Green Beans (String Beans)

Ingredients
1 pound green beans
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 of a Yellow Onion

Directions

1. Fill a saucepan with a cup of water and set to medium-high heat. Chop ends of green beans and throw away, chop remaining green beans into 1-inch pieces.
2. Add green beans into saucepan, adding salt, pepper, and onion.
3. Cook green beans down until onion starts to come apart. Turn down to medium-low heat until most of the water is cooked down.

Hamburger Patty

Ingredients
Ground Chuck (I used 80/20 lean/fat here, but you can use 75/25 or 90/10)
Lipton Onion Soup Mix (optional)
Salt and Pepper for taste (if you don't use the onion soup mix)

Directions

1. Place a tablespoon of oil in a cast iron skillet on medium-high heat.
2. Season your hamburger (either with onion soup mix or salt and pepper) and form your patty.
3. Add hamburger to skillet when it is hot. Cook for 3-4 minutes and flip, turning down the heat to medium. Let it cook for 3-4 minutes.
4. You can cook the hamburger to your liking (the hamburger pictured was cooked at medium-well). When at desired result, take out of the skillet.

Enjoy!

So the way that my mother taught me how to make rice was to boil rice in water and salt in a pot, drain the rice, run hot water through the rice in the colander (to rinse the rice of the starch), and return it to the pot to let it steam. I wanted to research a different way of making white rice and I came across a recipe that involved the "simmer-and-steam" method. I thought, "What is this?" but I tried it myself and thought it was an easier method that what I was taught.

What you will need to make the rice:

1 cup of long-grain white rice
1 1/2 cups of water
1/2 teaspoon of salt
Saucepan
Strainer

Directions

1. Put water in saucepan and bring to a boil.

2. While water is getting to a boil, put the rice in the strainer and run water through it until the water is clear. This is to rinse the starch in the rice.

3. When the water comes to a boil, add the rice and salt, stirring gently. 

4. Cover the saucepan with the lid and turn the heat down to a simmer (low) for 18-20 minutes, until most of the water is absorbed.

5. Take the saucepan off of the heat and let it steam for 10 minutes. Fluff with a fork and it is ready to serve!