Not-so-fast Food

If there's one thing Richard craves living here, it's beef.  We really miss eating burgers and steak in particular.  I have to confess that when we travel to another city, McDonald's is frequently one of our meals of choice.  Since Richard had a really busy week, I opted to make him something special for dinner a few nights ago: a burger.  Sounds simple enough, right?  Ah, I wish.

Here's a glimpse into the process:
- The buns took several hours to make (including rise time).
- The lettuce had to be washed vigorously.  Whenever we eat raw veggies or fruit that aren't peeled, it gets washed and soaked 3-4 times (with tap water, vegetable wash, chemicals, then drinking water).  It's a pretty laborious process.
- The beef was bought from the market, processed through our meat grinder (at home) twice, then frozen for my convenience.

Too bad I didn't have any pickles, but I think I'll wait until spring to start pickling.  But regardless, it was still a pretty great burger.  We missed the flavor of American beef, but it certainly satisfied our craving.  Too bad it took hours to make and about 10 minutes to consume.  Ah, how I miss American fast food. :)