Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Hey everybody. If you’ve been around here for a while, then you know that one of my very favorite foods to eat is enchiladas. If we go to a Mexican restaurant, I’m going to order enchiladas. You better believe it. My favorite is when they have the enchilada trio and you can get a chicken enchilada, a beef enchilada, and a cheese enchilada all on one plate, the best. 

However, what I don’t like is making enchiladas at home. If you make them the really traditional way, they can be absolutely time-consuming. From making the filling, making the sauce, warming and dipping the tortillas, then filling them, then baking it, like it’s a whole thing. So today we are gonna go over a wonderful recipe called beef enchilada casserole. That’s a wonderful way to get all of those enchilada flavors without going through all of the rolling and the dipping and the saucing of traditional beef enchiladas.

Tips and Tricks: I have a couple of tips before we get into this recipe. The first one is going to be for your beef. I recommend that you use an 85/15 for your beef enchiladas, and the reason is that you are sauteing the beef and it’s kind of cooking in its own fat, which is great because the fat is flavor, right? But you don’t want too much fat so that it is actually greasy. Like with my burgers in episode one, I recommend using an 80-20 because some of that fat will cook out into the fire. But when you’re sauteing your beef in its own juices, using something a little bit leaner, works a little bit better, in my opinion. 

Now also, when you’re cooking your ground beef, I have a kitchen tool that I am obsessed with. I’m not somebody who likes to have a lot of kitchen tools just to have the kitchen tools and the coolest gadgets. I like to have things in the kitchen that I use often. This meat masher, I’m not even sure if that’s the correct term for it, but I use it all the time. I bought it. I wasn’t sure if I was going to use it. I use it all the time. It basically looks like a spatula that has four or five prongs that are crisscrossed so that you can mash the meat up and make it a nice crumble without having to work too hard. It especially works really well on any kind of sausage that can be really sticky. 

All right, the next tip is for your tortillas. Traditionally enchiladas are made with corn tortillas, so that’s what I like to use in this recipe. My favorite for the most flavor is using yellow corn tortillas. 

The last tip I have, and I will always give you this tip, shred your own cheese. I hate shredding cheese. It is probably one of my least favorite kitchen tasks to do. But I still do it because it makes that big of a difference. When you buy that pre-packaged, pre-shredded cheese, it actually has corn starch and different agents on it so that it doesn’t clump and it preserves. When you buy and shred your own cheese, it’s not gonna have that so it melts up creamier and tastier. So always shred your own cheese. 

Enchilada Casserole Recipe: Let’s get on to making your beef enchilada casserole. You’ll start by grabbing a nine by 13 casserole dish and go ahead and just set that aside. You’ll also want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Now we’re going to turn to the stovetop and make that ground beef. In a large skillet over about medium heat, you’re going to brown and crumble your ground beef. Then drain off any excess grease. You’re going to add one medium white onion that’s been diced, three garlic cloves, and one teaspoon of kosher salt. Continue to saute that until the onions are slightly softened, so about five minutes. Then you’re going to stir in three tablespoons of water, two teaspoons of chili powder, and one teaspoon of cumin. Now if you want cilantro in your enchiladas, I know it’s not traditional, but if you like that flavor, you can also add in a third cup of fresh chopped cilantro. Give everything a stir and that is your filling. 

Now it’s time to turn over and layer up our casserole. You’re going to need two 10-ounce cans of red enchilada sauce. If you want to make your own, you absolutely can. You’re going to need about two and a quarter cups of your enchilada sauce that you make. Pour about a third of a cup of enchilada sauce across the bottom of that 9×13 pan, and spread it so it coats the entire bottom of the dish. Then you’re going to take five of your corn tortillas, lay them out into the pan, and then that last one split it in half so it just covers both sides. 

If you want to see a picture of this, you can go into the show notes and pop over to the recipe. I have pictures of all of the layering that goes on in this dish. So then you’re going to top those tortillas with half of the beef mixture. Then pour in three-quarters cups of that enchilada sauce and you’ll sprinkle on half a cup of cheese. Now with the cheese, you want to have a total of an eight-ounce block that has been shredded. You can use cheddar cheese or you can use a pepper jack or a Monterey jack, or the combination of all of those will work too. 

So back to layering up our enchilada casserole. You’re going to top that cheese with five more tortillas, laying them out again so you have two whole, two whole, and then the last one you will break in half and just pop at the end. Sprinkle the remaining beef mixture over top of that. Three-quarters cup of enchilada sauce, another heaping half cup of cheese, and then you’re going to finish it with five more tortillas, the remaining enchilada sauce, and the remaining cheese. That’s it. That’s your whole layering process for these enchiladas. You’ll cover that pan with foil and bake it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. Then remove the foil and bake for an additional 10 minutes. With any kind of casserole, you know, lasagna, tetrazzini, anything like that, once it comes out of the oven, you always want to let them cool for about five to 10 minutes so that everything kind of settles together. So go ahead and let it cool for about five minutes before cutting it and serving. 

When I serve these beef enchiladas, I like to just cut them into squares and serve everybody just a nice large square portion. Some side dishes you can think about serving with this enchilada casserole are just your traditional Mexican side dishes. So refried beans. I have a great recipe for 15-minute refried beans. Which, let me tell you here, the secret to really good refried beans is using a can of whole pinto beans and a can of refried beans that you mix together with some seasonings and lots of cheese and you just bake ’em for a few minutes and that’s it.

Then I also have a recipe for Mexican rice that I will link for you in the show notes. As well as this really delicious chopped pineapple that has a cilantro, citrus honey sauce that you pour over it. It makes a great side dish if you want something fresh to serve with your enchiladas. Of course, don’t forget the margarita. Who doesn’t love a margarita with a little enchilada? Delicious. 

So that does it for today’s episode of Let’s Make Dinner. Of course, I will link all of the recipes I talked about right in the show notes so you can find everything you need. They are all free printable recipes. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Sloppy Joe, Sloppy, sloppy Joe. Now welcome to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: I hope you know what recipe we’re talking about today. We are keeping it casual and super easy with a sloppy Joe sandwich. I grew up in the eighties and nineties in Iowa, and so this was kind of a common dinner item, I guess a weeknight dinner item. They may have also been known to you as taverns or made right sandwiches, or maybe even manwitch. 

Now, if you’re like, what in the heck is a sloppy Joe? It is basically a ground beef sandwich with a little onion, and a little garlic that has this sweet, tangy, salty, savory sauce that coats all of the ground beef, pile it on top of a bun, and there you go. I do like pickles on mine too, though. So that’s a great addition. 

