I’m not always good at delayed gratification. I can be like a little kid that way. It’s one reason why I cook a lot but don’t often bake. I want the time between having an idea of a dish and getting into my belly to be as short as possible. I want it and I want it NOW!

Maybe that’s why this recipe made me so grouchy. It was easy as pie to make but required me to wait a full 24 hours before I could taste the fruits of my (very limited) labor. The minute I saw this recipe on Food 52 I wanted to be eating it but I knew I would have to wait AT LEAST a day before that could be possible.

This frustration made me wait four more days before even making it but once I did, I was rewarded. As the sayings go, patience is a virtue AND good things come to those who wait. I waited all right and this sauce turned out to be a VERY good thing. If you can handle the wait, it is certainly well worth it.

Recipe by Roxanne DeRosa adapted by Jennifer Stainhauer and me!

Serves 4
- 1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes
- 1 cup packed fresh basil
- 3 cloves garlic or more (2 smashed but kept whole, 1 finely minced)
- 1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
- salt and pepper (if you want) to taste
- 1 pound gluten free spaghetti (I am obsessed with Ancient Harvest Quinoa/Corn blend)

Use a food processor to finely chop the basil.

Crush two large cloves of garlic using the flat side of a large chef’s knife and finely mince a small clove.
In a large container with a lid, add the basil and empty the canned tomatoes.

Add the garlic, a generous pinch of salt and some pepper if you like.

Mix these ingredients together, slap on the lid and refrigerate overnight.

While heating your water for the pasta, remove the sauce from the fridge and add the olive oil and mix well.

Fish out the two whole garlic cloves and discard them. If you like your sauce chunky, you are ready to go! Let the sauce come to room temperature while the pasta cooks, toss the drained pasta in the sauce and serve immediately!

If, like me, you like your sauce smooth and chunk free, pour the mixture into a blender or food processor after adding the olive oil and blend until you get your desired consistency.

When the pasta is ready, toss and serve! Try it first without cheese, you may find (as the original recipe suggests) that you don’t need it. YUMMY!

I must confess, I don’t really like hamburgers. In general they are too meaty for me. A big ball of ground beef leaking blood and fat onto a spongy bun has never held that much appeal for me. I’ve always hated going to barbeques and being forced to politely chew on a bland, messy burger. I live in fear of biting down on that unidentified piece of gristle then trying to find a way to spit it out discretely then searching for a place to rid myself of the remaining burger as quickly as possible. *Shudder* There is an exception, though to my burger ban. One fast food place makes a burger that brings a tear to my eye. Once upon a time this fast food place only had locations in the midwest and the south but a few months ago, that changed when STEAK ‘N SHAKE opened up a location in Las Vegas.

Me. Vegas. Orange Freeze.

Nice timing Steak ‘N Shake.Where were you when I could eat gluten without bloating like a balloon and feeling like I ate a bucket of broken marbles??? Despite those aforementioned symptoms, when I was in Vegas last month, I told my body it was going to have to man up because I was eating a GD steak burger.

The Real Deal

I did it. And it was good. So so so so good. Still, I felt both sick and guilty afterwords and I decided that when I got home I was going to do my best to replicate the Steak ‘N Shake technique and produce my own crispy-edged burger masterpiece. The results were not perfect but they did make for a darn delicious meal. I will keep tweaking this recipe and post changes in the comments section.

My recipe was adapted from America’s Test Kitchen, you have to give them your e-mail address to view their recipes but they have some super helpful videos and photos that make it well worth it.

As you can see in the picture, steakburgers are almost paper thin. They are crispy all the way around and crunchy and caramelized at the edges. The buns at Steak ‘N Shake are soft but they are grilled to keep the juices from dissolving them. You can customize your burger with ketchup, mayo, mustard, pickles, onions, lettuce, tomatoes and frisco sauce. I always go for a cheeseburger with mayo, lettuce and tomatoes. All steakburgers come with the most gorgeous, crispy, golden, shoestring fries. I ALWAYS get cheese fries; these are not your shredded-cheddar-topped grease bombs. Steak ‘N Shake uses cheese sauce that, for my money, is the best anywhere. It isn’t too thick, it isn’t too strong and it doesn’t get all congealed and gross as it cools. My. Mouth. Is. Watering.

Cheesefries next to the Wisconsin Cheddar Burger. They don't eff around with the cheese.

Without further ado, here is my closest approximation of a GLUTEN FREE STEAKBURGER!

Makes 10-12 smallish burgers, I cooked 6 for myself and two friends and froze the rest for later*

Ingredients

-  20 ounces sirloin steak tips , cut into 1-inch chunks (also called ‘flap meat.’ appetizing, no?)
- 12 ounces beef short ribs (boneless), cut into 1-inch chunks
-   Kosher salt and ground black pepper (if you like)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
- 6 hamburger buns , soft (I used O’Dough’s gluten free buns and they were pretty good. A bit denser than I would have liked in a perfect world but the gluten free world isn’t quite perfect yet)
- 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
- 6 slices American cheese
- 1 thinly sliced sweet onion
- mayo (to your taste)
- 1 tomato, sliced
- 6-8 leaves of iceberg lettuce

Instructions

Cut both types of beef into one inch chunks, mix together then place the chunks on baking sheet in single layer, leaving 1/2 inch of space around each chunk.

