Supper was rather easy tonight because all the prep work was done in the morning, when the kids were playing cheerfully (ok, so they were watching Sesame Street). I used a coupon this week to get 1 1/2 lbs of bison patties (burgers) for free. I could have bought regular burgers, but from my brief browsing of the meat info at the store, I discovered that bison meat is very similar in nutrition to free range beef. My non-scientific, absolutely no background knowledge behind it guess is because bison aren't grazed in feedlots most of their lives and are grass fed, their meat resembles grass finished beef. Anyway, that's a little of my rationale behind the burgers I bought. For a moment I thought, I still have ground beef in my freezer I could use, but I have to admit, I love getting things for free when I can.
Since the meat just needed to be grilled I decided to use my remaining two yellow summer squash (you could also use zucchini or any other soft-skinned summer squash) to make squash yeast rolls. I shaped them large enough to make hamburger buns, but if you were after small, cute dinner rolls, you could easily take that route as well. To make them I shredded my two squash using my food processor attachment (oh, how I love gadgets!). It came out to about 3 cups. You could use as little as 2 c if that all you had. I combined the shredded squash, 1 c water, 1/2 c sugar, 3 T oil, and 2 t salt in a small saucepan on the stove. I heated until it was warm---it was still cool enough that I could comfortably stick my finger in it to test for warmth. If it's too hot, let it cool a bit. Hot liquids kill yeast, cold liquids, don't activate. Somewhere in the middle is what we're after--like hot tap water (granted that your water heater isn't set above 115 degrees or so).
While that was warming, I combined 1 c bread flour, 1 c whole wheat flour (if you have whole wheat bread flour, use that. I didn't and everything still turned out just fine), 1/3 c dry milk powder, and 2 T active dry yeast in a mixing bowl. Once the squash mixture is warm, add that to the flours and beat well until smooth. Then stir in enough additional white bread flour, I used a little over 3 c, but the recipe said 1 3/4 - 2 1/2 c. Add enough that you can knead the dough 8 - 10 minutes without it totally sticking to your hands. Once it is smooth and elastic, place in a greased bowl, cover with a cloth and allow to rise until doubled in bulk. Punch down and then let it rise again for 10 minutes. Shape into rolls (make them smaller than you want them because they will rise both before they go into the oven and as they bake) and place on greased baking sheet (you may need 2 baking sheets). Let the rolls rise until doubled in size. Bake in a preheated 350 degrees oven for 25 - 35 minutes (depending on size of rolls).
The rolls turn out slightly sweet, yet perfect for hamburgers or other sandwiches. Let me just say, I am not big into the Sneaky Chef or Deceptively Delicious ideas. I don't use this recipe to sneak veggies into my kids---M loves zucchini, so that's not an issue. When I make recipes like this it is because I have the veggies in my fridge and I am, frankly, sick of them. Sometimes that happens with a CSA--you get food you don't particularly like. I don't like to waste food, so I look for ways to make the squash where I can forget they are there. I've tried chocolate chips cookies and brownies with zucchini. Those are both good. I've tried chocolate cake with beets in it. I didn't like that, it still tasted like beets (and who wants to eat chocolate and taste beets?).
But I digress. Supper was fabulous. The burgers were perfect. I topped mine with leftover Gazpacho Salsa from Sunday, Curtis at the salsa on the side. M loved the burger. We also had butter beans, which Curtis, M and later J enjoyed. Because everything was so simple to make, in the time I normally spent preparing supper, I read books with J and M. A great dinner!
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