Sunday: Breakfast Pizza, 24 Burgers & Crispy Shredded Potatoes

Got up this morning and kept breakfast pretty simple with leftover bacon and toast.

Except then all of my kids suddenly remembered that there was still a little Costco pizza in the refrigerator.

So apparently we live in a frat house now.

A couple of them actually requested it cold for breakfast, and I had to draw the line.

We are civilized people. We will warm our breakfast pizza…just kidding!

I’m kidding, obviously. But I did warm it up, and several kids happily had pizza alongside their bacon and toast.

While I was already in the kitchen, I also made a batch of eggs for Chris to have for the next couple of mornings.

My Make-Ahead Over-Easy Eggs

This is one of those things that sounds like it shouldn’t work as well as it does.

I get a sauté pan hot and crack the eggs into it. I let them cook until they’re just barely firm enough to flip, flip them, and then almost immediately transfer them into a glass storage container.

That’s the trick: don’t finish cooking them in the pan.

The residual heat continues cooking them a little as they sit, and then when Chris reheats one in the microwave, it’s basically like having a freshly cooked over-easy egg.

They’re so much better than fully cooking an egg, refrigerating it and then cooking it AGAIN in the microwave.

Costco With the Girls

Then I headed to Costco with my 11-year-old and 4-year-old for our Sunday restock.

And Costco had one of my favorite Pyrex sets—the nesting set of four glass bowls with lids.

I use these bowls constantly. The largest one is HUGE, and it’s actually the bowl I use when I’m making my half-sheet-pan focaccia pizza dough. Then you have three progressively smaller bowls, they all nest together, and every bowl has a lid.

It’s one of those boring kitchen purchases that I use over and over and over again.

Use What We Already Have Lunch

When we got home, I pulled together lunch using a mixture of things we already had plus some Teton Waters Ranch Polish sausages.

I sliced each Polish sausage into about eight or nine pieces, tossed them with just a little oil on a sheet pan and roasted them at 400°F.

I also reheated the leftover Italian sausage from Friday night.

For the potatoes, I had two different containers of leftovers—some of our roasted potatoes and some I’d brought home from my parents’ house last night.

Dump them together.

Nobody needs to know these potatoes began their lives at two separate dinners.

I spread them onto a sheet pan and reheated everything together, then cut up some fresh vegetables and fruit.

Sausage, crispy potatoes, fruit and veggies. I also made some pasta…both a saucy option and some plain pasta (I love having cooked pasta in the fridge for a quick lunch)

Everyone ate. Leftovers disappeared. Solid Sunday lunch.

If I’m Grilling Burgers, I’m Grilling 24 Burgers

For dinner tonight, I made burgers.

Twenty-four of them.

Why 24?

Because 24 burgers fit on my grill.

If I’m going to stand there and form burger patties, heat the grill and cook burgers, I want something to show for my efforts.

I use plain ground beef and form all the patties myself. I still think I need some kind of burger press, but I haven’t found one that seems easier than just forming them with my hands once I factor in having another contraption to wash.

As I put each burger on the grill, I press a little dimple into the center. That helps keep the middle from puffing up and turning the burger into a hockey puck.

Then I season both sides liberally with kosher salt and grill.

That’s it.

No complicated burger mixture required.

And now I have plenty of cooked burgers to carry us into the week.

The Only Appropriate Way to Butter Corn

I also made a big pot of corn on the cob.

Someone on the internet once told me to add a little sugar to the cooking water, and I’ve been doing it ever since. It makes the corn really sweet and juicy.

And then there’s the butter.

You take your hot corn on the cob and roll it directly over a stick of butter.

This is the appropriate way to butter corn on the cob.

I’m not interested in other methods at this time.

Jammy Onions and Mushrooms

For the burgers, I also made a big pan of really soft, jammy onions and mushrooms.

Nothing complicated here either.

I warm a stainless-steel pan with olive oil, add diced onion and mushrooms, and then let them cook over about medium heat for a long time.

Don’t rush them.

You want everything to cook down until the onions and mushrooms are incredibly soft, browned and almost jammy.

Pile that onto a burger and I’m very happy.

Double Batch of Crispy Shredded Potatoes

And finally, I made a double batch of one of our favorite potato sides.

I buy the frozen shredded potatoes at Trader Joe’s, and I basically think of them as tiny French fries.

I dump them straight from frozen into my extra-deep half-sheet pan and toss them with:

• Olive oil
• Kosher salt
• Pepper
• Garlic powder

Then I put the pan into my convection oven at about 425°F.

About every 10 minutes, I get in there with a metal spatula, scrape everything off the bottom and toss the potatoes around.

Don’t pull them too soon.

Mine take a solid 30 minutes because I want those little potato shreds actually crispy.

And that was Sunday dinner: burgers, jammy onions and mushrooms, corn on the cob and a giant pan of crispy potatoes.

More importantly, I now have 24 cooked burgers.

(Apparently this eater REALLY liked the ketchup with the potatoes! lol!)

Because if I’m going to cook dinner on Sunday night, Monday might as well benefit too.