pan burgers, potato puffs and asparagus

It IS the gymnastics season, and we're on the road alot, and once again, we were traveling and in a hurry. So, while we didn't eat at home today, here's a quick meal you can prepare... with the proper ingredients.

First off, you need to have a dear friend or relative give you a gift of "Omaha Steaks" - frozen burgers and potatoes 'au-grautin' - but I call them potato puffs. (Or you can buy your own hamburger patties, and you might substitute some sort of Ore-Ida frozen potato dish - tatertots, fries, whatever your creative mind might come up with.)

Season your burger patties with your favorite seasonings (I chose salt, pepper, ground garlic, and curry powder) and pan fry - turning occasionally, but re-seasoning with each turn.

My personal recommendation: Don't over-cook; I prefer my burger medium rare, despite the FDA recommendation to completely overcook all meat products.

Cook the Potato Puffs in your convection oven per instructions (like, for 25 minutes at 375 degrees - and pay attention to the beautiful photo posted above!), or cook your tater tots per instructions, or use left over mashed potatoes and fry up some potato pancakes.

For the asparagus, use fresh aspargaus (on sale) from the grocery store, cut off the bottom 1/2 inch or so, place on plastic wrap, lightly sprinkle with water, wrap in the plastic wrap and cook in the microwave for about a minute, maybe a bit more, according to texture preference for the asparagus (I prefer mine al dente as opposed to mushy - and who wouldn't?) Or you could substitute frozen corn if you want to be really boring.

And for you Veggie Fans, substitute a delicious Boca Burger, or whatever-the-hell those soy things are called, in place of the burger. Enjoy.