A couple of tips when you’re making your sloppy Joe sandwiches at home. You want to use leaner ground beef, so I like to use an 85/15. It just has a little bit less fat than an 80/20 when you’re cooking your ground beef in a skillet and it’s cooking in its own juice and fat. Keeping it a little less greasy is a good thing.

Another tip is that you want to have a little bit of a heartier bun when you’re eating sloppy joes. Since the sauce coats the ground beef, it can tend to make your bun soggy. So this is a good time to go for something a little bit heartier like a Kaiser or a potato roll. Those are all my tips. There’s not much to it. 

Sloppy Joes Recipe: So let’s get into this recipe for sloppy Joe sandwiches. You are going to start by adding one and a half pounds of ground beef to a large skillet over medium-high heat. You’ll cook the ground beef while you’re crumbling it until it’s completely cooked through, which will take about seven minutes.

Then you’re going to want to drain off any fat from the cooked beef, removing the beef from the pan as well, so you’re left with an empty skillet. Now in that skillet, you’re going to add, if you need a little bit of oil, add a little bit of oil and add one cup of yellow onion that is finally diced, and three garlic cloves that are minced. You’re going to saute that until the onions are pretty translucent, which is gonna be about five minutes. Then add the beef back to the onions and stir everything to combine it together. Finally, over low heat, you’re going to add two tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, three tablespoons of brown sugar, one tablespoon plus one teaspoon of mustard, half a heaping cup of ketchup, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and then any black pepper to taste however you like it.

Go ahead and stir that all together so that the sauce coats everything and that’s it. You’re ready to have Sloppy Joe’s. All you do to serve this is pile it high on top of buns and that’s it. Now, as I said before, I do like pickles on top of mine, but that is totally optional.

When you are serving Sloppy Joe sandwiches, you definitely have to keep the side dishes casual. We’re talking tater tots or potato chips, maybe some raw veggies or fruit. It’s like dinner casual, clean out the fridge of side dish night. 

That’s it for today’s episode. Of course, I will link the full printable recipe to homemade sloppy Joe’s right in the show notes so you can find it when you’re ready to make them for dinner. 

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. That will just help other people find Let’s Make Dinner. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode makes your dinner time a little easier year.

Intro: Welcome to another delicious episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: I think we can all agree that we love ramen. You know those 25-cent packets of noodles, aren’t those delicious? But what if I told you that you could take that, throw away the seasoning packet, and make something so much more robust and a full one-pot dinner? You would be in. Right? We are making Easy Beef Ramen Noodles for dinner. 

Tips and Tricks: We’re going to start by going over a couple of tips for this recipe. Number one, it comes together really quickly. So as soon as you start cooking, it’s like step after step after step. So you want to prep all of your ingredients before you actually start making the recipe. 

The second tip is for the fresh ginger that the recipe calls for. Number one, if you buy a knob of fresh ginger, the very easiest way to peel it is by using the edge of a spoon and just scraping it across that brown outside portion of the ginger.

Number two, you can actually freeze ginger. It freezes really well and I think it will keep for up to six months in your freezer. Or number three, this is what I do now. I actually buy frozen cubes of minced ginger at the grocery store. I buy mine at Trader Joe’s, and I believe the brand is called Dorot Gardens, and they literally are just little tiny one-teaspoon cubes of fresh ginger that are minced and then frozen. Totally easy to keep on hand. 

Tip number three. We’re talking about using flank steak here, which is really thin and has a very specific grain. When you’re cutting beef, you want to cut across the grain. Flank steak is a little wide, so first with your flank steak, you’re going to cut it with the grain in half, so you have two smaller halves. Then you’re going to cut these thin little quarter-inch strips, making sure that you cut against the grain. That is how you will be able to chew your beef. If you cut your beef with the grain into these quarter-inch slices, you will be chewing for days. 

The last tip that I have, this recipe calls for frozen broccoli. The reason it calls for frozen broccoli is because of cooking time. The frozen broccoli cooks down perfectly in like two minutes in the pot with the noodles and the beef. If you were to use fresh broccoli, you would have to cook it for a little bit longer, and you risk overcooking the noodles and the beef. So stick with the frozen broccoli, I promise it works. 

Beef Ramen Recipe: Now let’s get to making this recipe. As I said before, it comes together super quickly. So you want to do a little bit of prep before you actually start cooking. You’re going to want to peel and mince two tablespoons of fresh ginger. You’ll want to mince three garlic cloves and dice half a cup of white or yellow onion. Slice up the beef. Then measure out your seasonings and sauces. Let me go over these right now. You’re going to need one tablespoon of vegetable oil, three and a half cups of beef broth, a third a cup of low sodium soy sauce, two tablespoons of toasted or regular sesame seed oil, and three tablespoons of oyster sauce. One tablespoon of sambal, which is just like an Asian chili paste. You’ll be able to find it right in the grocery store near the Asian food section. One tablespoon of brown sugar, and then open up your ramen packets and just you’re only using the noodles. That little season packet that came with it, you can discard that. You only need the noodles. 

So let’s get to cooking. You’re going to need a large pot, and you’re gonna set it over medium heat. Once that is hot, you’re going to add one tablespoon of vegetable oil, half a cup of diced white or yellow onion, three minced garlic cloves, and two tablespoons of that fresh ginger. Let that saute together for about five minutes until the onions are nice and soft. Then you’re going to pour in three and a half cups of beef broth, one tablespoon of sambal, one tablespoon of brown sugar, three tablespoons of oyster sauce, a third cup of low sodium soy sauce, and two tablespoons of the sesame seed oil. Give that a nice stir so everything combines and the sugar melts down into the sauce. Then you’re going to add that one pound of flank steak that you cut into quarter-inch strips right into the pot. Give it a nice stir, and then increase the heat to medium-high and bring it to a hard simmer, not a full rolling boil.

Once that broth is simmering, you’re going to add in three packages of ramen noodles. Again, don’t use the little season packet that came with those noodles. If you’re having trouble fitting the ramen noodles in the pot, you can always crack those ramen blocks right in half and then fit them down in. You’re going to simmer the noodles for about three minutes, and then at the end of that time, you will add in a 12-ounce bag of frozen broccoli florets. You’ll simmer it for about another one to two minutes until they are warmed through, and you just remove it from the heat, give it a stir, and it’s time to serve. 

When you’re serving this beef ramen, I recommend serving it in bowls with a little bit of broth and seasoning. Garnish it with toasted sesame seeds, a little extra sambal, maybe some red pepper flakes, and some green onions. This really is a one-pot meal. There’s really no need for any side dishes here. The only thing I could think that maybe you could add is this recipe for Roasted Brussels Sprouts with a sambal aioli. It is so delicious. But not totally necessary. Again, this is a one-pot meal. You don’t need any side dishes.

