Married to Yogi Berra

None of you probably know who Yogi Berra was, except maybe Brad. Yogi played 18 seasons with the New York Yankees (1946 to 1963), winning 10 World Series titles, more than any other baseball player ever. But Yogi is best known in popular culture for his "Yogi-isms," which USA Today has defined as "colloquial expressions that lack logic." A few of the better-known Yogi-isms, for example: "When you come to a fork in the road, take it"; "You can observe a lot by just watching"; and "No one goes there nowadays, it’s too crowded."

Lately, I've been feeling like I'm married to Yogi Berra. Last week during dinner, we were listening to R.E.M. and I mentioned that they were from Athens, a college town in Georgia. Brad confirmed that Athens is where the University of Georgia is located. Mom piped in that Brad's "head is a random fact suppository." Last night, we had dinner at Petit Pois before the Waynesboro Symphony Symphonic Masquerade concert. Uncle Clint had the Steak Frites, which I commented came with a mountain of frites, to which Mom added, "and French fries, too." (Doh!)

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I've been rethinking the hamburger recipe. In my opinion, this cooking method is more reliable, plus you can cook a whole pound of beef at once, so everyone can eat at the same time, instead of having to wait for the burgers to come off one at a time. The smoke factor is reduced, too, although Mystic doesn't like this method any better than the other one, since there's still a fair bit of sizzling.

Smoke-Reduced Quarter-Pound Hamburgers

1 pound grass-fed beef
kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 slices American cheese (such as Kraft Singles or Trader Joe's Organic American Slices), optional
4 high-quality hamburger rolls (such as Martin's Potato Rolls or Trader Joe's Classic Hamburger Buns), toasted
condiments and toppings such as ketchup, lettuce leaves, Quick Pickled Onions, tomato slices

    1. Place a rack in the center of the oven, and heat to 425 degrees. Place a 12-inch stainless steel skillet over medium-high heat.
    2. Season the beef generously with salt and pepper. Divide into four 4-ounce balls. Evenly distribute the four balls around the pan. Press down hard on each ball with a heavy metal spatula. The semi-smashed patties should be sorta thin and about the diameter of the buns. Cook until the bottoms are well-browned and crusted, about 2 minutes. Use the spatula to carefully scrape the patties up from the pan, getting as much of the browned bits as you can, and flip them. Cook until the other side is seared, about a minute, then transfer to the hot oven. Roast to the desired level of doneness, about 3–4 minutes. If you're making cheeseburgers, place a slice of cheese on each patty about a minute before they're done.
    3. Serve promptly on the toasted buns with the condiments and toppings of your choice. Serves 2–4.