I don't know if you heard, but yesterday was national cheese burger day! I also didn't know this, but my husband came home yesterday hell bent on burgers for dinner.  Unfortunately, I was not feeling a beef patty last night.  So I went and worked out and came home to find all the ingredients for homemade veggie burgers.  I was pretty skeptical at first, but it turns out that they we amazing and were not that hard to make!  The patties turned out crispy, flavorful, and very filing! 

Here is the recipe! It was submitted by Guy Fieri on FoodNetwork.comWe left out the bell peppers, but if you like those, put them on in! Make sure to mash up the ingredients a bit so that the beans make the patties stick together.  We were very tempted to grill them, but I would recommend using a skillet.  My sister tried them on the grill and they kind of crumbled.  

On the side I made some roasted potatoes.  These are always delicious and really customizable to your taste.  I started by quartering small red potatoes.  I them sprinkled them with garlic powder, salt, pepper, paprika, cumin, and a bit of cayenne pepper.  Drizzle olive oil on top and stir everything up to evenly coat the potatoes.  Roast them in the oven at 375 degrees for about 35-40 minutes depending on the size of the potatoes.  Half way through the time mix up the potatoes so all sides get roasted and to ensure that they don't bake right onto the pan.  

Just as the patties are finishing up, melt the cheese on top, and put the buns in the toaster.  Add your favorite burger toppings.  We used lettuce, tomatoes, and a bit of catsup (although the patties were very flavorful all by themselves). Enjoy this very healthy burger!!

    Once upon a long time ago our friends and some family had a tradition of family dinners.  It was a wonderful tradition with lots of good food, good wine, and lots and lots of laughing.  I decided as we are entering into autumn that I needed to bring this tradition back so that I could make new memories of warm kitchens full of friends.  
       So last night was the reincarnation of the family dinner.  After a little debating on the theme and what was in season right now, I decided on Red and Round.  Everyone brought their own take on a dish that included either apples or tomatoes. 
 

      I have to say that I really get sick of my own cooking and the flavors that I familiar with.  This is a great way to try some other flavors and other people's creative uses of the same ingredient.  We ended up with chicken parmesan, a beautiful green salad, caprese salad, barley salad, grilled ham and cheese sandwiches with tomato soup, fantastic cocktails, and a homemade apple pie a-la-mode.  Let me just say that I was impressed with evereyone!  Unfortunately I didn't grab pictures of everything. 
 

My husband and I decided to make Chicken parmesan.    I had never made this before, and was expecting it to be very difficult, but since my husband did most of the cooking, it was easy for me!  You toast your own breadcrumbs, season them just to your liking, and bread your own chicken.  Bake, add sauce and cheese, and bake again. 

My adorable sister got very creative! She mimics one of our favorite cocktails from Red Rabbit downtown.  It includes vodka, ginger beer, apple cider, and fresh apple slice as a cap, and freshly ground cinnamon sprinkled on top.  She found all these fun creative ginger beers and Nugget and was off and running!  After Whitney and Dana adjusting a few of the trials they were just right!

      So if you want to have everyone over,  but you don't want to cook for everyone, this is the way to do it!  I have no doubt that the October dinner will be even more festive with pumpkins and fall foods everywhere.  Start your own family dinner and send over the pics!