Freeze meat until very firm and starting to harden around edges but still pliable, 15 to 25 minutes.

Divide the meat into three batches, place one batch of meat at a time into the food processor and pulse until meat is fairly coarsely ground, 15 to 20 one-second pulses, stopping to scrape down sides and move meat around bowl as necessary to ensure beef is evenly ground.

Transfer meat to baking sheet, overturning bowl and without directly touching meat. Repeat grinding with remaining meat. Spread meat over sheet and inspect carefully, discarding any long strands of gristle or large chunks of hard meat or fat. (ATK recommended 10-15 pulses but I found my meat to be a bit too coarse for my taste so I changed it to 15-20 pulses. If you like your burger meat chunkier, you can do it their way. They warn that overground meat will get rubbery as it cooks but I think with the flat, crispness of the steakburger, that might not be a problem)

Gently separate ground meat into equal mounds a tiny bit larger than a golf ball. Without picking meat up, with your fingers gently shape and press each mound into loose patty 1/2 inch thick and 3-4 inches in diameter (might make mine flatter next time), leaving edges and surface ragged. Season the top of each patty with salt and pepper. Using a spatula, flip patties and season the other side. Refrigerate while toasting buns.

Melt 1/2 tablespoon butter in heavy-bottomed 9-12-inch cast iron skillet over medium heat until foaming.

Place the bun tops, cut-side down into the skillet along with some onion rounds and cook until buns are toasted to a light golden brown, about 2 minutes.

Repeat with the remaining butter and bun bottoms, removing the onions when they are beginning to soften. Set buns and onions aside and wipe out skillet with paper towels.

Return skillet to high heat; add oil and heat until just smoking. Using a spatula, transfer burgers to skillet and cook without moving for 3 minutes.

With the spatula, flip burgers over and cook for 1 minute. Top each patty with slice of cheese and continue to cook until cheese is melted, about 1 minute longer.

Transfer patties to bun bottoms and top with onion, tomato and lettuce. Spread mayo on each bun top. Top with the bun and serve immediately.

* Because the cooked burgers do not hold well, fry four burgers and serve them immediately before frying more. Or, cook them in two pans. Extra patties can be frozen for up to 2 weeks. Stack the patties, separated by parchment, and wrap them in three layers of plastic wrap. Thaw burgers in a single layer on a baking sheet at room temperature for 30 minutes before cooking.

First of all I should tell you that I don’t like gazpacho, I mean I didn’t like it. The first time I ever had gazpacho was in Spain. I was there on a school trip between middle school and high school. Admittedly, I was probably the least adventurous eater in the universe at that time. I gagged at half the things we were served on this trip; tortillas made from eggs, potatoes and ONIONS? Gah! Veal cutlets? Are you KIDDING me? I will never forget the gazpacho. Get ready for TMI, if you gross out easily, skip this section. The gazpacho was served to us by a waitress with an oozing, leaking, pussing, MASSIVE sore on her leg. As I stared down at my bowl of chilled, pinkish, whitish gloop, I could detect the faint smell of raw onions and DEATH. I was pretty sure that the soup was a noxious mixture of her leg drainings and every veggie I detested. I tried to choke down a bite but as the waitress walked back by me again, I knew it was not happening. I pushed the bowl away and vowed never to touch that foul stuff again.

Fast forward to 2010. I have overcome many of my more bizarro food aversions. I still hate black pepper but I have learned to adore onions (if cooked properly.) Until a few weeks ago, I had continued to avoid gazpacho. Every version I came across seemed to basically be cold salsa put into a blender, it was full of raw onions and had a texture that made me gag. Why would anyone want to eat that?! Then, I came across Molly Wizenberg’s blog entry about a gazpacho for those who dislike gazpacho and I thought, hey, why not try it? This recipe is 100% onion free and tastes like summer in a bowl. It’s bright and sunny and cool and creamy and tangy and fresh and smooth and GOOD.

Adapted from Orangette

Ingredients:
3 – 5 medium to large heirloom tomatoes, ideally a mix of yellow, orange and red
3 Tbsp. olive oil
1 – 2 garlic cloves
1/2 of a green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium persian or japanese cucumber, peeled, seeded, and chopped
1/2 of a red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
1/2 of a yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 – 3 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
Salt to taste

Directions:
Bring a saucepan of water to a boil.

Score an “X” into the bottom of each tomato, and then blanch them until the skin begins to peel back around the “X.” Remove from the water, cool them until they’re not too hot to handle, and then peel.

Remove and discard the stems, and cut out the rough spot where the stem attaches. Chop coarsely.

Put the olive oil in a blender, and blend on high speed until frothy.

Add the garlic, and process briefly.

Add the bell peppers, cucumber, a couple pinches of salt, and as many tomatoes as will fit comfortably into your blender.

Process on high speed for a while, stopping the blender from time to time to scrape down the sides of the jar and mush around the ingredients as needed to allow the blender to run smoothly. (The mixture will be fairly thick until the tomatoes are pureed.) Let the blender go as long as you can stand the noise; the longer it goes, the better it will taste and the creamier it will be.

Add 2 tablespoons of the sherry vinegar, and process to incorporate. Taste, and add vinegar and salt as needed.

Chill thoroughly before serving, garnish with a thin slice of red pepper and a drizzle of olive oil.