It makes me so happy that burgers come in so many varieties now besides straight-up beef. It's not only healthier to enjoy a turkey burger over one made from a cow, but if you're married to your grill in the Summer, it's also less boring to mix it up. We all have our favorites, though, so tell me . . .
At a recent dinner party, I made a bold announcement to my guests. "I'm going to be all about burgers this Summer," I said.
I also happen to be in the middle of decorating my apartment, so when a friend who was at the party came across this handmade hamburger on Etsy, she had to send it to me!
Although it would be a fun gag gift, I think hamburger-inspired furniture is going a little too far. How about you?
There's been a lot of talk in the media about E. coli contamination in ground meat lately, hamburgers specifically. First, The New York Times profiled Stephanie Smith, a young woman who was paralyzed after eating a contaminated hamburger. A week later, Larry King and CNN posed the question "Should Americans banish the burger"? The media is always reporting beef recall stories, which leave me a little freaked out about indulging in the occasional cheeseburger. How about you?
The argument against ground meat goes something like this: in slaughterhouses all sorts of things are flying around, including cow guts, which contain E. coli. Because slaughterhouse practices can be a little iffy, the E. coli can come into contact with the meat to be sold for consumption. Cooking a piece of contaminated steak usually kills the bacteria because the E. coli has only touched the surface, not actually penetrated the meat. The problem with ground meat is that E. coli can easily get onto every small bit of meat, making it harder to eliminate.
I'm not sure if I'm ready to completely banish the burger from my diet, but I do eat less meat these days. Besides being healthier for my heart, the sanitary conditions of large slaughterhouses worry me a bit. When it comes to eating meat I definitely try to follow certain guidelines. To learn them, continue reading.
Do you cook wonderfully delicious dishes and then take photographs of them to show your friends and family? Well, why not go one step further and share them with us in the YumSugar Community? That's what reader MénagèreModerne recently did with this scrumptious sounding stroganoff recipe. 
Classic stroganoff is made with ground beef, but Ménagère used ground pork because that's what she had on hand and she wanted to "cut down on the salt a bit." The final dish, that combines the meat with sour cream, sherry, and mushrooms, is economical and surprisingly fast. More of Ménagère's stunning food photography can be viewed on her blog, mmmm...food!, but to check out the pork stroganoff recipe, read more
Back in 2005, Wendy's scored an avalanche of negative publicity for allegedly serving a flippin' finger in a bowl of chili. Anything Wendy's can do, Burger King can do better, so one BK restaurant allegedly shoved an eight pound human head between the buns of a double whopper. (Let's see Wendy's allegedly top that.) And the free publicity has already started rolling in . . .
Is it art or awkwardness? How can something so mundane seem so unnatural? Folks, that's Andy Warhol for ya. Watch him daintily dip a Burger King hamburger into a dollop of ketchup, chew, chew, chew, finish in under three minutes, and then give the camera an unflinching look of. . .indigestion? Despair? Hope? I have no idea, but I know it's more compelling than Paris Hilton washing a car in bathing suit.
If you're on the road or in a rush, sometimes you can't avoid finding yourself in a fast food restaurant. Hamburgers are a pretty popular menu item, and since every fast food joint prepares them differently, it's hard to make the healthiest choice.
Want to see how these popular burgers compare? Then read more
Listen up! The first ground beef recall of 2008 has arrived. The Rochester Meat Company of Rochester, Minn., has voluntarily recalled over 180,000 lbs. of ground beef due to a possible E. coli contamination. The recall comes after five illnesses in Wisconsin and one in California.
The scariest part is that the product is actually not available on a retail level, but is sold for commercial purposes. So hopefully the places where you're eating ground beef are being diligent in their practices. Make sure that ground beef patties have been cooked to an internal temperature of 160°F. I know, some of you prefer yours a little more rare than that, but it's better to be safe than sorry, no?
If you're concerned about the meat your restaurant has, find out which boxes are being recalled.
Doesn't this burger look gorgeously divine? It's a French twist on the American classic with sauteed onions, a crisp potato rösti, and comte cheese. Oh to eat like Ms. Stewart! — Martha Stewart
