I regularly add well composted horse manure or mushroom compost, which is manure, to growing plants. Usually to bi-annuals like apple seedlings as a mulch. I've never had problems with it burning plants. So my guess it's herbicides. I piled a couple inches onto my year old cider apple grafts from last year. And a couple inches on my blueberries. Boy did the blue berries like that! I add 3 inches of the above to raw clay and then dig it in and also maybe add a shovel or two more when transplanting. But I get my horse manure from behind the horse boarding barn.... for free. Most of the experts on this site tell us that manure is not a fertilizer; it's a soil amendment. So you'd think that you could assume that a non fertilizer wouldn't burn plants. I use manures or mushroom manure as a fertilizer and nothing else and grow nice veggies. I guess I'm confusing the issue....... One thing I know is to never get horse manure with wood chips in it; even if it's free. The manure gives you nitrogen and the wood chips take it all back.

I've been using this recipe that someone posted to this forum in the last few months. Unfortunately, I didn't make a note of who posted it. Hopefully, they will pop in & lay claim to it! Homemade Italian Sausage 2 lb. well-marbled pork butt med ground 2/3 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese 1/2 cup fresh Italian parsley, well packed 1/4 cup dry white wine or ice cold water 1 clove garlic (I use 3-4 cloves) minced 1/2 T. ground fennel seed 1 T. dried basil 1 t. red chili peppers, minced 1/2 t. salt 1/2 t. dried oregano 1/4 t. freshly ground black pepper 1/2 t. thyme Mix all ingred together in large bowl. Using sausage stuffer, fill casings, twisting off 8" links or freeze as patties or in bulk. That's the recipe. I've been making it with ground turkey, omitting the cheese & wine, using the 3-4 cloves of garlic & doubling the am't. of fennel. Cheese because I'm not crazy about cheese & the wine because I haven't had any on hand when I've made the recipe. And the salt because DH is on a salt-restricted diet. I've been using the frozen chubs of ground turkey from Aldi's. The mix is plenty wet w/o the wine or water. Also, I've freezing it in 1# bulk am'ts to use in spaghetti & lasagna. I've tried a couple of other recipes in the past & this one is my favorite by far. Last batch I made up w/ 6# of meat. And using the turkey from Aldi's (1.19 a lb.) it's really inexpensive to make & better tasting than the Ital sausage I can get at the market (Johnsonville, Jimmy Dean, etc.) Anyway, am really glad that you started this thread. I never thought about toasting the fennel OR adding tarragon. Tarragon & fennel are my next two favorite herbs...after cilantro, of course. :)