I will link all of the recipes that I talked about in this episode right in the show notes for you so you can find them when you’re ready to make these easy Beef Ramen noodles. 

If you like what you’re hearing on these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love to have you subscribe or follow within your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

All right, today we have an extra special little bonus episode for you, and we are talking about Roasted Strawberry Margaritas. If you know me well, then you know that I love tequila. I love the way it tastes. I’ll drink it on the rocks. I love it in a margarita, and I especially love it in this roasted strawberry margarita. This cocktail is so delicious. It tastes like a craft cocktail. When I think of craft cocktails, I always think of a bartender behind the bar with suspenders on and a handlebar mustache setting drinks on fire and, and using fresh herbs and serums and syrups that nobody knows what they are.

You’re going to get that level of cocktail, but at home, in your own kitchen, at your own bar for not $400. This is an excellent cocktail to make in the summer when you have an abundance of really fresh, ripe strawberries. I have a tip for you. When you are buying strawberries at the grocery store, look for a container that has the darkest red color. Those strawberries that are really, really dark red, those are the juiciest and the ripest. 

Now I have another tip. When you bring those strawberries home, this is not scientifically proven. This is just, this is just a Suzy tip. Store the strawberries in the fridge upside down. I find that my strawberries last a little bit longer when I store them upside down, and I think it’s because most of the air holes are actually around the bottom of the container and more air can circulate through there and they don’t mold as fast. 

Tips and Tricks: So anyways, we’re not talking about moldy strawberries today. We are talking about roasted strawberry margaritas. Let’s get onto this recipe. There are a couple of things that you’re going to need to make this recipe correctly. Obviously, you need an oven because we’re making roasted strawberries. You need a sheet pan. You need some parchment paper, and you need a cocktail shaker. Like I’ve said in other recipes, if you don’t have a cocktail shaker, that’s totally fine. You can actually just use a mason jar with a lid. But since it is glass, you want to be extra careful when you do the shaking.

Roasted Strawberry Margaritas Recipe: You’re going to start making your roasted strawberry puree by preheating your oven to 400 degrees. Then process one pound of fresh strawberries. You’re just going to clean them. Remove the stem and cut them in half. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. That parchment paper is actually going to collect all the jam and juice that’s going to cook out of your strawberries. So you definitely want to have the parchment paper. Add the strawberries on top, and then you’re going to toss them with two tablespoons of sugar. Roast them in the oven for 15 minutes. Then once they’re done, they’re going to be all kind of juicy and jammy and delicious. Let that cool for about five minutes. Then you’re going to pour all the juices and all the roasted strawberries into a blender or a food processor and blend them up until they are completely smooth.

You may need to add one or two tablespoons of water to get the blender going. That’s totally fine. Now you can use that strawberry puree right away, or you can store it in the fridge for up to five days, so you can make this ahead to make your cocktail time a little bit easier. You’re going to have about one cup of strawberry puree, which is going to be enough for four margaritas.

To make your roasted strawberry margarita, we’re going to prep a glass just like you would when you make a classic margarita. Run a lime or a strawberry around the edge of the glass, and then dip it in some kosher salt. When I make roasted strawberry margaritas though, it’s just like my pineapple margarita, I only like to dip half of the rim in the kosher salt. So sometimes you can take a salty drink or sometimes you can take just a sweet drink of the strawberry cocktail. Go ahead and fill that glass halfway with crushed ice. 

Now move over to your cocktail shaker or mason jar. Add a couple of cubes of ice. Then you’re going to pour in two ounces of the roasted strawberry puree, one and a half ounces of tequila. You can use a silver or a Reposado in this margarita recipe, half an ounce of Triple sec. I always like to use Cointreau, half an ounce of fresh squeezed lime juice, and then a quarter ounce of blue agave syrup. I like to use light blue agave syrup, and it’s not blue in color, it’s just I think the actual plant is called blue agave. I like to use the light because it doesn’t have as aggressive a flavor as the darker colored one. So if you’re in the store, grab the light one. 

Now, pop the lid on your cocktail shaker and give it a really vigorous shake for about 20 to 30 seconds. You’re going to strain that right into your prepared glass and then garnish it with a lime or a fresh strawberry, and that’s it. Your craft cocktail is ready and it’s going to be delicious. This is such an impressive cocktail to serve to guests. So I highly recommend if you’re having a summer cookout, or summer party that you make these roasted strawberry margaritas.

As always, I will put the link to the full recipe for the roasted strawberry margaritas in the show notes, so you can find it whenever you want. I will also link my classic Margarita and my pineapple margarita that I talked about in this episode. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make it easier for you to find future episodes right in your podcast feed. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode makes your cocktail time a little sweeter.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, everybody. I am super excited to share this recipe with you today. It is probably one of the most requested recipes from my family, and I’m talking to my kids, which is saying something because I have very picky eaters here at my house.

When I ask the question, okay, what do you want for dinner? Like, what sounds good? What can I make this week that I know you’ll eat? The number one request is the Lasagna Skillet. Traditional lasagna takes a million hours to make, and I have a killer recipe for a traditional Lasagna on Mom’s Dinner that I’ll link for you, but this is Lasagna Skillet. So you may have also heard of it called Easy Lasagna or Lazy Lasagna because it is ready in about 30 minutes. It has really simple ingredients. It’s all made in one pan, right on your stovetop. 

Tips and Tricks: All right, a couple of tips on a few of the ingredients. Number one, this recipe only calls for half a pound of ground beef. So if you have another recipe that says called for one and a half pounds of ground beef, like burgers or something, and you have a half pound left, this is a perfect recipe to use up that half pound of ground beef.

Second, I recommend using ground beef that is a little less fatty so we’re not talking in 80/20 here, you’re going to want something more like an 85/15 or a 90/10 or a 93/7, something with a little less fat so you don’t end up with a really greasy dish. 

The next ingredient I want to talk about is the lasagna noodle. I have tried this recipe with both traditional lasagna noodles and with oven-ready lasagna noodles, and both work just fine. So whatever you have in your cabinet will work. 

Another ingredient that I hope doesn’t turn you off, but this recipe calls for cottage cheese, and I know traditional lasagna has ricotta cheese in it. However, I did grow up eating lasagna with cottage cheese in it, and America’s Test Kitchen actually recommends cottage cheese for your lasagna because it doesn’t tend to break down or become gritty and stays really nice and creamy when it’s baked. So give it a try. If not, you can sub the ricotta cheese, if you’re like, I am not eating cottage cheese in my lasagna. But I promise it’s delicious.

