happy birthday and some of our evening menu

Happy Birthday to the man of my DREAMS!!!!!

Mitch, You are the love of my life. My strong and steady. My sweet heart. My best-friend. The most amazing Daddy to our precious baby girl and the fearless leader of our family. I cannot imagine loving you more than I do today November 8, 2011. But, ask me on November 8, 2064 okay? Now don't forget babe :)

Mitch is not real into the lime-light and he does love to eat, so I thought I would share our menu for this evening. Uncle Chaz will be joining us for a festive, man dinner. He loves to eat too. ha!

So, I asked Mitch a couple weeks ago what he wanted for his special birthday meal and he said, "hamburgers." Ha! I said, "Come on now babe, can I jazz it up a little bit?" To which I am certain he replied, "Sure." So, I immediately emailed my greatest cooking and recipe resource (other than my momma, of course), my best friend Beth. She is where I get all of the recipes I truly love. She is an incredible cook. So, she suggested these...

Hamburger Steaks. I thought I would share the recipe with y'all. They are in the oven right now and the smell is incredible! The only thing I changed was I added some chunky onion slices for flavor.

THE CREEK's HAMBURGER STEAKS

1 pound hamburger
salt
pepper
Worcestershire sauce
potatoes
little carrots
olive oil
seasoned salt
A1 Steak Sauce

Put hamburger in bowl and DRENCH with worstershire sauce. Sprinkle with salt and pepper (to taste - it takes quite a bit). Mix well. Form hamburger into 2 thick patties. Place each patty in its own aluminum foil wrap. (i.e. Set it on the foil and have enough room so that once you add the carrots and potatoes you can fold the top over and seal it.) Then I always place the foil wraps in round cake pans when I bake it so it doesn't leak all in my oven.

For the carrots: Place carrots in a bowl. Sprinkle lightly with olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Place carrots in the foil around the steaks. **Sometimes the carrots are still a little crisp after baking, and I'm always disappointed when this happens!! So make sure that your carrots are not too thick. If they are, cut them in half, lengthwise. You might also experiment with cooking them in the microwave for a few minutes first to soften them up. I want to try the microwave idea next time I make this!**

For the potatoes: Dice about 4 potatoes. Put in bowl. Sprinkle pretty liberally with olive oil and coat potatoes. Then sprinkle liberally with seasoned salt and coat potatoes. Place seasoned potatoes in the foil around the steaks.

Once you have the steaks & veggies in the foil, seal the edges completely (like you are making a big envelope or pocket). Place in the oven at about 400 degrees for about 45 minutes. Bake until juices run clear and veggies are tender. Serve with A1.

Along with some other sides we are going to have another Beth recipe.... Corn Souffle

This would be perfect for Thanksgiving, if you need an idea!!

BETH's CORN SOUFFLE

1 stick butter

1 can cream style corn

1 can whole kernel corn, drained

1 small container sour cream (I always use Daisy reduced fat)

1 box Jiffy corn muffin mix

Preheat oven to 350. Put stick of butter in a casserole dish (I always use a round 2 1/2 quart one) and put it in the oven to melt butter. If you want to speed things up you can melt the butter it in the casserole dish in the microwave instead. Once butter is melted, add all other ingredients and stir together. MAKE SURE YOU DRAIN THE WHOLE KERNEL CORN!! Bake at 350 for about 1 hour.

Thank you Bethel for these delicious recipes... I had to give credit where credit is due!!!! Love you! I have to be honest, I cannot wait to eat this meal either! From my kitchen to yours, happy cooking :)