I receive a couple of different food and recipe emails during the week – one of which comes from the New York Times. The latest email had a recipe for a Cocotte Burger – from a restaurant in Paris, of all places! The last thing I would probably be ordering in Paris – or anywhere in Europe, for that matter – would be a burger. I mean… really. A hamburger in Paris when you could be eating Jambon-beurre or Poulet Chasseur?!? I mean… really.

Yet… here I am having made a burger from a French bistro and I loved every bite of it! Never say never, ya know?!?

What interested me when I started reading the recipe – other than the egg on top – was that the burger had both pine nuts and thyme in it. Neither are traditional burger ingredients in my house, although that may be changing!

What also made it fun was I got to break in my new over-the-top bad-boy All Clad Egg Pan! I received a lot of really nice gifts from customers and coworkers on my retirement, but this was my Gold Watch from my Captain, Chris! It is awesome!

He knows me well, to say the least! I love it!

So… here I am making Boeuf haché avec des oeufs on Jour de la Bastille with a pan made a few hours drive away from me, right here in Pennsylvania. Cross-Culturalism is good!

And speaking of cross-culturalism… we had a Neighborhood Yard Sale, today, and we participated. One of the things we did was had a Register to Vote sign with Voter Registration forms – part of another over-the-top gift from my friend, Elizabeth – a Retired Political Activist Kit!

We received so many smiles, thumbs up, and positive comments, it made my heart swell. And more than a few takers! We had one conversation with a woman who was born in Mexico City, lived in LA for years, and then moved east after the LA riots. She was incensed at what was going on and when I called Trump a pinche pendejo, she let loose with a few expletives of her own. We started talking cultures and food, and when I was lamenting the lack of decent Mexican Restaurants, she said there was a place in Malvern that was really good – and offered to take us there! I have her name and number and will be getting in touch with her when we get back from Rochester!

It gives me hope.

But I digress…

The burger concept is sheer simplicity – it’s merely adding some toasted pine nuts and thyme to ground beef – along with a bit of S&P – shaping into patties and cooking, topping with cheddar cheese – I used an English Double Gloucester with Onions and Chives for a true round of internationalism – setting it on a plank of toasted bread and topping the whole thing with a fried egg.

How could it possibly be bad?!?

In my book, it can’t. It was absolutely delicious! The thyme was a new flavor in a burger and it really worked well. The pine nuts, on the other hand, were barely perceptible. I probably should have toasted them a bit more to bring out more flavor. But, they also worked.

I can see lots of variations on a theme, here…

Vive le hamburger!!