#GreatSummerOfBurger Episode 4: silvana franco's bloody mary burger

After last year's frigid Jubilee Street Party, this year we luck out with beautiful, if not scorching, sunny day. Perfect for decking the street with bunting, letting the kids run wild in the middle of the road, and meeting people you normally only occasionally nod at, over several brewskis and a hot dog.

I made the mistake last year of attempting a jazzy salad, Jill Dupliex's Sesame Chicken Salad in fact, which whilst very tasty, didn't say 'yay, let's party in sub-zero temperatures for the Queen'. Although to be fair, what does?

Instead I view today as the perfect example to continue my #GreatSummerOfBurger campaign, with yet-another experimental Silvana Franco burger: The Bloody Mary burger from June 2011's issue of Delicious. Although naturally I make double quantities:

What makes them 'Bloody' is the addition of cayenne pepper, Worcestershire sauce and creamed horseradish, and as I'm using Garlic Farm creamed horseradish, we got an extra hit of smokey flavour, which was delicious. They were a bugger to cook though, as they lacked any egg to bind them, only breadcrumbs:

As I say, they were delicious. Probably the best meat burgers I've made, I think, with lots of flavours going and a nice hit of heat from the horseradish, but I wonder whether adding egg will solve the problems of them falling apart on the grill? This is exactly the sort of question #GreatSummerOfBurger is going to answer!

Wine Time
Brewskis, and lots of them or if you're being sensible, and big, bold Cote de Rhone or Aussie Shiraz are classic pairings for BBQs and meat.

sources
bloody mary burger - Silvana Franco, Delicious, June 2011, p25

you say goodbye, we say hello. again

For the past few weeks we've been entertained by this on the fake hedges at work:

Forget about who on earth populates their offices with fake hedges, more to the point is the signs finally came down. Today was to be our final day at SeeSaw towers, but somewhat incredibly we've been saved quite literally at the last minute, so our closing wake has now become a celebratory shindig at Sanctum's roof top terrace. As you'd imagine this didn't at all get completely messy, given we started at a quite sensible 1400 military hours, and I didn't get home till gone midnight.

It started in fairly jolly form...

...before the booze started kicking in...

...and things started getting blurrier...

...and blurrier (although this is an actual shot of some editorial strategising)...

...and just to prove she's not a massive piss-head, here's a picture of Angela Hazel not getting lairy, not going off on one after two vinos, and not getting on the nearest Boris Bike to drunkenly cycle home:

However, it turns out for me it IS my last day at SeeSaw. I can't quite believe I'm doing this, but after a 15 year career working TV new media, taking in Playboy TV, Flextech, Channel 4, Aol and Kangaroo/SeeSaw I've turned my back on it all to become a vintner. For THE vintner in fact.

I'm swinging wildly between being massively excited, and completely terrified, and it hasn't really sunk in yet. Still, I drink wine and now I'm selling it - what could possibly go wrong?

happy birthday cowley road!

There is slim food pickings today, for today was the Cowley Road 100th birthday street party and other than the take away we had in the evening, I only had one burger all day. And 1000000 pints of larry lager. Which is odd, as I made a kilo of burger mix, and a big bowl of the cherry tomato and chorizo salad...

Essentially Milo spends all day on a Scooby-Doo-themed bouncy castle, dressed as a Pirate, and we natter and gossip with our neighbours and Miss Kate Smither in the blazing sun, with occasional breaks for drinking, egg and spoon races, barbecue duty, and drinking. Voila!

The bouncy castle outside our flat:

Our amazing pirate and nautical flag bunting:

Hot BBQ-action featuring Barnes Vet's least-fastest winger Paul "Robbo" Robinson, and their least effective tight-head - fight the power kids:

Captain Jack Sparrow:

We're all very tired, and only some serious Marple, a take away from Talad Thai and more wine keep the adults going until bed time. Man, being 100 is tiring.