Veggie Burgers, and, Some Other Stuff

Silly tree, it's not spring yet. But, it was a gorgeous day here in the Bay Area today.

Here is the veggie/bean burger recipe. God, I suck at food photography. Well, what are you going to do with veggie burger mix. It's not very beautiful.

My Version Of Mark Bittman's Veggie/Bean Burgers

* 2 cups well-cooked white, black, or red beans or chickpeas or lentils, or one 14-ounce can, drained
* 1 medium onion, quartered

* 1/2 package defrosted, drained frozen spinach

* 1 TBLS tomato paste

* 1 TBLS soy sauce

* 2 cloves garlic
* 1/2 cup regular rolled oats
* 1 tablespoon chili powder or spice mix of your choice (I used chili powder and curry powder)
* Salt and freshly ground black pepper
* 1 egg

1. Combine everything in a food processor and pulse until chunky but not puréed. Let the mixture rest for a few minutes.

2. With wet hands, shape into whatever size patties you want. Film the bottom of a large nonstick or well-seasoned cast-iron skillet with oil and turn the heat to medium. A minute later, add the patties. Cook until nicely browned on one side, about 5 minutes; turn carefully and cook on the other side until firm and browned.

3. Serve on buns with the usual burger fixings. Or cool and refrigerate or freeze for later use.

These were really good. We put lots of BBQ sauce on them and had garlic fries with them. Garlic fries make everything better.

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In other news, I had a very good art day yesterday. On the new table. I looooove it.

Here is my new little studio/dining room. It's still a little messy from moving in, haven't found places for everything yet. Please note the 'baroque' tablecloth.

The beginnings of the Red Owl painting. It's a little spooky right now. I hope it stays that way. I haen't put in Mr. Owl yet. He'll come later.

A closeup of the trees. I like this texture thing. I'd like to do a series with this sort of texturizing and color play.

I'll keep you updated on the progress. I always like it when people post progress on creative items because all you ever see is the finished product, and I'm always like, wow. It just came out like that, all perfect. I like to see the steps people take, the mistakes, and how they fix them (or work with them). I hope to start doing more documenting of this on here.