This is overwhelming. I've read through the recipes - wow - so many yummy burgers to try - esp. Mexican burger, chicken, tuna, and a good old-fashioned classic cheeseburger has never looked as good as many of the ones right here. Here are the recipes for the Pacific Rim Burger and Warm Potato Salad with Cilantro. My motto is "you can never be too rich, or have too much cilantro." By the way, this is my third time trying to post this - the internet has disconnected midway. So third time's the charm: Pacific Rim Chicken Burgers With Ginger Mayonnaise Recipe #65297 This recipe came from Kristine Snyder, Kihei, Hawaii, and was the $25,000 grand prize winner in the National Chicken Cooking Contest. by Sharon123 4 servings 25 min 15 min prep 1 1/4 lbs ground chicken 2/3 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs) 1 egg, lightly beaten 2 green onions, thinly sliced 3 tablespoons chopped cilantro 1 clove garlic, minced 1 teaspoon asian hot chili sauce 1 teaspoon salt 1 tablespoon vegetable oil 1/2 cup bottled teriyaki sauce 4 teaspoons honey 4 hamburger buns with sesame seeds, split and toasted 4 leaves red leaf lettuce 1 cucumber, peeled,seeded,halved and thinly sliced lengthwise Ginger Mayonnaise 1/2 cup mayonnaise 2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger 2 teaspoons lime juice 1 clove garlic, minced 1/4 teaspoon salt MIX chicken, panko, egg, onions, cilantro, garlic, chili sauce and salt in a large bowl. With oiled hands, form into 4 patties. Mix together teriyaki glaze and honey in a small bowl. In large nonstick fry pan over medium high heat, place 1 tablespoon oil. Add chicken and cook, turning and brushing with teriyaki glaze, about 10 minutes or until done. PLACE burgers on toasted buns and top with lettuce, cucumber and Ginger Mayonnaise (recipe follows). Garnish with additional cilantro and cucumber slices. Ginger Mayonnaise: MIX 1/2 cup mayonnaise, 2 teaspoons sweet pickle relish, 2 teaspoons minced fresh ginger, 2 teaspoons lime juice, 1 clove garlic, minced and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. My notes: omit the salt. The teriyaki sauce already has plenty. And one cup of teriyaki/honey mixture is way more than you need. I used less than half. The recipe also makes more ginger mayo than you need, but it's delicious on fish and other things. Warm Potato Salad with Cilantro: 2 lbs. waxy potatoes (like red bliss) scrubbed kosher salt 1/2 cup evoo 1/2 tsp. fine grated lemon zest 3 tBS. lemon juice fresh ground pepper 1/2 cup lightly packed chopped cilantro 2 scallions (white and green parts) thinly sliced (or 1 shallot minced) Bring potatoes to boil in large pot of salted water. Then lower to simmer. Cook, partially covered, until tender when piecered with a fork - about 25 minutes. Drain and let cook slightly. While the potatoes are warm, slice them about 1/4 inch thick (no need to peel, but discard pieces of skin that come off on their own). Put half the potatoes ina large serving bowl. In a small bowl, whisk the oil, lemon zest and juice, 1 tsp kosher salt, and several grinds of pper. Drizzle half the dressing over the potatoes. Add the remaining potatoes to the bowl, drizzle the rest of the dressing, and toss gently with a large rubber spatula to combine well. Add teh cilantro and scallions and toss gently again. Taste and add more salt as needed. serve warm or at room temperature. I better submit this before it disappears. Thanks Michelle for putting this together. Lynn. PS okay I'm tempting fate by continuing to type, but I have to mention that the idea of having oil on your hands when forming the chicken patties was fabulous. It gave the patties just enough oil to bind them and protect them in cooking. Anyone else ever heard of this technique?

The only reason I’d try sous vide is that the dogs would marinate in their own juices (“purge” is what the cool kids call it) and then get grilled with a coating of that liquid, which I could also reduce down and spice up for a glaze . . . I did about 30 lb of ribs for a party last year. Sous vided in gallon freezer bags with aromatics, salt, sugar, spice, all bags hanging in a cooler that I’d prefilled with hot water. if They spent 12 hours under sous vide, then when I got an “order” for ribs I just grabbed a bag and grilled for ten minutes. This worked well with my limited grill area. I might try similar with the dogs. Hmm, will have to plan the right soundtrack. To pay homage to the Top Dog of my college days, it would be Jimi Hendrix, Grateful Dead, Neil Young, Talking Heads, Steely Dan, Elvis Costello, Pretenders, and the other stuff we were listening to then. I was a Top Dog regular again in 1997-1999, when I returned to Cal for grad school. Things were different, Telegraph had been taken over by chain stores and bubble tea shops, most of the bookstores were gone, only one record shop left, maybe one head shop. The college kids, and they were kids to me, looked a lot more serious and strained. Not so much free spirited kids with sandals and philosophy books. The average kid was an Asian teen, humping a huge backpack of books like a Marine on patrol, grimly trying to maintain a “B” average against 30,000 of the smartest kids in the world. Top Dog was a little bit of the Berkeley of my youth, but I wasn’t. One night a friend and I went to Top Dog, it was about 1 am, we were both in tuxedos, someone called me “sir”, I felt old and gray :-(