As you may know, I am a pesco-vegetarian. Easily explained, the only meat I eat is fish. As you also may know, I live in the Pacific Northwest where there is no shortage of fresh delicious fish that can be cooked at a summer time cookout, but fish can be expensive and sometimes I wanna be part of the gang (mine being largely populated with meat eaters) and have a good ‘ol BURGER. SO… I have tried many Black Bean Burger recipes, and while always managed to create something filling and tasty — they always had 1 major problem. THEY FALL APART! The second I attempt to either flip the burger in the pan or eat it — it falls apart and makes a huge mess.

So I have adapted my own recipe! This recipe was expressly made so that I could freeze a bunch of patties for quick use down the line – but you can alway use some math to break this down if need be.

I CAN HAS BEAN BURGER?

Recipe yields about 8 standard sized burgers.

Ingredients

• 2 Peppers (any color)
• 2 Cans Black Beans
• 1 Can Black Eye Peas
• 5 Cloves Garlic
• 1 White Onion
• 1 TBSP Thai Chili Sauce
• 2.5 TBSP Chili Powder
• 2 TBSP Cumin
• 2 TSP Red Pepper Flakes
• 1/2 TBSP Salt
• 1/2 Cup Cut Okra
• 1 Cup Bread Crumbs

Directions for Patties

1. Drain all beans and cook over Medium Heat in a large Pot for 30 minutes with Diced Onion. (be sure to give them a stir occasionally.
2. Finely Chop Peppers and set aside
3. In a small bowl mix Cumin, Chili Powder, Salt and Red Pepper Flakes, and Thai Cili Sauce minced Garlic, set aside.
4. Puree Okra into a paste then mix into mixture above, set aside.
5. Let cooked beans and Onions cool to room temperature.
6. Mix in Okra Puree mixture, chopped Peppers and Bread Crumbs
7. Form into 0.25 inch thick patties

Directions for Cooking

So far, only tried cooking these in a pan, but my goal for these was to be able to cook them on the grill outside, so once I try that — I’ll update this and let you know.

For pan grilling these, all a bit of olive oil into the pan and in Medium Low heat cook about 10 – 15 minutes on each side.

To cook them on the outdoor grill: Get the grill VERY HOT, cook about 5 – 8 minutes on each side.

Taste & Texture

They turned out a little crunchy on the outside while still moist on the inside, which was the texture I wanted. I do like spice, so these have a bit of a kick to them but I wouldn’t consider them spicy, per sa. I think my next batch may add in a  jalapeño pepper.

I enjoyed cooking and eating a burger without it falling apart (which has always been my main complaint about all other bean burger recipes I have attempted int he past.) I hope you enjoy it too! If you adapt this further with success please share your improvements with me! :)

It is slowly, but surely warming up in Seattle. This city generally tends to skip spring time all together and around the end of April we end up jumping wholeheartedly from Winter weather straight into Summertime! WOO!

In preparation for the warm weather, Eric and I are fixing up the patio that is attached to our apartment and because we are renters, we cant install an actual screen door so after some brain storming and clever internet searches — I found THIS idea, for a removable screen door. The photo was tiny and the idea of having to sew didn’t exactly have me thrilled — but I decided it was my best option.

Since the patio door is 36″ wide, I ordered 2 of these mini tension rods off Amazon, for under $5 each. These are the same types of rods you usually see used for a shower curtain but they are thinner and shorter.

Next I started searching for mosquito netting to make the curtain but ran into some trouble since most of the netting I found came in sheets sized too small to cover the full height of our doorway. It was then that I remembered these LILL curtains from Ikea — which are essentially mosquito nets — they’d work perfectly and at only $4.99 for a pair this is a great option!

Before ordering them I opted to go check out the local thrift shop a few blocks away to see if they had anything similar — and they did! For $2.99 I got a single sheer polyester curtain that (bonus) was already seamed at the top and bottom of its 84″ (the exact height of the door!)

Today the rods arrived and I had the solution up in just a few minutes! The top and bottom rod will allow us to keep the door open this summer for fresh air and not have to stress over our cat wondering outside. It’s simple to just slide the curtain open or closed if we want to enter in and out — or if we have friends over and the kitty isn’t roaming free we can always take the bottom rod out to have a barrier against bugs but easier access to come and go.

You will need:

• A tape measure (start by measure the interior frame of the doorway, of course.)
• 2 adjustable width tension rods (measure your doorway to determine the size — but morst standard doorways will fit this 28″ – 48″ option.
• 1 mesh, net or sheer curtain (Ikea’s LILL curtains or check out your local thrift shop or fabric store!)

You might need:

• Scissors
• Sewing Machine

Over all this was cheap, easy and (i think) looks pretty darn good! I suggest this to anyone who lives in a rental and needs a screen door solution! :) If you end up trying this too — post a photo link to the finished product in the comments below and let me know how it went for you!

We’re working on redesigning the Pagebreak Podcast website and decided to get some caricatures of us made by Ricardo Gimenes.Check ‘em out! We’re SO CUTE!

LOVE Patty Schemel. Excited about this documentary — looks pretty intense.

I’ve been using Pinterest and what better use that to make a board with nothing but cats being cute and funny!? Check it out, CATS!!!! FTW! OMG! CATS! CATS! I LOVE CATS!

You get gems like THIS video I just pinned!

I wish I had thought of this, so clever!

I’m sure you’ve seen this. 2 of my favorite things mixed together, CATS and BLACK FLAG! :)
Anyway, I came across this blog post that features a bunch of plays on the Black Flag logo and found it amusing… so here you go.

No official “Friday LOL” today — but here is some silliness for you. Mr. Computer and I took some photos together. I LOVE THIS DUDE!