recommend?<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I stopped eating meat in my early teens, for reasons that I can no longer clearly recall. I know I was influenced by the “veggies” at my labor zionist summer camp, and that saying that I didn’t eat meat simplified my mixed feelings about observing kashrut after transferring from a Jewish day school to a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":86,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,3,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-jewish","category-judaism","category-parenting"],"yoast_head":"\nBest. Burger. 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