Children really do the darnedest things, don’t they? Bob is excited after installing his new soft-serve ice cream machine, with grand plans of the Belcher kids running the soft-serve counter all summer long. Meanwhile, Linda struggles with her over-helping personality, which the kids have taken advantage of (paper writing, mask making, dream journaling).
On this day the kids take it too far, as Louise devises a plan to get them all out of Phys Ed class for the remainder of the year: Independent Study. Tina chimes in at the wrong moment, and suddenly the Belchers find themselves at the community pool with Linda leading their synchronized swimming class.
An impromptu grading by the school district — with a failing score sending the kids to summer school — leads to Bob taking over, a fake anthrax scare, and a doodie in the pool (a real one named Jezebel). Linda “dives” in in the knick of time, leading the crew through a routine and to a D average grade — and no summer school. Go Team Soft Serve!
Before we get to the Burger of the Day, let’s get to the episode rundown:
Episode number: S02E03
Next-door neighbor: Pookah Pagoda Pookah Shell Warehouse
Vermin Vendor: RattyShack
Burger of the Day: Do the Brussel Burger (comes with brussel sprouts)
Review
The Do the Brussel Burger is an all-beef patty topped with bacon, sliced brussels sprouts and roughly chopped pistachios, doused in sour cream, and nestled between to regular hamburger buns.
I was excited for this burger, and interested to see how brussels sprouts in a burger would work. The answer: Well! The brussels sprouts and pistachios are pan fried in the bacon grease, giving them a crunchy and savory kick. This burger has crunch going on at every level — other than the sour cream. Our first go-around included toasted buns, but we left the buns as-is for round two and it all worked much better.
Our improvisation for the next time we make this burger: drain the pan of bacon grease before throwing in the brussels sprouts and pistachios — both cooked really quickly and got a little burnt. Instead of sour cream, I think a nice slice of Havarti cheese and a spread of mayonnaise on the top bun would add some savoriness and taste — it is so easy for bacon to override the rest of any burger, especially one with two other ingredients cooked in bacon grease. BACON BACON BACON!
And make sure your burger doesn’t get dry with this one — there is enough crunch in the rest of the burger, you want to offset it with a juicy patty.
Silly side note: the recipe listing calls for green leaf lettuce, but it isn’t actually on the burger. Copy-editing error! Or, as Tina would say, “NONCANNONICAL!”
Grade (out of 5)
nate N carey 