Miso Slaw Burger Recipe for Competition

I am done! I just finished up my recipe using the Saucy Mama products that I received. Now, I submit the recipe and wait. What am I waiting for? Well, Saucy Mama is going to pick one of the recipes submitted and send that cook to represent them in the World Food Championships 2015 this November in Kissimmee, Florida. Exciting, right?!

I decided to go with my burger idea. I am sure the competition will be fierce in this category but I loved my burger so much, I decided to just go for it! So here it is...the Miso Slaw Burger. It is both sweet and savory.

Miso Slaw Burger by Virginia Louden

Miso Slaw Burger Recipe        (serves 4)

Ingredients

Patties:
1 1/2 lbs. Lean ground beef
1/4 cup Saucy Mama Creamy Horseradish
2 Tbsps. Red onion (finely diced)
1 1/2 tsps. Garlic salt

Patty coating:
1 cup Brown sugar
3 Tbsps. Panko bread crumbs
2 tsps. Coarse sea salt

Miso Slaw:
1 cup Red cabbage (shredded)
1/2 cup Carrots (matchstick style)
1/2 cup Cucumber (matchstick style)
2 Tbsps. Red onion (sliced)
2 Tbsps. Saucy Mama Miso Sesame Orange Marinade/Dressing
2 Tbsps. Mayonnaise
2 Tbsps. Brown sugar

1/2 cup Feta (crumbled)
4 Buns (I prefer white silver dollar buns but standard hamburger buns would work)
2 Tbsps. Butter (room temperature)

Directions

1. In a small bowl, mix together the 3 patty coating ingredients and set aside. Brown sugar, Panko and Sea salt.

2. In a medium sized bowl, mix together thoroughly the 4 patty ingredients and form into 4 same sized burger patties. Beef, horseradish, garlic salt and tiny diced red onions. When forming the patties, the center of each patty should be much thinner than the edges of the patty. This will help keep the patties from balling up while cooking. Makes for a much more even sized burger.

3. Roll/coat the 4 burger patties in the brown sugar coating mix, covering evenly.

4. Grill the burger patties, turning only once. Approx. 5 minutes each side. (I prefer a grill pan so that the brown sugar coating stays with the burger.) After flipping the burger once, top each patty with 1-2 Tbsps. of the crumbled Feta cheese. Remove from heat when done and set aside.

5. Split and lightly butter the inside of each bun. In a separate pan, toast the buttered inside of each bun half until golden brown. Spread a little Saucy Mama Creamy Horseradish on the top half of each bun (the side that will touch the cheese). Set aside.

6. In a medium bowl, toss together the Miso Slaw ingredients: shredded red cabbage, matchstick carrots and cucumbers, sliced onions, Miso Sesame Orange Marinade, Mayo and brown sugar. You will want to do this step last so that the slaw stays nice and crunchy and does not get too wet. Also, any extra slaw can be eaten as a tasty side dish.

7. Assembly of the Miso Slaw Burger: On the bottom half of each bun place a heaping spoonful (or 2) of the Miso Slaw. You could also lay a small bun-sized leaf of red cabbage on the bun first to help prevent it from soaking up too much slaw dressing. I personally don't mind a little bit of a mess when I eat a burger though, especially when it's this yummy ;-)

8. Place the burger patty on top of the slaw and then cover it with the bun top. Done and Eat!


I hope you enjoy this one. I had so much fun creating it. Pretty please let me know if you make it. I would love to see pictures, too. Wish me luck and Happy Cooking!

One Saucy Mama!

Hey ya'll! I received an awesome box in the mail this weekend and I am super excited to tell you what it's all about. A couple of weeks ago I put my name into the "hat" in order to be considered for a spot in Saucy Mama's "qualifying event" contest. What exactly does one have to qualify for? A golden ticket to the World Food Championships 2015 in Kissimmee, Florida this November! Say what?!