Lasagna Skillet Recipe: All right, so let’s get on to making this recipe for a lasagna skillet. You’re going to want to start with a large skillet that has a lid. You need that lid to trap the heat in there and the steam to cook the noodles. So start with that over medium heat, and you’re going to add half a pound of ground beef and completely cook that through while you crumble the ground beef. Again, I’ve talked about this in other episodes. One of my favorite kitchen tools that I use all the time is called a meat masher, and it kind of looks like a spatula that has, I’m not even sure, does it have five or eight prongs that help you mash and crumble any ground meat really well. So I will link that product in the show notes for you. 

Crumble up and cook your ground beef through. Then if you have any excess grease in the pan, go ahead and drain that off before you move on. Then you’re going to stir in half a cup of diced either yellow or white onions, and two fresh garlic cloves that have been chopped. Saute that around for just about another five minutes until everything is cooked and softened.

Next, you’re going to stir in two cups of your favorite marinara sauce. We love RAOs, either marinara or tomato basil. They’re both absolutely delicious. Add one and a half cups of water. Then raise the heat to medium-high to bring that to a nice hard simmer or a boil. Once that is bubbling, you will turn the heat to low. You’ll need about eight dry lasagna noodles that have been broken up into pieces and we’re talking like Mmm, anywhere from a two-inch to three-inch piece each. It doesn’t have to be fancy. I mean, they can be shards of lasagna, or noodles, it doesn’t matter. Again, this is just lazy lasagna. What you’re going to do is nestle all of those broken lasagna noodles down into the liquid and make sure that everything is kind of covered or coated, or at least touching the liquid. You’ll pop the lid on and simmer that for about 10 minutes. Then take the lid off and kind of zhuge the pan around and see if any of the lasagna noodles are sticking to the bottom of the pan. If the pan is looking a little dry, like the noodles have soaked up a lot of that water and liquid, you can add another half cup of water at this point.

Now you will take one cup of cottage cheese and just dollop it right into the pan and then kind of stir it in a little bit. Then sprinkle the top with about four ounces of shredded mozzarella cheese. My tip here is to use freshly shredded mozzarella cheese, and that will be half of an eight-ounce block of cheese.

You’re going to cover the pan again and let it simmer for an additional 10 to 12 minutes until the noodles are all cooked through. Remove it from the heat and let it sit uncovered for about five to 10 minutes just to let it cool. And your dinner’s ready. That is your lazy lasagna. I think a traditional lasagna would take you at least two hours to make. So here we’ve got 30 minutes. You’ve got delicious, I mean, really, really delicious, even my kids love this, lazy lasagna. 

When you’re serving this, to keep it nice and easy, I recommend just using a begged Caesar salad that you bought at the grocery store, and if you want to bulk it up a little bit more, you can even serve some garlic bread right on the side.

As always, I will link all of the recipes I talk about. About in this episode, right in the show notes so you can find it when you are ready to make Skillet Lasagna for dinner. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would really love to have you subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player that will just make it easier for you to find all of our future episodes right in your podcast beat. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: All right, y’all. We are out here keeping it real today, and I’m going to share with you the best recipe for Bacon Jam. You heard it right, Bacon Jam. It’s a pound of bacon made into this delicious, jammy, syrupy condiment that you can put on top of burgers, on top of cream cheese, or eat it with a spoon, but that might be weird. Okay. I’m going to start off by reading you this comment from the actual recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. Jill says, made this and it was so like five ohs, good. I called a burger place I knew that made Bacon Jam and they wanted $8 for four ounces. My daughter didn’t think it would be as good, but it was delicious. One of the best recipes out there, I feel. Okay. First of all, yes, one of the best recipes out there. Second of all, this is some high-dollar stuff, people. If they were selling it, for $8 for four ounces, that means that Bacon jam is worth $32 per pound. $32. That’s like prime tenderloin or prime rib prices. So this is a recipe you want to have in your arsenal. This is a recipe that you want to make at home and not buy at a restaurant. It’s actually made with super simple ingredients, most of which you probably already have. So we’re talking a pound of bacon, yellow onions, garlic, brown sugar, and raisins. Stick with me on the raisins, Worcestershire sauce, balsamic vinegar, and water, and then if you like a little kick of heat, you can add some cayenne pepper. 

Tips and Tricks: Let’s talk about the raisins for just a second. This is a very salty and tangy dish. To balance out the saltiness and the real richness of the grease and the bacon, the raisins and the sugar are the perfect balance. Your bacon jam is not going to taste like raisins. It’s not going to be like you’re eating oatmeal raisin cookies. They just add a nice little texture and a nice little sweetness throughout your bacon jam. So if you think you can stand it, definitely don’t skip the raisins.

One more thing. When we’re talking about serving the Bacon Jam, we’re going to be talking about serving it on top of burgers. If you don’t have a good burger recipe or you need a little help in the burger department, pop back to episode number one where I go over the perfect grilled hamburger. It is full of tips and tricks to make a killer grilled burger.

Bacon Jam Burgers Recipe: Onto the Bacon Jam recipe. You are going to start with one pound of bacon and you need to cut it up into one-inch pieces. So of course, you could use a sharp knife and a cutting board, or if you have a pair of sharp kitchen scissors, go ahead and use that just to clip the bacon into one-inch pieces. Now, pop it into a large skillet over medium, medium-high heat, and you’re just going to cook it until it’s nice and crispy.

Once that’s all done, take a slotted spoon and transfer all of the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate. The bacon grease that is left in the pan, you want to make sure and reserve that because we’re going to need it for the next step. So pour all of that grease into a heat-safe container. Note: a mason jar is not heat-safe enough. I have made this mistake and I poured hot bacon grease into a mason jar and it literally cracked in half. So a better option would be like a metal bowl or something like that. 

Now you’re going to need two cups of yellow onions, and I find that this is about either one large onion or two small onions. What I like to do is thinly slice it and then give it a nice, rough chop so you don’t have any long strands of onion left. Pop that into your empty skillet with three tablespoons of bacon grease. Let that saute for about 15 to 20 minutes until the onions are nice and soft and translucent. However, while those onions are sauteing, you want to go ahead and rough chop the cooled bacon so that there aren’t any really large chunks of bacon left.

Now back to the onions. Once they’re nice and soft and translucent, you’ll add two minced garlic cloves in there and give it a stir. Then you can add all of the bacon to the pan as well as a third of a cup of brown sugar. Stir everything so that the brown sugar coats all of the bacon and the onions, and let it cook for about two minutes. Then you’re going to add two tablespoons of raisins, one tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce, three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, and about a third a cup of water to that bacon mixture. Then you’re going to let it simmer over medium-low heat for about five to eight minutes. While that simmers, it will start to get kind of thickened and syrupy, and that’s when you know it’s ready.

