Mushroom, Onion and Guacamole Cheeseburger, Kale with Bacon and Mexican Potato

For this lovely dinner, we chose two ingredients that most people don't typically use: kale and mexican potato. I had never tried mexican potato before, and to be honest I didn't like it the way that we had it. Maybe it would have been better cooked; we just sliced it into pieces and served. The rest was really easy and in all this dinner took about an hour to make. We had too many mushrooms and onions so we added them to the leftover kale and that was really tasty too.The recipes are below, we placed the mushrooms and onions and guacamole on top of the burger. For this recipe we chose some of the veges and beef from Tempe Farmer's Market. http://www.tempefarmersmarket.com/

Mushrooms and Onions

- mushrooms (sliced)

- onions (cut up)

- olive oil

My trick for onions is to put them in the freezer a little before cooking so that the juices freeze and don't make you tear up as much. This doesn't always work, but if you get the timing right it can save your eyes. I just threw these into a pan with a little olive oil and sauteed them on medium until they were halfway cooked, then cooked them the rest of the way with the meat. Stir them often, making sure that they don't get too burnt on any sides. They should be golden and the onions should have some brown bits. Early on I learned from Bodie that a really common mistake is to undercook everything. Cooking things for the right amount of time gives them a better taste, and undercooked food tastes bland and is very blah.

Cheeseburger 

- ground beef 
- swiss cheese


We made these in a pan since the grills in my apartment complex are not easy to use and take a lot of time. Form patties with fingers, place in the mushroom and onions pan and cook until done. We cooked these medium, so on medium heat the entire time. For a more of a medium rare type of cheeseburger you can cook it for a short time on medium heat and then turn it to high for a few minutes to sear the outside and keep the inside pinkish reddish. Obviously, I am not advising anyone to eat undercooked meat as that could be a health issue. When they are close to being done, put the cheese on and let it melt.


Guacamole
- two avocados
- sour cream


This is really half-assed easy guacamole. It shouldn't even really be called that. We basically just peeled the avocados, mashed them up, and added sour cream until it looked the right color and consistency.


Kale with Bacon
- kale (you can also use collard greens or swiss chard for this recipe)
- bacon (we use trader joe's bacon)
- fresh grated parmesan cheese if desired


I forget if we actually used the parmesan in this, but if you want to you can add it on at the end. I cooked the bacon first, or maybe we had some left over from the morning, but bacon is really easy you just throw it in a pan and cook it on both sides until it looks done, but be careful not to get burnt by the oil. I then put that off to the side and put the kale in the pan and added some water, not too much but enough that it can simmer in it and absorb it. If the kale looks done, pour out the excess water. Once the water was absorbed, I added the bacon and sauteed it until it looked good.