Not Your Average Burger

Supper after a long day in the country - Mushroom Swiss Cheese Burger, makes me drool just writing about it. But first, the day...

Sunday was glorious...a bit windy, but sunny and wonderful and My Honey and I decided to explore a different "route". We love the Lighthouse Route - Peggy's Cove, Mahone Bay & Lunenburg to mention just three lovely places on the way (and tons of great eating too, I might add). And we've travelled the Evangeline Trail through the Annapolis Valley-great wines, lush farmlands...Wolfville has some great restaurants (plus that is the "go to" place for us for apple picking, and Grand Pre (my very favorite spot...The Tangled Garden). I could go on and on.

But we've covered those routes so often the car can go on auto-pilot. So this time we decided to explore the Marine Drive...up north past Dartmouth and heading towards Cape Breton. Apparently there are some awesome beaches there that we never made it to this summer. We thought we'd check things out for next year.

Plus the weather was very summery. Look at those waves, no wonder there were so many surfers out even though it's mid-October.

Those tiny dots...kayakers taking advantage of the waves. We were on a cliff watching the action.

It was certainly windy enough for this paraglider/surfer. And just check out the wonderful sandy beach.

I've never been to a moor, but somehow when I saw this...thick grassy breaker before the beach, I saw Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights. Okay, maybe I was just hungry and hallucinating....

We got in the car still heading north and looking for a place to eat a late lunch. Not nearly the options of the Lighthouse Route, so if there are any locals out there reading this...please point us to a great spot for the next time. We did see The Lobster Shack at the Salmon River House Country Inn, but my Honey, who hates waiting in line for a meal, equally hates going to a place where there isn't a car in the parking lot. After an hour of driving and finding....nothing, we did a u-turn and headed back to Dartmouth, by this time, we were just really craving a fast food burger. I know it sounds impossible, but we didn't find one (they always seemed to be off on a subsiduary road, teasing us) and so we had a fast food of a different sort - gravely disappointed in the food, so I won't share where.

All that to tell you about our truly super supper....

I recently received a copy of Dana McCauley's cookbook Dana's Top Ten Table. Dana is a food writer who for a long time was food editor for Homemakers Magazine. You can learn all about her here... At Homemakers Dana followed the current food trends and that was the inspiration for her latest cookbook...Dana's Top Ten Table - 200 fresh takes on family-favorite meals. A great book! And what are the "top 10"? (In alphabetical order) Burgers, Casseroles & one-dish meals, Chicken, Fish & seafood, Pasta, Pizza, Pork, Sandwiches, Soup, and Steak. And each category has great recipes to make the ordinary anything BUT!

Burgers on the brain, I flipped through the burger section of the book. It really was difficult to choose...the Gourmet Brie Burger sounded very sophisticated - tasty patties enveloping a chunk of cold Brie or Camembert. Butter basted Bison Burgers? Sweet & Spicy Maple Chicken Burgers? Both sound awesome, but obviously for another day - I only have ground beef on hand. Plus, I was really in a diner mood.

And there it was...perfection....Mushroom Swiss Burgers - sigh! As I write this, I think I have to make them again before the week is out! I made them in buns as traditional diner burgers would be... Swiss Cheese melting just a little on it's way from the kitchen...lots of sauteed mushrooms and onions on top....delicious! But next time I might take Dana's suggestion and serve them sans bun with mashed potatoes and double up on the mushrooms.

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