Local Burger and Shirking Obligations

With this weekly fieldtrip business, I've realized that I hate blogging deadlines looming over my head about as much as I enjoy taking pictures of food. With the reader-selected fieldtrips, I feel pressure to deliver. Consequently, I've become adept at procrastinating. The Greasy Skillet should be a place free of obligations and deadlines. After all I have enough deadlines and to-do's without incorporating them into my creative outlets. Exhibit A:

The following need to be done by tomorrow afternoon:

1. Clean the house.
2. Organize the garage.
3. Mow the lawn.
4. Construct a swing set for my daughter
5. Take my daughter to the dentist
6. Teach my daughter to ride a bike (This doesn't need to be accomplished by Friday, but more time needs to be allotted to this chore.)
   
7. Visit the Pella store to shop for windows.
8. Prepare appetizers for a Friday evening party with friends
   
9. Brainstorm a cocktail of the week (I'm leaning towards the Strip and Go Naked cocktail suggested by WilleWorks.)
   

I'm by nature a Type A personality who craves structure and deadlines about as much as I crave an ice-cold drink when the temperature hovers in the triple digits. However, I want to shuck routine with this blog and do whatever the hell feels like fun. We aim for a rambling, bohemian spirit here at The Greasy Skillet. It should be a gravel road on a Sunday drive. I need to fart around, experiment in the kitchen, read Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian, listen to the new Todd Snider album, write, hum the tunes I hear in my head, and engage in activities that generally tickle me.

Back to the fieldtrip.

Last week my daughter and I visited Local Burger, a Lawrence restaurant grounded in locavore movement. The restaurant has been featured in several major publications and in 2008 Bon Appetit listed it as one of the ten Best Eco-Friendly Restaurants. I guess, it was about time for me to visit this restaurant.

I'm not here to preach to you about what you should eat, but anyone who's ever eaten produce grown in a local garden knows that food is tastier than what's shipped to the supermarket. I think, we all can get behind tastier, but when you throw in environmental and community benefits of eating locally, we all should heartily pledge allegiance to the cause.

Let's talk about the food at Local Burger. I'll be honest with you. I thought my burger was OK. When I crave a burger, I usually fix one at home with beef raised by father-in-law. When I venture outside my house for a burger, I usually visit Runza. Last week I tried the hamburgers at The Burger Stand at Dempsey's, and although I hate the term "gourmet" applied to hamburgers (Burgers are food for the people by the people, after all), it was a top-notch burger that surpassed what I had at Local Burger.

However, I did enjoy Local Burger's peanut butter balls (Thanks, Marianne), and their great millet-quinoa pilaf inspired me to run to my local market to purchase the grains to prepare this dish.


We'll keep you posted on how my attempt at make millet-quinoa pilaf.

Countin' down the days until homegrown tomatoes,
muddy