Image from: barhyte.com

You heard me. A spot to compete at the WFC 2015 and represent Saucy Mama products. I am beyond tickled that they chose me to participate in this pre-contest. I have no idea how many other food bloggers I am up against. I do know that I am going to give this my best shot. I also know that the odds of me making it to Florida are slim, seeing as I'm the new girl on the food block and all, but maybe that's the trick. They won't even see me coming!

Basically, Saucy Mama sent me six of their sauces (I got to choose which ones) and now I need to create a brand new recipe using at least one of the sauces I received. I actually spent the afternoon yesterday tasting them all and I must say...Yummy! Their flavors are all amazing and after only a couple licks, inspiration started flooding over me. Now, the trick is narrowing it all down and deciding on which of the six competition categories I want to dive into: burgers, sandwiches, bacon, seafood, pasta or fresh. If you've ever been out to a restaurant with me when I am indecisive on what the heck I want to eat...feel free to laugh with me at my current predicament. Lol!

The six sauces from Saucy Mama that I chose are Champagne Honey Mustard, Creamy Horseradish, Creamy Garlic Mustard, Parmesan & Garlic Marinade, White Balsamic & Honey Dressing/Marinade and Miso Orange Sesame Dressing/Marinade. A nice variety of flavors to work with. Decisions...decisions.

So, what am I going to make for my new recipe? Ha! Wouldn't you like to know? Just kidding. In all seriousness though, I am not quite sure yet. And if I did know...this is competition folks! I don't wanna give away the goods too soon. But, you can be sure that I will continue to share this journey with you along the way. Swing back here from time to time to get the whole scoop OR you can also find me on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter. Come along for the ride!

Wish me luck and send me all your positive vibes, good jujus, prayers and whatever else you got 'cuz this Saucy Mama wants to compete in Florida! Thanks for stopping by! And thank YOU Saucy Mama for this exciting opportunity!


You can find Saucy Mama products HERE.

You can check out the World Food Championships 2015 website HERE.

Happy Mother's Day!

Good morning & ‪Happy Mothers Day‬! Hope today is everything you wished for and more. I spent the last couple days ‪cooking‬ and ‪baking‬ a bunch of Mother's Day ‪‎treats‬ in order to raise some money for Food With Love. It was a success and I was able to sell enough boxes to fund one whole cooking session. Yay! ‪Thank you‬ to my friends and family for being so supportive. Now, my brain is working hard to think of what else I could possibly dip in chocolate or whip up for Father's Day. Hmm. The possibilities...

Next weekend will be our first cooking session for our new 'adopted' family. I look forward to spending quality time in the kitchen with my good girlfriends.

I am still working on getting my new personal chef business up and running, trying to get all my ducks in a row and waiting patiently for that first real cooking gig. I have also had a couple really great cooking & learning opportunities recently. I was able to tag along with Dani of Catering by Dani and helped her out with a wedding & festival she catered one day. It was so great to watch her work and see how the whole process goes. I am also part of a Moms of Multiples group who is hosting the Ronald McDonald House dinner for Mother's Day this evening. I can not attend today so I had 4 incredible ladies from the group over last night and we prepped all of the food. 11 1/2 hours in the ‪‎kitchen‬. Whew! So, as of last night, I can officially say that I have cooked for 100 people. I am so happy about this. My feet...not so much. But my heart...oh yes. I hope the ‪‎dinner‬ goes smoothly this evening and I can't wait to hear from the ‪amazing‬ MoMs going out to serve dinner tonight. You are all amazing!

And that's all I have for now. Thanks for stopping by and pretty ‪please‬ with a cherry on top...‪Share‬ our story about ‪‎Food With Love‬. Every cent helps us ‪#‎cook‬ for a local ‪‎family‬ in need. Have a ‪‎wonderful‬ rest of your day!

