new year veggie burgers and lentil soup

In the New Year, may your right hand always be stretched out in friendship, but never in want.

Irish Toast

Why does the New Year always feel so anti-climatic? I mean, really, it is just another day that I get to be off of work. I'll take it. Or maybe it is because we don't have any particular New Year's Eve traditions around this house. I have waited tables since I was 16. For those not familiar with restaurant life, you can pretty much count on working. My hubster and I worked restaurants for the first 3 years of our life together, so New Year's was usually spent working then getting hammered after everyone went home. This is our sixth year with children, our tenth year together, and never once have we gone out and done something "adult" on New Year's before. This year will be no different. The oldest has a birthday party to attend. Said party includes a DJ and they were asked to bring their "dancing sock." I'm going to go out on a limb here and say his New Year's will be the most rocking thing happening in this family.

Oh well, I've come to terms with my "oldness" and someday, after the kids are moved out, I'm sure we'll go out then. Right?

Here's to hoping.

Today is being spent instead, looking to the future...of my buns. Hamburger buns were on the menu for tonight's veggie burger and lentil soup meal.

Prebaking, they kind of look like the pretzel rolls yesterday. Which actually kind of sounds good. Pretzel roll buns. Hmm....not a bad idea. Next time....

We took this recipe from AllRecipes.

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 cup butter
• 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 (.25 ounce) package instant yeast
• 2 tablespoons white sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 1 egg

 

I was a little worried that this would be too much for the bread maker, flour wise. I hadn't made anything this big before in the bread maker. It worked fine. I guess I could have looked in the manual to see what it held, but I'm a big fan of trial and error. It serves me well.

I put in all the liquids, egg and butter first. Next, the sugar and salt. Lastly, the flour then yeast. I used 2.5tsp of yeast. (I found the best Yeast Conversion table. Bookmarked!) Put it on the Quick Dough cycle and in 45 minutes, I was cutting these bad boys into 12 (kind of) equal pieces.

I let them rise for about 45 minutes, greased a baking sheet, set the buns on to some corn meal then moved them to the baking sheet. They cooked for 11 minutes and cooked to sweet perfection in that 11 minutes.

Can I say my house, for the first time in years, smells heavenly. No judging. I have kids and dogs. It stinks on occasion. What can I say? I'm human.

But these buns smell delectable. I won't get to try them until dinner. So for now, you can drool over the pictures.

**Update** A total hit! We took them to a fantastic potluck with friends and they were loved all around, by both kids and adults. Someone even asked what the veggie burgers on it were. I said just plain old Morning Star. He was surprised because they were so tasty. He came back later and said "I figured out what made the burgers so good. The buns. I've had a lot of Morning Star burgers, but these buns make them so good."

So, for this, I give them an eight. Hubsters still made no comment to the deliciousness of the buns. What is wrong with this man?