Grilled Barbecue Bison Burgers

On Tuesday nights, I have my in-laws and (if he’s not at work) my brother-in-law, Jeremiah, over for dinner. So every Tuesday I have to come up with a meal that will serve four to five adults and two picky children. Most other nights of the week I only have to fix enough food for two adults and the same picky children. These meals are good practice for when the boys grow up and begin to eat real food (they will some day, right?), at which point I’ll be cooking for at least four every night. I say at least four, because I understand that teenage boys can eat way more than enough for one person.

This Tuesday Chris grilled barbecue burgers for his family and ours. My main contribution was buying the meat and making the patties. I always hand-form my burger patties because we haven’t had great results with pre-made or frozen burger patties. Also, I prefer half-bison, half-beef burgers. So, I mixed together one pound of grass-fed ground beef from the Nebraska Food Coop and one pound of ground buffalo (I think I purchased it at Super Saver, from the “Local Foods” freezer). I made 8 full-size patties plus one small patty. That seems like a lot of patties for two pounds, but I think there was actually a little over a pound in each package.

While Chris grilled the burgers, liberally saucing them on the grill, I sliced a tomato that we picked up Saturday morning from the Lincoln Farmer’s Market and tore some red leaf lettuce for the burgers and for a lettuce salad. We also had pickles, dill as well as sweet gherkins, for those at the table who don’t eat salad–namely, Chris’s brother Jeremiah and our boys.

The burgers turned out great, thanks to Chris’s grilling skills. Also, I was happy that the Russ’s Market buns we ate them on cost only 79 cents. I really like to get the better-quality buns most of the time (like Sara Lee’s whole grain white buns), but sometimes I just can’t pass up a deal like 79 cents for a bag of burger buns.

At Long Last, Real Barbecue Ribs

For Labor Day, Chris and I decided to try barbecue spare ribs. We’ve tried to cook ribs before and never been quite successful. This time I’d done my research and was ready. Plus, we were working with locally grown spare ribs purchased through the Nebraska Food Cooperative, and you can pretty much count on Nebraska Food Coop meat being good.

First I sliced the spare ribs into two-rib sections. Then I placed them in a small stock pot and covered them with water. I brought the water to a boil, then turned it down to medium and simmered the ribs, covered, for 20 minutes. After 20 minutes, I drained the ribs and sent them outside with Chris, who grilled them over a medium-hot grill, adding sauce however he wished, for 15 minutes until they were browned and slightly crispy. The result was delicious! We have finally succeeded. The best part: Mr. Picky himself, four-year-old Jonah, liked the ribs too.

We kept supper simple and paired the ribs with a lettuce salad for us and fruit for the boys, then a raspberry crunch with light whipped cream for dessert.