‪#‎donate‬ ‪#‎charity‬ ‪#‎spreadtheword‬ ‪#‎spreadthelove‬

If you would like any of the recipes from the box of treats I made, you can find my Mother's Day Pinterest board by clicking HERE. All of the recipes I found worked out wonderfully!

www.gofundme.com/foodwithlove

Bacon Wrapped Sweet Peppers Recipe

I must admit...this recipe was not entirely my idea. The hubby went up to the butcher shop a couple weeks ago and came home with these beautiful cream cheese stuffed bacon wrapped jalapenos. They looked great but I am not a fan of eating whole jalapenos. I like them in other foods like salsa and such but that's just me. I happened to have a whole bag of mini sweet peppers in the fridge and thought I should give it a try with those instead. It was one of the appetizers I made for my hubby's birthday happy hour party I hosted here at the house. Appetizers, cocktails and cupcakes. He is a lucky man. Lol!

Bacon-Wrapped Sweet Peppers Recipe

Ingredients

@ 20 Mini sweet peppers
@ 10 slices of bacon
1 8 oz. tub whipped cream cheese
2 Tbsp Dried minced onions
Garlic Salt & Pepper to taste
splash of milk (optional)

Directions

1. Cut tops/stems off sweet peppers and hollow out all of the seeds and veins. Seeding the peppers is a great job for a child who likes to help in the kitchen. Especially since they have smaller fingers.

2. Whip together cream cheese, onions & seasonings until creamy. Add milk only if it is too thick to pipe through a bag. Not too runny though or it will leak out of the peppers.

3. Pipe the cream cheese mixture into each mini pepper until just full. If you do not have a piping bag, a butter knife works well also.

4. Cut each slice of bacon in half and spiral wrap one around each stuffed pepper. I made sure to have a  bit of bacon over the cream cheese side to keep as much cheesy deliciousness inside as possible.

5. Place on baking sheet (with edges) lined with parchment paper about 2" apart. Bake at 350° for 30-40 minutes. Keep an eye on them and take out as soon as the bacon is cooked to your liking. Consider draining the bacon grease out about half way through baking time.

That's it. Super easy and so good. They will be very hot though so try not to eat them too soon, I know it will be difficult though. Ha!

Hope you love 'em! Happy eating ya'll!

Imitation Crab Meat Lettuce Wraps Recipe

Welcome to the new and improved 'Ginny Says So' blog. As you can see, we had a makeover today. I originally started this blog to review products and services of all types and to host the occasional giveaway. It has always been heavy on the cooking side of things and seeing as I just launched my very own personal chef business last month, I feel it's only fitting to dive right in and devote this blog to my true happy place...my kitchen!

Today, I wanted something yummy and new for lunch. I was feeling under the weather yesterday and only ate a bit of white rice because nothing else sounded very good. That means today I was super hungry! While digging through the refrigerator I came across a pack of imitation crab meat that I had purchased especially for me. Score! But what to do with it? I turned to Pinterest...as usual.

That's what I do. It took me quite a while to embrace the whole Pinterest thing but once I did I was completely sold. I actually have my boards set up like a recipe book for easy reference. You can see for yourself by clicking HERE. It really is an amazing resource where food and recipes are concerned. But, I never end up using recipes the way they are written. I modify them. I know what I like and I make it so. It's what I call a 'Pinterest Twist.'

You can see the original recipe that I found right HERE.

This is how I made them...

Imitation Crab Meat Lettuce Wraps Recipe

Ingredients

1             16 oz. package of imitation crab meat (If you have real crab, use it you lucky duck)
1             cucumber
1             Roma tomato
2 tbsp     green onions
3/4 - 1 cup sour cream
1 tbsp     Dill weed
1 tsp       onion salt (hubby's idea)
1 tbsp     lemon juice
Lots of cracked pepper and extra salt
Romaine lettuce leaves

Directions

Chop the imitation crab meat into about 1/2" chunks.

Dice the cucumber, tomato and green onions and toss together in a bowl with the crab meat.

Add the rest of the ingredients, except the lettuce, and mix gently, adding more salt and/or pepper if desired.

Add a couple spoonfuls of crab meat mixture into each lettuce leaf and eat them. Eat them all. Just kidding, you should probably share some.


So, easy and so good. Hope you enjoy them and pretty please share pictures or comments if you do.

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