Monday, June 5, 2006

Ground Beef is a good start to lots of things

Ground Beef Starter

1 to 1 ½ pound of ground beef
1 tsp. Lawry's Seasoned Salt (or to taste)
½ tsp. ground black pepper (or to taste)
1 large onion, chopped (Vidalia is best)
1 bell pepper, chopped (green pepper)
4 oz. fresh mushrooms, sliced (or more)

Combine the above ingredients in a nonstick skillet (which I call a frying pan) and cook on medium high, stirring often, until the meat is brown. Drain all the grease off.


This meat mixture can be used for spaghetti, chili, pizza, assorted hamburger casseroles, etc. I actually just like eating this mixture by itself. You can even eat this mixture on a slice of folded bread or a bun. Just add condiments to the bread like you would to a hamburger patty. It will just be a little messier, but that's fun.

This is a good recipe to play around with. You can leave out any of the vegetables if you don't like them. I always add lots of Vidalia onion, but I add a little less onion if it's a yellow onion.

Also, I tend to not add a whole bell pepper ... maybe 3/4 ... it depends on the size. I don't know if they are called bell pepper or green pepper, but I am talking about the pepper that kind of looks like an apple ... not the long skinny things.

Also, you can use lean meat such as ground round. It just doesn't taste as good as hamburger does with all that fat to flavor it, so I'd rather cook hamburger and drain it. I drain the meat in a colander and run a little water over it to make sure all the grease is gone. If the colander has big holes, put a paper towel in it. Be sure to put a bowl under the colander to catch the grease. When the grease gets hard, throw it away. You don't ever want to put grease or rice down a sink; they gunk up the plumbing. I learned that from a plumber.

Sigh ... I don't know what folks who aren't from Georgia call the ingredients. While I was typing, I realized folks might not be familiar with Vidalia onions. But if you are not, FIND one. They are sweet and tasty, and they don't make you cry like regular yellow onions.

We live in a county next to Vidalia, so we can easily get them. I think that Bland Farms markets them all over; I have seen frozen chopped Vidalia onions in the freezer section of the grocery store. With the climate controlled storage buildings the onion farmers have these days, the onions are available more of the year. But they are fresh right now, so find some and make this recipe.

I hope I gave you some ideas of how to take a basic recipe and do some creative things with it. So, get up ... get the ingredients ... cook ... enjoy!

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