Grilled Cheeseburger Melt - Steak n Shake Copycat

Steak n Shake used to carry a grilled cheeseburger melt, but it disappeared off the menu during covid, and never came back. It was a grilled cheese sandwich, with a burger patty inside of it along with ketchup mustard and pickles. It did not have onions, but I was thinking grilled onions would be good in it. It was NOT a Frisco melt. 

Season burger patties with seasoning of your choice, and sear in a hot skillet. Remove from skillet. If using onions, saute them in the burger grease until softened. Remove from skillet. Drain grease out of skillet but do not wipe it. Butter bread slices on both sides. Top one slice with 1 american cheese slice and a little bit of shredded cheddar, top with burger patty, ketchup, mustard, pickles and grilled onions, top with another slice of american cheese and shredded cheddar. Top with second piece of buttered bread. Cook in skillet as you would a grilled cheese, pressing down sometimes as you cook.

Biscuits & Dirty Sausage Gravy from Two Dudes Catering

Biscuits & Dirty Sausage Gravy from Two Dudes Catering

Making sure this recipe is preserved on the blog. I've started cutting and pasting recipes here, because I used to link to the recipes and then years later the link would no longer work and the recipe would be gone. 

Way back in 2007, Food Network had a show called Two Dudes Catering. It was Vinny Ditolo and Jon Shook, before they were famous. I loved the show. It only ran for one season, but it was so entertaining, and the recipes were great. I wish they would bring the show back. Anyway, in one of the episodes, they made biscuits and gravy. Since then, this basically how I made sausage gravy, though I don't measure anything.

butter

log breakfast sausage

heavy cream

Tabasco

Worcestershire

maple syrup

salt & freshly cracked pepper

In the episode they made this, they called it Old Mother. 

Sausage Gravy:

1 tablespoon butter

1 log package sausage (recommended: Jimmy Dean)

2 cups heavy cream

1 teaspoon hot sauce (recommended: Tabasco)

1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce

1/3 cup maple syrup

Salt and freshly cracked black pepper

Biscuits:

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup cold butter

1 cup whole milk

All-purpose flour, for dusting

Cream, for glazing

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Directions

1. For the sausage gravy:
2. In a large heavy bottom pot melt the tablespoon of butter and brown the sausage for about 5 minutes. Add the heavy cream and bring to a simmer. Once at a simmer, add the hot sauce, Worcestershire sauce and maple syrup. Simmer the gravy for 15 minutes and season with salt and pepper, to taste.
3. For the biscuits:
4. Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
5. In a bowl sift together the dry ingredients. Add the butter and incorporate the flour into it until the texture is consistent. Pour the milk into the flour mixture and mix with a fork until the dough begins to come together.
6. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and roll out until it's about 1-inch thick. Cut the dough vertically and then horizontally, yielding approximately 15 square biscuits. Lay the biscuits out on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Glaze the top of each biscuit with a little bit of cream and place the sheet in the oven for 12 to 15 minutes, or until the biscuits turn golden in color.
7. Assemble by placing a biscuit on a plate and covering it with about 1/2 a cup of the sausage gravy.

Singapore Mei Fun

 Singapore Noodles (Singapore Mei Fun)

This was pretty good. I added ginger because in one of The Woks of Life videos on youtube for this recipe, he adds ginger. I used more chicken broth than called for because I like this wetter. I used veggies I have on hand. I left out the eggs because I don't like egg in this. Next time I would use a lot more meat than called for. I followed the directions on the noodle package itself as they advised in their video to follow the directions on the package as it will vary by what brand of noodles you buy. I will probably make this again. 

Soups I Need to Make

Buffalo Chicken Mac n Cheese

Greek Lemon Chicken Rice

Turkey Congee

Lasagna Soup

Stroganoff Soup

Stuffed Peppers

Stuffed Peppers

Made it up based on making it before and looking at different recipes.

7 small green bell peppers

Removed stems, seeds and ribs from the top. Next time I think I will just split the peppers in half. It would be so much easier. Boil until soft. Remove to a 9x13 with some spaghetti sauce covering the bottom of it. Make 1 cup uncooked rice in the instant pot by rinsing well, adding 1 1/2 cups water, cooking on high pressure for 5 mins and natural release for at least 10 mins (but longer is fine). Remove lid, turn off heat and let cool slightly. 

Mix 1 pound ground beef with diced onion, spaghetti sauce, garlic salt, garlic powder, pepper, dash of Worcestershire, shredded cheddar, a little parmesan. Scoop into pepper shells. Top with rest of the spaghetti sauce. Bake at 375 for 45 mins or until done. Let cool about 5-10 minutes before serving. Serve with sauce poured over.

I used Sal's Cajun Pasta Sauce. It was great for this recipe. If that was not available, I would use any spicy spaghetti sauce (personal preference). 

Many stuffed pepper recipes call for cooking the ground beef and onions first. I wanted them to cook in the pepper to infuse flavor into the pepper and rice. The only mistake I made today was I used 73% lean ground beef. I need to use much leaner next time.

Overall this was great and I will make this again. The shredded cheddar is the secret ingredient. You could not tell it was there but it made it taste so good.

Second try - Soup Series 7 - Irish Beer Cheddar Soup

Made another attempt, and this time it came out very good.

Irish Beer Cheddar Soup

inspired by Buffalo's Blackthorn restaurant's soup, as seen on Diners, Dives & Drive-ins

This time I sauteed onions, carrots, and celery in butter. Once softened, but not browned, I added Killian's Red Irish Ale. Brought to a simmer. Then took off heat. Added shredded cheddar & colby jack slowly, whisking it in. Then added white pepper, montreal steak seasoning, seasoned salt, and chicken base. Then whisked in some instant mashed potato flakes to thicken. Then put back on heat to let it thicken a little bit. Made sure I did not boil it. Then added some heavy cream and nacho cheese. This was great. I forgot to add sliced white american cheese but next time I would. This would be great served with sliced green onions. It did come out a bit salty as I added too much chicken bouillon. But this was very good and I will make it again for sure.

Soup Series 7 - Irish Beer Cheddar Soup

Irish Beer Cheddar Soup

copycat of Buffalo's Blackthorn restaurant's soup, as seen on Diners, Dives & Drive-ins

In butter, sweat Spanish onions that are diced. (I added carrots too but that's not in the original recipe.) Then add Irish beer, and then cubed potatoes that are par boiled. (I used bagged cubed hashbrown potatoes). Add white pepper, Montreal steak seasoning, seasoned salt and chicken base. Bring to a simmer. Then add shredded cheddar and Monterey jack. Add a small amount at a time whisking in. Then add heavy cream and some nacho cheese. Serve with a squirt of wing sauce on top. 

When I made this, it turned out really grainy. I added some mashed potato flakes to thicken it. Which helped. But I believe I added the cheese too fast, at too high of a heat, and that led to it being grainy. I could never get the cheese blended in smoothly.

Next time I will also add some sliced American cheese to help prevent the graininess. Also I read for cheese soups, you should take the soup off heat, and add very small amounts of the shredded cheese at a time and whisk in, to prevent the graininess. Also once the cheese is added, you should be careful to never let it boil, or honestly maybe even simmer. I also used a beer I had on hand but next time I need to use a stronger beer.

I will make this again being much more careful adding the cheese.