Dutch Oven Philly Burgers with Cheese

This week's recipe was perfect for an afternoon football game. Mr. Ririe may create delicious creations, but he's not a very good recipe writer. Maybe he just assumes that if you're cooking in the Dutch oven, you're cooking for a crowd. Anyway, he suggests using 1/2 pound ground beef per person, but doesn't give a range for anything else. With four cups of onions and two cups of cheese, we decided we better prepare for more than one serving, or even two. Of course, this is not a delicate cake; use proportions that work for you, but this is what we used. (Note that Wayne said it could use even more cheese!)

Dutch Oven Philly Burgers with Cheese

• 1/2 pound bacon, diced
• 3 medium* onions, chopped
• 1 cup sliced mushrooms
• 2 pounds ground round**
• 2 cups grated cheese

Cook the bacon. Add the onions and mushrooms and stir until soft. Then add the ground round and cook through. Just before serving, stir in the cheese until melted, then spoon onto rolls, buns or sliced French bread, toasted or untoasted. Serves 8.

*I actually looked up the definition for a medium onion. While I didn't really find a consensus, it looks like a medium onion weighs between 4-8 ounces and equals about 1 cup chopped. Today our onions were about 6-7 ounces each, and measured 4 1/2 cups. That was a lot of onions for the 2 pounds of beef. Three cups would have been better.

**I looked this up also. Ground round is ground beef that is between 85-90% lean.

Crispy Baked Fries

Not too long ago we tried a new oven fries recipe (or technique) that turned out well, so we tried it again today to see if it was a fluke or not. The original recipe said to use Yukon Gold potatoes; we just have russet potatoes and they worked okay. I guess we'll have to try Yukon Golds another time and see if that makes a difference.

The "trick" is to soak the cut potatoes (1/4" strips) in hot water while the oven is pre-heating to 450 degrees. Then drain, dry, toss the potatoes in olive oil and place on an oiled baking pan. Season to taste. Bake for 15-20 minutes; remove and flip potatoes, then bake an additional 5-10 minutes. Serve hot.