Try-It Tuesday: Black Bean Burgers

I really could do without meat in my life. Sure, I like an occasional chicken breast, slice of deli turkey, or hamburger like the next girl... but I think I could survive pretty easily without it. This week is proof, without my meat-and-potatoes family around, I haven't prepared any meat... at all.

The trend continued tonight... I made black bean burgers! And like I said yesterday, I had some special guests over for dinner: The Crows (that's my good friend Jessie that I always talk about, her husband and their two boys.) I know what you're thinking... "She tried out a black bean burger recipe on guests?" I know... it was daring, and maybe a bit dumb, and the Crows were good sports. We had a really intense (ok, not intense at all...) discussion about how we felt about the recipe. The verdict? The recipe was pretty good... for a black bean burger. The flavor was good, but it fell apart a little too easily and could have used a sauce or something to go with it. I also tried out this sweet potato fries recipe that guaranteed to be crispy. All lies... they were flat out soggy and underdone and I followed the directions precisely. I also tried out this pumpkin snickerdoodle recipe for dessert. The cookies were good but were hardly pumpkiny.

Overall the meal was a B- at best and I was bummed because I wanted to impress Jessie since she's such a stellar cook... Maybe someday.... The company was an A+ though... I love hanging out with the Crows, so the evening as a whole was a good one.

(Liam told me that he didn't like my cookies because they were "mushy." The boy had two...)

(Eli's got the greatest smile... when he actually wants to give you one.)

(Making the funny Crow boy stare-down face. I'm not as good as Liam...)

(Jon messing around doing who knows what...)

(Always laughing...)

(Being silly... I love these guys!)