Did Somebody Say Ranch?

Holy shitballs, people!  What the heck happened to the day?!  It was super chaotic today.  First, my cell phone beeped at 6:10 this morning.  It was my co-worker telling me she wasn't coming in because she's sick.  Not a big deal; I'd rather her stay home with her sickness than share it with me.  Second, I get to work and I hear that one of the other medical assistants isn't coming in because she had to take her daughter to the doctor.  Nice.  So, I'm short-handed on my end of the world and now the *other* end of the world is minus an MA.  Luckily there was somebody else to cover because I was really busy with my two docs.  THIRD...the powers that be (read: the docs) decided to fire one of the front desk girls and we had a replacement starting this morning.  This means the front desk is doubly short-handed because one regular is gone and the other regular has to train the noob.  *sigh*  And add in there one of the new practitioners coming down to my station every 30 minutes to tell me about something he wants me to do with his EMR form (I told him he's not allowed to come to my part of the world anymore - he's used all his passes for the week.  Somehow I don't think that matters).  This was all before lunch.  Somehow, it all kept flowing and I got a lunch.  A 45-minute lunch!  The afternoon was much better but at that point, I realized I forgot my flash drive with all my blog pics.  Can I go home yet?  I finished out the afternoon and got out only 15 minutes later than usual.  The boys were pretty quiet on the way home, which is good because I am exhausted!  So, here I am...it's 8:15.  The boys are bathed and in bed.  The hubs has gone to Planet Ego.  My nails are done.  Glee was a repeat.  I have to do a load of laundry and finish this post.  And then...I don't care if it's before 9...I'm going to bed. 

Enough of that.  On to the food!

A couple weeks ago, the hubs decided that he wanted to try a new recipe.  The hubs is really a good cook.  He just doesn't like to make things that require a recipe.  So I was pretty excited when he said HE wanted to try something new.  He went digging through a bunch of my recipe books, stickied the pages he was interested in, and then passed them over to me for my opinion.  You know...as long as he wants to make dinner and it doesn't contain fish or lamb, it's all good with me.  We both agreed on a promising looking recipe from Best Burgers, a recipe book we got who knows when.  I don't know if we've ever used a recipe out of it...until now.

Ranch Burger
1 1/4 lbs lean ground beef
3/4 cup prepared Ranch dressing
3/4 cup dry bread crumbs
1/4 cup minced onion
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper

In a large bowl, combine beef, salad dressing, bread crumbs, onion, salt and pepper.  Shape into 6 patties.  Grill over medium-hot coals 5-6 minutes until no longer pink in center (160*).  Place on sesame seed buns with lettuce, tomato and red onion slices, if desired.  Serve with a generous amount of additional Ranch dressing.

Choppin' the onions.  I don't know what it is, but the hubs has a *thing* for red onion.  I'm not complaining, but that's the first thing he grabs for when I tell him I need an onion.

The mix.  Bread crumbs, Ranch dressing and onions.  I don't have anything against bread crumbs, but they don't belong in a burger.  They just don't.

The blob 'o meat.  When I saw this, all I could think of is this...

Meatwad a la Aqua Team Hunger Force.  No, I've never watched it, but there was a time when his image was inescapable on the internets.

All prettily shaped in to patties.  3 adult-size and 2 little kid-size. 

I don't know if it was the dressing, but these got the Cajun treatment.  And for once, it wasn't me who burned the chicken.

The finished product.  Isn't it pretty?  We had some spicy fried onion petals for added spiciness (we also added a piece of pepper jack to the adult burgers).

Now...as I was saying...bread crumbs do not belong in a burger.  Meatballs?  Sure.  Meatloaf?  Sometimes.  Burgers?  Never.  The bread crumbs made the burgers all mushy and more like a big flattened meatball than a burger.  Next time I'll opt out of the bread crumbs and change the prepared Ranch dressing for Ranch seasoning...the kind in a packet.  Overall, I wasn't too impressed with the flavor of these.  Or the consistency.  On a scale of 1 to 5, I'd give these a 2, but with a few changes, these could be 4-star burgers!

Have you ever tried a recipe that looked good on paper but ended up being less than stellar?  Do you rely on recipes or do you wing it?  I'm definitely a recipe kind of gal.  It takes me a LONG time to be comfortable enough with a recipe before I try to mix things up.