In my initial blog about my Networked Learning Project, I described using Yummly and Pinterest to find 3 recipes I wanted to try. Being that July is National Grilling Month, it seemed only appropriate that I chose burger recipes.
After arriving home from the Big Ten 10K race in Chicago this weekend, I headed straight to the grocery store to gather my ingredients. As seen on the right, my grocery list was itemized based on the sections of the store I could find things in.
Part of my purpose in this project is to master simple, inexpensive recipes that I can make during the school year. Given how expensive the Quinoa ingredients were, I decided to narrow down my grilling to chicken and turkey burgers only.
https://vine.co/v/eg3Wt9FUntM/embed/simple
My shopping adventure, as Vined above, mostly involved milling around the fresh foods section. As a fruit and veggie lover, this portion of my trip was non-threatening. The struggle, was mainly in my quest to find ground chicken and turkey, as well as panko bread crumbs.
Finally, it was time to cook! I wanted to cut the recipe, so that I could create trial burgers, but I found this was difficult to do. Ultimately, I did a lot of math, and a little bit of guessing. I have never worked with meat like this before, and I was really worried about my ability to create something edible.
As seen in this bowl:
- Ground Turkey
- Red Onion
- Egg
- Spinach
- Minced Garlic
- Feta Cheese
- Sun Dried Tomatos
- Salt & Pepper
- Oregano
Once I had my ingredients in the bowl, measured and ready, I shaped my burgers and threw them on the grill.
In his book, The Anti-Education ERA: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning, James Paul Gee describes simulation, and human consideration of our actions. Gee (2013) describes that we “act in [our] heads” and “recombine elements of former experiences in imaginary scenes to speculate on what might happen and what the consequences might be” (p. 11). In this project, I used my prior knowledge of watching my mom make burgers, to help me simulate how I should create this meal.
While I could simulate some of this project, other pieces required reaching out to my online networks. With the burgers on the grill, I realized that I didn’t have a grill timeline ready (yikes!). I went to Google, and after looking through advice from Jennie-O, the Food Network, and Wikipedia, decided that the Jennie-O recommended 20 minutes was the safest bet.
I have to admit, it was tempting to ask my mom questions throughout this process. It was a challenge for me to utilize the online resources rather than the resource right in my house, but it also was empowering for me to truly create this meal on my own.
The moment of truth. During this process, I second guessed myself, and worried that I wouldn’t really be able to create something that other people liked.
I am happy to report, however, the burger tasted pretty good. I plan to tweak the recipe and go for a second run at it later in the week. I also plan to test out the Chicken Avocado Burger this week, whose recipe appears to be simpler.
Stay tuned, the finalized recipes and how-to’s are coming soon!
Credit to:
Gee, J. (2013). The Anti-Education ERA: Creating Smarter Students Through Digital Learning (First ed.). New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan.
Ms. Edwards' TechSpace 
[…] sites for safe grilling techniques and cooking my burgers, I reported my initial progress in my Networked Learning Update Post. In that first trial of my cooking, I found that it was quite simple to create these burgers. To […]
LikeLike