Beef Gravy over Mashed Potatoes

I have been craving beef gravy and mash potatoes lately.  Like the horrible absolutely amazing  kind they served for school lunch back in the day.  I think I caught a whiff of something walking by a diner one day and it's been stuck in my nose ever since.  My roommate was some how given a bunch of russet potatoes, so I had everything I needed to make this happen with no time to waste. 

I searched online for a couple recipes and decided to go with the one that would require me to make the gravy from scratch, so it was a white gravy.  It was good, but I think I wanted a brown gravy flavor.  Noted for the next round.  I got fancy with my potatoes and mixed up some creamy garlic mashed potatoes from the Food Network.  Absolutely delicious, although maybe too much garlic for this recipe.  I made enough for dinner for me and my roommate Sunday evening and lunch for the rest of the week.  It took some time, but it was really simple to make and I love not having PB & J's for lunch every day.   

Beef Gravy over Mashed Potatoes 

8 to 10 servings 

Mashed Potatoes

• 3 1/2 pounds russet potatoes 
• 2 tablespoons kosher salt 
• 16 fluid ounces (2 cups) half-and-half 
• 6 cloves garlic, crushed 
• 6 ounces grated Parmesan 

Beef Gravy

• 1.5 Pounds of Hamburger 
• 1 Medium Onion chopped
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/2 cup flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 4 cups milk

1. Peel and dice potatoes, making sure all are relatively the same size.  Place in a large saucepan, add the salt, and cover with water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce heat to maintain a rolling boil. Cook until potatoes fall apart when poked with a fork.
2. While the potatoes are cooking, brown the hamburger and the onion in a large skillet until cooked.  Drain off the fat and set aside. 
3. Return the skillet to the heat and add the melted butter then the flour with the salt and pepper.  Once it starts to clump up, add the milk and stir until the gravy begins to thicken, about 10 to 15 minutes. 
4. Once the gravy thickens add the beef and onion back in to the skillet. 
5. When the potatoes have finished cooking, drain them and set aside.  In the pot heat the half and half with the garlic over medium heat until simmering, stirring frequently. 
6. Add the potatoes back the pot and mash them with the garlic and cream mixture. 
7. Pour the gravy over the mashed potatoes and serve. 

Enjoy! 

Eggplant Experiments

It's getting really hot here. And really humid.  And I hate it.  The only plus side is using the grill. Then again, I can do that when it's not 90 degrees at 80 percent humidity.  Regardless of all that, lets get to the cooking.  My grill go to is burgers and some grilled veggies or potato packet.  So I decided to change it up a bit.  A while ago I tore out a recipe from Martha Stewart Living for Charred-Eggplant and Beef Burgers and bought some Italian eggplants this weekend that needed to be used.  Of course I totally botched it.  I mean I completely ignored it on accident.  

The go to: yummy burger with grill zucchini and potatoes.

Let me explain, my massive screw up.  I skimmed the recipe way back when and I knew I had to dice up the eggplant.  What I didn't know was that I was suppose to grill it for 30 minutes, let it set, peal it, and then dice it up and mix it with the hamburger meat.  I just started dicing up the eggplant raw.  Opps. The lesson here is always read your recipes through completely first!

Normally I am very good about this rule.  However, had I read this I would not made it because it takes 3 hours and I do not have 3 hours on Wednesday night to make dinner and in the end my mess up really wasn't bad at all.  I actually really enjoyed it and would recommend it.  I sort of mixed up the sauce that is in the original recipe and I  may have to mix it up for other burgers, it was pretty good.  I only used half of the eggplant and I sliced the other half, coated them in olive oil and grilled them with a bit of salt and pepper.  Also very good, but I have decided that while I like eggplant the flavor, I am not a a fan of its texture.  In the burger it was fine, grilled, I couldn't eat too many pieces, but I would still recommend trying it out.

Eggplant Burger  (one serving)
Please note that I kind of threw this together, so the measurements are approximate. 

• 1/4 lb ground beef
• 1/4 cup diced eggplant
• 1 slice of Munster cheese
• 1 tsp ketchup
• 1 tbps chopped dill pickle
• 1 tsp plain yogurt
• 1 tsp spicy brown mustard
• 1 burger bun

1. Heat grill to high. Mix the ground beef and eggplant together and make into a patty and grill for about 5 minutes, or until cooked through. If you want to grill some eggplant, I put them on the grill about half way through cooking, when I flipped the burger.
2. Mix the ketchup, yogurt, dill pickle, and mustard together.    
3. Place the cheese on the burger and the bun, cut side down on the grill.  Cook for one minute.  Spread the sauce on your bun, place your burger on the bun and 

Eggplant burger and grilled eggplant slices

Enjoy!