You can give your bacon jam a little taste, see if you want a little more sugar, see if you want a dash of salt, and see if you like it a little spicy. You can add some cayenne pepper and then let it cool and you can serve it right away on top of your burgers. Or you can put it in an airtight container in the fridge for about five to seven days, and when you’re ready to use it, you can just reheat it on the stovetop right in a skillet.

For serving this bacon jam on top of the very best burgers you have ever had, I’m going to give you the building blocks. Are you ready? Start with a brioche bun that’s lightly toasted on the grill. Top the bottom bun with a little green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce. A slice of tomato that has been seasoned with salt, pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then add your burger, pile on the bacon jam, and then sprinkle on something that’s called Boursin cheese. It’s amazing. Now if you’ve had Boursin cheese and it’s not your favorite, it’s just really creamy and buttery and garlicky. If you don’t like that, you could also use blue cheese. Pop that top bun on and you are good to go. You are going to crave these all summer long. 

As far as side dishes go, of course, I just recommend your classic barbecue burger side dishes. So fries, sweet potato fries, sweet corn pasta salad. Coleslaw, baked beans, whatever you like to serve when you have a barbecue. 

I will place the link to the full principle recipe for you in the show notes so you can find the recipe for Bacon Jam whenever you’re ready. 

If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. That will just help others find Let’s Make Dinner and enjoy these delicious recipes. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome in, y’all, to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can always get on the table. I’m your host Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: Today we are talking about a very special grilled dinner that is near and dear to my heart. This is the Grilled Pork Burger episode. So I grew up in Iowa and on the 4th of July in my hometown, there is an enormous festival, party, whatever, in the park. There are lots of craft vendors, games, and fun things to do. There’s a parade, there’s a boat parade. Then there are also food vendors in the part, and one of the main things that you want to get on the 4th of July is grilled pork burgers. We love them so much, and I knew that I needed to have a grilled pork burger recipe on my site, momsdinner.net. So sure enough, I tested, I tried, and I finally nailed it, and it is excellent. It’s a very popular recipe on my site. It is a Grilled Pork Burger. We are not talking about sausage, we are talking about ground pork, which by the way is also a super economical option for your grill. These pork burgers are also topped with a homemade garlic cream sauce that will knock your socks off. 

Tips and Tricks: Here are the ingredients you want to have to make your grilled pork burgers. Two pounds of ground pork, saltine crackers, milk, Worcestershire sauce, Lawry seasoned salt, onion powder, and garlic powder. Then to make the garlic cream sauce, you want to make sure you have mayonnaise, sour cream, dijon mustard, fresh garlic, and kosher salt. Then of course, to serve, you want to make sure you have buns, lettuce, tomato, onion, or whatever you want on your burger. 

Just like we talked about in episode one, where we made beef burgers, all of those same tips are going to apply to your grilled pork burgers. So number one, do not overmix the panade with the meat. You want it just to all come together nice and light and fluffy. 

Second of all, after you form your patties, you want to take your thumb or a clean spoon and make a divot in the center of each burger patty. That’s going to reduce the amount of shrinkage that you get on the grill. When that fat cooks out of the burger, your burger patty will shrink up. But if you have that little divot in the center, that’s really going to reduce the amount of shrinkage you get. The other thing with your pork burgers, I do like to cook them to 160. I know that you can eat pork closer to 140, 145, but since you’re eating that ground pork and you’re not sure of that exact source, you know it’s not like one cut of meat, like a pork tenderloin, I do recommend cooking your pork burgers to 160. 

The other tip is making a panade. I said it earlier. A panade is basically a method for keeping ground meat recipes juicy. I was going to say moist. We’re going to say juicy. In this recipe, we’re using saltine crackers and milk, and Worcestershire sauce to make that panade to add to the ground pork. Even though you’re cooking it then to 160, it’s still going to be a juicy burger. 

Grilled Pork Burgers Recipe: Let’s get to making our pork burgers. You’re going to want to set your grill up, whether you have a charcoal or a gas grill for direct heat grilling. Now in the kitchen, you’re going to start with 12 saltine crackers. You’re going to squish all those up so that they make a nice cracker crumb. To those cracker crumbs, you’re going to add a quarter cup of milk, two teaspoons of Worcestershire sauce, and one teaspoon of Lawry seasoned salt. Then one teaspoon each of onion powder and garlic powder. Mix that all together and then let that sit for about five minutes so that it kind of makes like a little panade paste. Then once that’s ready, you’re going to add two pounds of ground pork. You can either use clean hands or you can use a fork, but lightly mix everything together so that that panade is mixed throughout all of the ground pork. 

It’s time to make your patties. You can make six third-pound burgers, or you can make eight-quarter-pound burgers. Whatever you want to do. Form your patties, and as I said before, press your thumb or a clean spoon into the center of each patty, making a little divot to reduce the shrinkage on the grill. Take your pork burgers out to the grill and you’re going to start them over direct heat with the divot side down. You’re going to grill it for about four to five minutes. On the first side, flip the burgers over so the divot side is up and you’re going to cook them for another three to four minutes on the second side. If you have an instant-read internal thermometer, that’s a lot of words. If you have an instant-read internal temperature thermometer, is that what it’s called, why can’t I think of what it’s called? Anyway, take the temperature of your burgers and make sure that they’re 160 degrees. If they haven’t reached 160 degrees, pop them over indirect heat and pop the lid on and let them cook a couple more minutes until they reach that 160. Then you’re going to let the burgers cool for about five minutes before eating. In that five minutes, you can go ahead and make the garlic cream sauce that you’re going to serve with your burgers. 

In a little bowl, you’ll just mix a quarter cup of mayonnaise, a quarter cup of sour cream, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, one garlic clove that has been finely minced, and just some kosher salt to taste. Stir that all together, and that’s your sauce. It’s delicious.

When you serve your burgers, I like to use just like a brioche bun or a sesame seed hamburger bun. Smear a little bit of that garlic cream sauce on both sides of the bun, the top, and the bottom. Add some lettuce and some red or white onion. Here’s my tip with the onion. After you slice it, rinse your slices under a little bit of cool water because then the onion won’t overpower the entire burger. Also, when you add your tomato, add a little bit of kosher salt, black pepper, onion powder, and garlic powder before you serve your dinner. The seasoned tomato makes a huge difference.

So on your bun, add the sauce, add your lettuce, tomato, onion, and your pork burger. Maybe a little bit more sauce, and you’re good to go.

For serving these burgers, I love to serve sweet potato fries or sweet potato tater tots. If you’ve never had those, those are delicious too. Then either corn on the cob or I have a wonderful recipe for homemade creamed corn that’s made with corn on the cob that you cut off of the cob.

