Sooner Burgers in the Sunshine State

The Colonel and I have just added some new equipment to our cooking arsenal. Our 17" Tabletop Blackstone Griddle arrived late last week.

Yesterday, we seasoned it and cooked our first dinner on it. To season the griddle, we turned the griddle on high and waited until the griddle surface began to become a dark color. Once the griddle was ready, we applied a film of canola oil on every part of the griddle's surface and waited for the oil to cook off. We completed this step four times to make certain we had an excellent season on the griddle.

Our first dinner consisted of asparagus (because I had some in the fridge) and Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers (because I had grass-fed beef on hand and plenty of sweet onions).

The Colonel, Baby Yam and I (and our cats, Tegan and Avon) moved to Oklahoma in 1992. Spud was born in the Sooner state in 1993. We were stationed at Tinker Air Force Base for six years. While living in Oklahoma, we would frequent a restaurant that made the best fried onion burgers (their hand-cut fries were excellent too). For the life of me, I cannot remember the restaurant's name.

The little town of El Reno, Oklahoma is the birthplace of Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers. During the depression, hamburger meat was expensive and to make the burger meat go farther, the creator used onions as a filler.

Yesterday was the first time we made Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers. I had to look up the recipe online (we wanted to do it right).

The recipe I used called for one pound of burger meat and one whole onion. As The Colonel was seasoning the griddle, I was inside preparing the asparagus and burgers.

I tossed the asparagus in olive oil and seasoned them with salt and pepper and set them aside. Next, I thinly cut the onion, placed them in a bowl and tossed them with a teaspoon of salt to sweat them for 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, I placed the onions in a dish towel and squeezed off the excess onion juices.

Once my onions were ready, I got the rest of my ingredients in order. I separated my hamburger meat and onions into four servings. We would grill them in butter and season them with salt and pepper.

First, The Colonel cooked the asparagus.

Next, it was time to cook the burgers. We took roughly two tablespoons of butter and coated the griddle before we put the onions down. We immediately put a ball of hamburger meat on each onion pile and smashed it flat with a metal spatula and seasoned the meat with salt and pepper.

The Colonel flipped the onion burgers after about six minutes and finished them for another three on the other side.

The fried onions were nicely caramelized and had a crispy finish. The hamburger meat was seasoned perfectly with the onions, salt and pepper. I think there will definitely be more Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers in our future.

 
The 17" Tabletop Blackstone Griddle is touted as the perfect cooking implement for tail-gating and camping. The Colonel and I plan on using it when we camp on our recently purchased, 5-acre lot of Florida scrub (more on that later).

Castillo by Candlelight: Enemy at the Gates

This post should have been written late last year, but as you know, time had gotten away from me and I was not able to write it in a timely manner. I find myself with some time now, as a storm rages outside (let us hope I do not lose power and thus the use of my computer), so here goes...

On November 30, 2018, the last day of hurricane season, The Colonel and I found ourselves in the oldest city in United States, St. Augustine, Florida. We wanted to experience the event called, Castillo by Candlelight: Enemy at the Gates. The event also takes place during St. Augustine's Nights of Lights. Last year was the 25th annual lights event. Some three million lights adorn the historic district for two months (this year the event will run from November 23, 2019 to January 31, 2020).

The Colonel and I invited Spud and his girlfriend to join us. We made reservations for dinner at the Columbia Restaurant. As always the food was excellent and the company enjoyable!

Image from Internet

After dinner we made our way towards the Castillo de San Marcos. The Castillo is the oldest and largest masonry fort in the continental United States. It was constructed by the Spanish beginning in 1672 and was completed in 1695.

Image from Internet

We had to wait for our tour time of 7:30 p.m. Every 15 minutes, a 45-minute tour began. As we waited, we strolled around the Castillo and took pictures.

The Castillo by Candlelight: Enemy at the Gates event is a living history demonstration of the British Siege of 1740.

Spain and Britain were rivals in Europe. Both countries founded empires in the New World and their rivalry continued there too. In 1733, a British ship called the Rebecca, commanded by Capt. Robert Jenkins, was seized in the Caribbean by the Spanish Coast Guard. They had suspected that the British had been trading illegally with Spanish colonies (this was forbidden by both Spain and Britain). The Spanish searched the Rebecca. A fight between the Spanish and British sailors ensued. During the fight, Jenkins' ear was cut off by a Spanish officer, who then picked it up and said, "Take this to your king and tell him that if he were here I would serve him in the same manner!" When Jenkins reported the incident to British authorities, they used it as a reason to declare war on Spain in 1739. The war was called the War of Jenkins' Ear (1739-1748).

In June 1740, British General James Oglethorpe (the founder of Georgia) and an English fleet of seven ships arrived at St. Augustine.

Three hundred Spanish soldiers and 1,300 Spanish residents sought refuge within the walls of the Castillo de San Marcos. The British bombarded the Castillo and St. Augustine for 27 days. The cannon balls were ineffective against the Castillo's walls. General Oglethorpe decided to starve the people of St. Augustine by blockading the inlet at the Matanzas River and all roads into the city. However, some supplies were able to reach St. Augustine via the river, and with morale and supplies running low for the British forces, Oglethorpe had to retreat.

The time for our 45-minute tour had arrived. Our guide began our tour outside of the Castillo. We stopped at the British encampment and listened to the soldiers discuss siege plans.

We experienced the British side of the siege, it was now time to go inside the Castillo and see how the Spanish were handling the siege.

We were brought into the General's quarters. He was pouring over a map and asking questions of an Indian who was spying for the Spanish.

We then saw a few Spanish soldiers.

One of our stops in the Castillo was to the surgery. The el medico told us about medical and surgical procedures of 1740. He asked for three volunteers to help him "extract" a lead ball. The lead ball was encased in a wad of cotton and the volunteers had to use period specific medical instruments to assist in the extraction. Spud's girlfriend was asked to be one of the assistants. The "surgery" was a success!

Taking a tour inside and outside the Castillo by candlelight was an interesting experience. It certainly gave you an idea how the soldiers and citizens of St. Augustine would have lived within the Castillo during the siege of 1740.

Our tour was complete, so we walked around St. Augustine and admired the lights as we waited for the annual parade through the city gates to the Governor's House.

The parade began and when all the costumed people passed by, we joined the parade behind them. We walked with them to the Governor's House.

When we arrived at the Governor's House, the Mayor of St. Augustine (dressed in period costume) gave a brief speech and Spanish Colonial soldiers fired their rifles in salute. The flintlock rifles fired despite the misty rain falling.

Once the salute was complete, The Colonel, Spud, his girlfriend and I walked around the park to admire the lights and the beautiful Christmas tree.

The Colonel and I very much enjoyed our first experience of the Castillo by Candlelight: Enemy at the Gates. We also loved seeing St. Augustine festooned in millions of lights.

A word of advice to anyone who would like to also experience St. Augustine's Nights of Lights...make your reservations for a hotel early (and to any restaurant in which you would like to dine)...the oldest city in the United States will be packed with throngs of visitors!