Spoon hamburger and food traditions in families

Have you ever heard of spoon hamburger? That is one of the things we had today at a family gathering at my in-laws’ house.

Here is a recipe for it from Cooks.com They call it spoon burgers though and my mother-in-law doesn’t use hot fat in it.

SPOON BURGERS

Read more about it at
http://www.cooks.com/rec/view/0,1827,157163-242197,00.html
Content Copyright © 2011 Cooks.com – All rights reserved.

2 lbs. ground beef
2 tbsp. hot fat
2/3 c. onion, chopped
2 tbsp. catsup
1 tbsp. mustard
1 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 cans condensed chicken gumbo

Brown beef in hot fat in 10 inch skillet over direct low heat. Add onion to meat and cook until onion is nicely browned, about 5 minutes. Stir remaining ingredients into above. Cover skillet and simmer over direct heat 30 minutes. Spoon on hamburger buns. 8 spoon burgers.

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My mother-in-law explained that she started making this because my husband and his sister don’t like barbecue sauce or the flavor of sloppy joes. I grew up eating sloppy joes with kraft american cheese. I had never had anything like, nor had heard of spoon burger/hamburger until I met my husband’s family.

My ex-fiance’s family used to eat raw beef (the highest quality they could find) with vidalia onions at Christmas and other holidays. They would get so excited when they had raw beef and I was so disgusted.

Does your family make anything really different at their family gatherings? Our tradition is German Potato Salad. I love it and some of my sister-in-laws dislike it or just get sick of having it at family gatherings.

Here is my plate…taco salad, fruit, veggies, potato salad, spoon hamburger.

Dessert was a peanut butter chocolate bar and a pb cookie.

I had to relearn who was related to who at the party today because we only see these people once a year (they are my father-in-law’s cousins). We talked about the German ancestors in this picture and who was who in it. The guy on the left is my husband’s great grandfather.

This morning, I went to the gym and rowed, walked at a high incline on the treadmill, and lifted weights. I was so hungry when I got home and immediately knew what I wanted to make. I didn’t want a very filling smoothie, so I used this whey protein powder I got a sample of from a drugstore.com order.

I mixed it with skim milk and it was delicious! I would definitely buy a big container of this if I could find it in the store.

Whenever I work out in the morning, I notice that I am so hungry! I wanted to eat everything in sight when I got home.

I need to sign off so I can call my sister who turned 50 today and wish her a happy birthday.

Have a good Sunday night.

Bloggers are taking over the bookstore!

I’m off to my in-laws’ house today for a family party, so I thought I would recap Saturday before the busy day begins. I still have to get in my workout, shower, and then we need to be at my in-laws’ house by about 12.

For lunch yesterday, I had a 6 inch Subway ham and cheese sandwich and a Godiva Iced Vanilla Bean coffee. I received the Godiva coffee from the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program and I’ll do another separate post on the coffee soon.

We headed out of the house to get Craig’s free birthday drink at Starbucks. Since he doesn’t like coffee, we got a Venti Strawberries N’ Creme.

Weird look on my face captured by Craig. I was sporting the cute starfish necklace I had received in the mail yesterday from a giveaway I won over at Stop and Smell the Wildflowers. Thanks again Amber! Love the necklace!

Next, we were off to Barnes and Noble to look around.

That is when I decided that bloggers are taking over the bookstore! Yay!

While at Bed Bath and Beyond, I was beginning to think that we’d never find a toaster that had good reviews or wasn’t cheaply made.

This one seemed cheap.

I liked the look and durability of this one, but Craig scanned in the barcode on his phone and found it didn’t have great reviews on Amazon.

Anything is better than the toaster we currently have which turns itself on! I hate having to remember to unplug it every time we use it. If only we had enough counter space for the toaster oven we own.

Enough ranting about toasters. We didn’t buy one and may just have to go with the Kitchen Aid one that is rated best on Amazon.

After a short nap on the couch, I got to the gym for a pretty good workout. I biked while reading Self magazine, pushed myself on the Cybex Arc Trainer, lifted weights, did abs with the ball, and tortured myself with various planks.

The rest of the night, I just relaxed, made a very late and random dinner, then did dishes and put laundry away since I knew I wouldn’t have much time for it today.

Dinner was a poached egg, provolone cheese, mushrooms, jalapenos, Frank’s Red Hot sauce, tomatoes, and I put Nutritional Yeast on top of the egg and tomatoes. I really couldn’t taste the yeast.

Dessert was nice and healthy–strawberries from our garden & blueberries, topped with some raw sugar.

I’ll be back tonight with a post about weird things and strangely named things families eat. One of the things we are having at the party today is not weird, but has a strange name that I had never heard of until I met my husband. Hearing the name cracks me up every time! Does your family eat anything particularly odd at parties or call certain recipes weird names?