Of course, I will link all of these recipes for you in the show notes so you can access them whenever you’re ready to make these grilled pork burgers for dinner. 

If you are loving, let’s make dinner podcast episodes, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow in your preferred podcast player. That will just make all of our future episodes easier for you to find right in your podcast feed.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. See ya.

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich.

Susie Weinrich: We are going to get right to it today. We have an amazing recipe that you can use in so many different ways. We are talking about basil pesto today.

You’ve probably had basil pesto out at restaurants. If you get a pesto pasta or a pesto pizza, it goes great with chicken, it goes great with pasta. There are so many different ways that you can actually use this sauce. Believe it or not, if you haven’t made it, it is extremely easy to make. It’s made with just a few ingredients. It comes together in about 10 minutes. That really includes your prep, so cracking garlic cloves, and getting all of your ingredients ready. This will be really easy to make. 

Here are the ingredients you’re going to need. Walnuts or pine nuts. Fresh basil, of course. Fresh garlic, extra virgin olive oil, kosher salt, and Parmesan cheese are optional, but I do prefer Parmesan cheese in my pesto.

Also, to make your pesto, you will need some equipment. I like to make mine in a food processor because you can use the little feed tube at the top to drizzle in your extra virgin olive oil. If you don’t have that, you can absolutely just use a really powerful blender, whatever you have in your kitchen.

Tips and Tricks: A couple of tips with some of the ingredients. Number one, your fresh basil. You’re going to need a ton of fresh basil. You need about five cups. So if you’re buying it in the store, I find the best place to get it is actually Trader Joe’s, if you have one nearby. Their packages of basil are nice and full, so you probably only need to buy two of their packages to get close to your five cups, maybe three actually. If you’re buying it at the regular grocery store, you’re going to need a lot of those little packages of basil. So your best bet is to go to Trader Joe’s or to grow your own basil in the summer. It’s a pretty easy plant to grow actually and it is prolific. It grows and grows and grows. If you are into having a green thumb, my recipe post for this basil pesto actually has some tips for growing, harvesting, and regrowing your basil. 

Another ingredient I want to talk about is the extra virgin olive oil. E V O O. Extra virgin olive oil is not the same as just olive oil. It will say it right on the package so you can see what is what. You want to buy the extra virgin olive oil. It has a much stronger, more pronounced flavor than you want in your pesto. So if you don’t have that, go to the store and get extra virgin olive oil. 

Basil Pesto Recipe: All right, let’s get on to making this recipe. So you’re going to grab your food processor with a blade attachment or a blender, and you’re going to add a third a cup of walnuts, or you can use pine nuts and seven garlic cloves. It is very garlicky, but that is what you want. Now if you are very sensitive to garlic, maybe you could cut it back to like four cloves. But if you love that garlic, keep all seven. Then you’re going to go ahead and pulse that walnut and garlic mixture together about 20 to 30 pulses until it’s nicely ground up. Then you’re going to add five cups of basil, four tablespoons of lemon juice, one teaspoon of kosher salt, and then a third a cup of fresh grated Parmesan cheese if you’re choosing to use the Parmesan cheese. Then you’re going to start your food processor. In that feed tube, you will slowly drizzle in one cup of extra virgin olive oil and just keep blending it until it is smooth and all of the pesto comes together.

Now, if you’re using that food processor, you may need to scrape the sides of the bowl down a couple of times just to make sure that everything gets processed together. With your pesto. You can use it right away, or you can store it in the fridge. It should be good for about a week. This is my favorite tip though. Pesto can be frozen beautifully. It will keep for six months in your freezer. What I recommend is actually taking an old-fashioned ice cube tray, spooning about one and a half tablespoon portions into each little cup, and popping it in the freezer. Let all those cubes freeze up and then pop them out and put them in just like a freezer-safe baggie and keep it in the freezer for six months. That way you can use just a little bit at a time. Or when you are ready to use it, it will thaw and cook down a little bit faster than if it was just in one big block.

To use your pesto, it is excellent just tossed with pasta. A little bit goes a long way with pesto. It’s not like a marinara where you want it to soak the noodles. You just want it to lightly coat the pasta. So I also recommend if you’re going to toss it with pasta, save a little bit of your starchy pasta cooking water. It will help kind of thin that pesto out and mix it into the pasta a little bit better. My tip for saving your starchy pasta cooking water is when you get your calendar out and put it in the sink, pop a measuring cup in the calendar, and you won’t forget that water.

Pesto also makes a great dip for grilled chicken or roasted shrimp. You can make a pesto cream sauce by adding a little bit of heavy cream, or you can make a pesto lasagna. I have a great recipe for a pesto lasagna skillet that has a little bit of Italian sausage of pine nuts and pesto. It’s all made in one pan, right on the stovetop.

As always, I will link all of those recipes, the pesto recipe, and any recipe that I have to use that pesto right in the show notes for you. 

If you’re enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow or rate and review the show so other people can find it and enjoy the recipes too.

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier.

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Okay. I have some food trivia knowledge for you that I hope sometime you are in a trivia situation. You’ll be like, oh my gosh, I learned this fact on Let’s Make Dinner. It’s a great podcast. All right, you ready? Today we are making barbecue chicken sliders, and I knew I was going to come on here and talk about obviously sliders. I thought, why are they called sliders? What does that even mean? Why aren’t they called minis or littles or cuties or something like that? So I got to researching and the first thing that Google pulls up, I typed in Why are small burgers called sliders? This random website comes up. Interexchange.org. They have an article about sliders, and here’s what they say: the name originated in the 1940s when sailors in the Navy referred to mini burgers as sliders because of their extreme greasiness. In just one or two bites, the burgers would just slide right down. The slider was first created at White Castle, a popular American fast-food chain. I have never eaten at White Castle, but I obviously know what that is. It’s those tiny little greasy burgers on the little white buns. 

Okay, so we’re having sliders for dinner. Ours are not going to be greasy and they are not going to be burgers. I feel like as soon as the sliders became really popular in the late nineties. Sliders were everywhere. You could get a flight of sliders at a restaurant. But what we are making for dinner is barbecue chicken sliders. So let’s get into this recipe. 

If you like barbecue chicken pizza, then you are going to love this recipe. It’s basically all of those flavors, so barbecue chicken, barbecue sauce, red onion, provolone, cheese, cilantro, but instead of a pizza crust, you’re serving it on that smaller slider-style bun.

This dinner will be done in about 20 minutes, and this is also a great time to use leftover chicken or rotisserie chicken. We love to get rotisserie chickens at Costco. I think they’re under $6 still, and they are delicious and the meat is perfect to use in any recipe that calls for cooked chicken.

