Nobody ever talks about the Fifth of July.
Sure, the Fourth is sexy. Friends, family, drink-drink, boom-boom, nosh-nosh, yay!
But the Fifth — The Fifth is an altogether different beast.
The Fifth is trying and failing to sleep ’til 1.
The Fifth is two weeks of laundry in two and a half hours because you were too busy having fun the day before.
The Fifth is rummaging through singed grass and Black Cat wrappers to find the fingers you blew off twenty-four hours ago.
The Fifth is just about getting to the sixth.
Still, a guy’s gotta eat.
Time is at a premium, and I’m beat up from the feet up. Burger time.
I haven’t done straight-up hamburgers yet for this project. But I don’t intend to start now.
My wife and I split tasks. She was looking for something to bake today, because she finds it relaxing. She finds a recipe in Bittman for Bacon Cheddar buns, but she isn’t interested in using bacon today, largely because we don’t have any. (I have it on good authority that the entire local bacon supply was consumed in some sort of explosion at my friend Ben’s place the day before.)
We do, however, have pancetta. So she whips up some cheddar-pancetta hamburger buns.
I have a pound o’ ground thawing. I usually hit my burger patties with salt, pepper and Worcestershire, because I dig that fermented anchovy, garum-y goodness. But not today.
I know Sum’s worked hard on those buns, so I want to do something to bring that out. I have some sharp cheddar in the fridge. That’ll do nicely.
But I’m in a mood. Let’s make this a surprise.
Salt, pepper, then I build the patty around the cheese, rather than melting the cheese over the top.
This burger could sneak Greeks into Troy.
I'm sneaky.
…though my subterfuge didn’t hold.
Maybe if we made a giant badger...
In the end, everything came out beautifully. And unlike yesterday, did not take double the projected amount of time.
I love it when a plan comes together.
Also, I’ve learned my son loves corn. Like, really, really loves corn. Like, “Hey, your son is one year old. And he just ate a burger and two full ears of corn. I’m a little afraid of him” -loves corn.
You're next.
Next: sleep.
