129. Baked Cheese-Burger

Last week you voted and the winner is 129. Baked Cheese-Burger!

Looks pretty simple. And I didn’t have to buy a damn thing.

I appreciate that the 1973 dinners are pared down considerably from the original DiS1972 set–so many of the cards are multi-hour affairs, but a good number of the 1973 dinners only take ONE HOUR (as is the case for #129).

We’re gonna test that timeline.

(note: sliced tomatoes and marble pound cake will not be making an appearance).

Start time: 7:20 PM on the dot!

I began by throwing the squash into a 350 degree oven and toasting the bread. (Note: my squash was already cubed from a previous dinner and frozen).

7:24: cutting celery, onion, and dill pickle (I only had sweet pickle relish. Barf).

7:30: ground beef, relish, onion, celery, and mustard are all in the pan and browning.

7:32: I shred the cheese. I, surprisingly, did not have a bag of pre-shred in the fridge. I realize that I do not own a cheese grater. So I used a microplane. (note: the mustard smells really good while cooking).

7:37: Buttering (actually margarine-ing) the toast.

7:41: ASSEMBLY!

The milk and egg went on top and then the entire thing was in the oven at 7:45.

7:52: I move onto the lima beans. I did not have lima beans, but I did have succotash leftover from 192. Chicken Fricassee and Dumplings. so I nuked that.

CLEANING BREAK!

8:00: toss the roasted squash in While My Zaatar Gently Weeps Middle Eastern spice blend from The Book Club Cook Book.  Mix the microwaved succotash in some OLD BAY.

8:16: oven timer beeps!

8:18: photograph #129.

Dinner is Served at EXACTLY 8:20 PM!

Seriously. I handed Mr. Sauce, Esq.’s plate and looked at the clock. Precisely one hour from start to finish.

My review:

This definitely has cheeseburger vibes.  Unlike some other hamburger/cheeseburger DiS1972 recipes I’ve made before (looking at you Hamburger Wheels and Hamburger Pie).

One problem: the meat layer was meager. Of course, I decreased all of the ingredients to make a smaller version, but if I were to make this again, I would keep this amount of bread, but use the amount of cheese, beef, seasoning and veg in the original recipe.

Big win: the crispy edges of the bread was a great sub for a toasted bun!

So this gets a thumbs up for being quick, easy, and tasting like it should! It’s totally cheese-burger-y–specially if you accompany it with some ketchup and yellow mustard.

Oh one last thing! The squash was really good tossed in the zaatar. I’m gonna have to file that away for later.

Thanks for voting on this dish! The Baked Cheese-Burger was the clear winner in the poll; but, don’t fret–those of you who voted for Meat Loaf Mexicali–I made that last night!

And it’s….something.