Tips and Tricks: Before we get started making this recipe, I have a few different tips for you. When you’re using slider buns, there are a few different options. You can now get actual slider buns by the hamburger buns. Or you can get a sheet of buns that would be more like dinner rolls that are all attached. Those are the ones I love to use. I love the King’s Hawaiian savory butter rolls because they’re all attached. You can literally slice the top buns from the bottom buns and keep them all attached until you’re ready to serve. Then you can slice them up into individual sandwiches. 

Another tip is for using your cooked chicken. In episode four, we talked about making Instant Pot Pulled Barbecue Chicken. That would be a great recipe to use to make the chicken for these sandwiches. Or like I said before, a rotisserie chicken or poached chicken. Poached chicken is a great way to make a pre-cooked chicken for this recipe. 

Now the last tip that I had before we get started is dealing with your red onions. If you are like me, if you eat a raw onion, that flavor can stay with you in your mouth for hours. It can also tend to overpower the dish. What I always recommend when you’re using raw onions is to slice them up and then either run them under cool water or soak them in a little cool water for like five minutes and that actually washes away the enzyme that will stay in your mouth and have you tasting onions way longer than you want to. 

BBQ Chicken Sliders Recipe: Let’s get to making this recipe. So you want to preheat your oven to 350 degrees, and then you want to grab probably a 9×13 casserole dish. Go ahead and slice your buns in half so that the top buns are removed from the bottom buns. Take that sheet of bottom buns and place it in the 9×13 pan. Then you want to mix about two and a half to three cups of shredded cooked chicken with one cup of barbecue sauce. Then take all of that and spread it all across the bottom buns that are in your 9×13 dish, spreading it all the way to the edges. Then you’re going to top it with some sliced red onions, and some cilantro and then top it with provolone cheese so that it covers the entire span of chicken. Even if you have to overlap a little bit, that’s totally fine. You’re going to place the top buns on the sliders, cover the pan with foil, and then bake it for 15 minutes.

While that’s baking, you’re going to make this delicious garlicky butter deliciousness that’s going to go over the top of the buns. So in the microwave, you melt together two tablespoons of salted butter, one large garlic clove that’s well minced, and one tablespoon of parsley that is also minced. Give that a really good stir. Then you’re going to remove your chicken sliders from the oven. Take that foil off and brush that butter mix all over the top of the buns. Pop it uncovered back in the oven for five minutes and that’s it. It’s time to eat. You can slice them into individual little slider sandwiches or you can just pull them apart to serve.

When you’re serving your sliders. I like to plan about two sliders per person if it’s for dinner and if you have some hungry people, they may want to have three sliders. As far as side dishes go, I like to keep it simple. You could do macaroni salad, coleslaw, or potato chips. You could do fries, corn on the cob, or anything that goes with a barbecue dinner. These also make a great addition to a tailgating situation, game day, football party, or anything like that. Just set it out on a buffet, and then I usually plan one slider per person. 

That does it for today. As always, I will link the full printable recipes for you in the show notes so you can find the recipe when you are ready to have barbecue chicken sliders. 

If you are finding that these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner are helping you get dinner on the table every week, I would love to have you rate and review this podcast in your preferred podcast player. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your dinner time a little easier. 

Intro: Welcome to Let’s Make Dinner, your audio library of amazing dinner recipes you can get on the table any night of the week. I’m your host, Susie Weinrich. 

Susie Weinrich: Welcome in everybody. All right, turn up the volume and get ready to listen, because this episode is going to be full of tips and tricks for you to make really good grilled Turkey burgers. I know we’ve all had a grilled Turkey burger that was either too dry, didn’t have any flavor or fell apart on the grill. And I’m going to give you all the tips and tricks to make sure that doesn’t happen to you this summer. 

Let’s get started with this one. We are talking just a classic grilled Turkey burger. Just like you would have a grilled burger, which if you need a good grilled burger recipe, head back to episode number one. 

Tips and Tricks: This one we’re talking about ground Turkey, and that’s where you can run into some issues. My very first tip for you is when you are buying your ground Turkey meat, you want to get the 93% lean ground Turkey. The 99% will cook like the bottom of a shoe. It is way too lean to make Turkey burgers. So get that 93%, which just means that it has 7% fat content mixed in with the ground turkey meat. That fat is going to add juiciness to your burgers, and it’s also going to add flavor to your Turkey burgers, which we need when we’re cooking with Turkey.

The second rule, when you’re talking about making grilled Turkey burgers, is adding flavor to the mixture. It is crucial to add a lot of flavor to your Turkey burgers. In this recipe, we’re going to be adding a Lipton dry onion soup mix, sour cream, dijon mustard, Worcestershire sauce, and garlic powder, you could even add fresh chopped garlic if you want to. Then of course, salt, pepper, and some Tabasco, and all of that together is going to make for really juicy Turkey burgers and really flavorful Turkey burgers.

The third rule when you are making Turkey burgers is to make sure you cook them to 165 degrees internal temperature. Turkey is not like beef. Beef you can cook 130, 135, 140, 145 and be golden. Turkey and chicken need to be cooked to 165-degree internal temperature to be safe to eat. 

So those are my three golden rules for making great Turkey burgers. Let’s pop into the recipe and stay tuned because this recipe is going to be full of tips and tricks.

Juicy Turkey Burgers Recipe: So let’s get started. Get your grill out. If you have a charcoal grill. Wonderful. Set it up for direct heat grilling. Same if you have a gas grill. Set it up for direct heat grilling with medium to high heat. Then you’re going to make your mixture. You’re going to start by making somewhat of a panade. A panade is a starch and a liquid mixed together to keep a ground meat recipe really juicy. With ground Turkey, we need that help. Our panade is going to consist of a dry onion soup mix packet, two tablespoons of sour cream, one tablespoon of Dijon mustard, two teaspoons Worcestershire sauce, and then go ahead and put in half a teaspoon of garlic powder, half a teaspoon of kosher salt, and a quarter teaspoon of black pepper. If you want a couple of dashes of Tabasco sauce in there, go ahead and add that as well. This is your panade. This is what’s going to keep your Turkey burgers juicy. So mix that all together. Let that sit for just a few minutes. Then we’re going to add the ground turkey. You’re going to add one pound of 93% lean ground Turkey into your panade, and then just lightly mix it until it all comes together. If you overmix that ground Turkey, your burgers will have more of a compact texture, than more of a loose burger texture. 

For this recipe, you are just forming four patties, so divide that meat mixture into four equal portions and then form your patties. Here’s a great tip when you are making burger patties. Form them about half an inch to an inch larger than the bun you’re going to use. When they have a little bit of shrinkage on the grill, they will be the perfect size for your bun. 

Now, after you have your patties all formed, this is another great tip that works for any type of burger you’re making. You’re going to want to press either your clean thumb or a clean spoon into the center of your burger patty and make just a thumb size divot, that divot will help prevent more shrinkage on the grill so you don’t end up with a little hockey puck for a burger.

One key to making sure that your Turkey burgers don’t stick to the grill is making sure you oil the grill grates. I even like to oil the actual patties on both sides. Turkey is so lean that it sometimes can have a hard time releasing from the grill before it’s to a burned state. So making sure you get that oil in there is crucial.

Now take your Turkey burgers out to your prepared grill and start them divot side down for about five minutes over direct heat. Flip the burgers and cook for about another four minutes, and then you can pull them off, take their internal temperature with an instant-read thermometer and Thermo Works has the best. It’s even recommended by America’s Test Kitchen. They have the best instant-read thermometers. I will link that piece of equipment for you in the show notes. You can let the burgers rest for about five minutes. Then go ahead and serve them. You want to use all of your favorite burger toppings here because this is just like a classic burger. So, lettuce, tomato, onion, ketchup, mayonnaise, and mustard. If you want more of a barbecue-style burger, you could do provolone cheese, french-fried onions, pickled jalapenos, and barbecue sauce. If you like more of a Mexican-style burger, you could top it with guacamole, pico de cayo, and ranch. Or if you want a really good burger, you can make some of my bacon jam and top it with Borsin cheese, lettuce, and tomato. I will link that bacon jam recipe for you in the show notes so you can check it out. 

My favorite side dishes when I am serving these grilled Turkey burgers are sweet potato fries. It’s just the most perfect combination ever. You could also do just regular fries, chips, potato salad, anything that goes with barbecue, cookout style food.

That does it for today, of course, I will link all the recipes including the grilled Turkey burger recipe in the show notes so you can find it when you’re ready to make this for dinner. If you are enjoying these episodes of Let’s Make Dinner, I would love it if you would subscribe or follow on your preferred podcast player. It will just make all of our future episodes easier to find. 

Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner, makes your dinner time a little easier. 

Intro: Welcome everybody to another episode of Let’s Make Dinner. I am your host, Susie Weinrich, and we are going to get right into it today. 

Susie Weinrich: We are actually not talking about dinner at all. We are talking about cocktails today. I have an excellent summer margarita for you. It’s a fresh Blueberry Margarita. You are going to love this cocktail. It’s the perfect balance of tart from your fresh blueberries and lime, sweetness from a simple syrup and a little bit of orange, and then salty, of course from your margarita salted rim. 

I have kind of a special relationship with blueberries because my family goes up to the boundary waters in Minnesota every summer. In mid-July to maybe early August, blueberries grow wild in the northern United States, I think more than just Minnesota. And when we go up there, we pick wild blueberries and make all the blueberry things: blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, blueberry pie, and we love it. So I thought it was only appropriate for me to make a blueberry margarita on Let’s Make Dinner.

Tips and Tricks: So let’s get into this recipe. There are a couple of pieces of equipment that you will want to have to make your blueberry margaritas, and I have some hacks for you as well. So if you don’t have this equipment, don’t worry. We’re talking about a cocktail shaker and then a muddle. Now, if you don’t have a shaker and you don’t want to get a shaker, you can always use a mason jar. You just have to be careful because it’s glass. But a large mason jar with a lid will work perfectly. Just shake it a little bit more delicately than you would with like a metal cocktail shaker. Now, if you don’t have a cocktail muddle and you do not want to buy one, you can use the handle of a wooden spoon. It will work just the same. 

There’s one other thing that you need to make to make this cocktail. That’s a simple syrup. If you’ve never made a simple syrup before, it’s literally simple. It’s one part sugar and one part water. Let’s say you’re going to do a third cup of sugar and a third cup of water. Put it in a tiny little saucepan over low heat just until the sugar melts into the water and that’s it. That’s your simple syrup. You don’t need to boil it, you don’t need to do anything crazy. Once that heat hits the sugar and it melts in, it’s ready to go. Just let it cool and then you can actually store it in your fridge for up to six months. So it’ll be good for you to use it whenever. So if you want to make a larger batch, you know, do one cup sugar, one cup water, and you’ll have it for a while.

Blueberry Margarita Recipe: Onto the actual recipe. Let’s get started. You’re going to need fresh blueberries, a silver, or a Rapsodo tequila. Triple Sec. I like to use Cointreau, fresh limes, fresh oranges, and then the simple syrup that we talked about before.

Now since this is a margarita, we are going to rim the glass with kosher salt. It’s crucial that you use kosher salt and not table salt. Table salt or iodized Salt is not the thing that you want on the rim of your cocktail glass. If you’re like, eh, I don’t really like to have kosher salt on my cocktails, I have another great little tip for you with margaritas. If you don’t like that kosher salt, try mixing 50% kosher salt and 50% sugar on the plate, and then rim your glass and see if you like that a little bit better. You might like it just a little bit sweeter. 

To make this drink, you’re going to want to first put your kosher salt on a flat plate and then run either an orange wedge or a lime wedge around the rim of your glass. Then turn it over and dunk it into that kosher salt, and the juice will help the salt stick to your glass. Go ahead and fill that glass up with ice. Then in your cocktail shaker, you’ll go ahead and add about half a cup of fresh blueberries. Now if you have really huge juicy berries, you can get away with just about a third of a cup of blueberries. Muddle those with either your wooden spoon handle or your cocktail muddler until they are completely pulverized and all the juice is released. Then you’re going to pour in one and a half ounces of silver or reposado tequila, half an ounce of your triple sec, half an ounce of freshly squeezed lime juice, half an ounce of fresh squeezed orange juice, and half an ounce of simple syrup. Add some ice to your shaker, pop the lid on, and then shake it really vigorously for about 20 to 30 seconds. Now you’re going to strain that blueberry margarita into your prepared cocktail glass. 

Here’s the thing with blueberries, though. They are full of the tiniest little seeds you’ve ever seen and you have all that blueberry pulp. So when you’re straining, you may need to do a few passes where you shake the shaker to get all that pulp off of your strainer. If you are sensitive to seeds and pulp, you may want to do what’s called a double strain where you’re actually taking the cocktail shaker and straining that liquid through another fine mesh strainer into your cocktail glass. That’s totally optional. Not necessary, but like I said, if you don’t like to have any of that pulp or anything in there, you may want to think about doing that. 

That’s it. Your blueberry margarita is ready. It’s going to be so good. You are going to love this cocktail all summer long. 

As always, I will link the full recipe to the Blueberry Margarita in the show notes so you can find it whenever you want.

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Outro: Until next time, I hope this episode of Let’s Make Dinner makes your cocktail time a little sweeter.