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Say the word burger and I imagine one of those big restaurant ones with cheddar, garlic-butter mushrooms, and crispy, breaded onion straws. This is good for a treat, but I was hearing this burger’s siren song once a week — not good for the wallet or the waistline. And so the search began with a simple Facebook post: “Anyone have a burger recipe (turkey or beef, hopefully healthy) that will make me scorn restaurant burgers? Please share.”

In an hour or so, I had at least a dozen responses. There are lots of theories about what makes for a great burger. Some say you need to flip it at the right moment, while others warn about smashing down as it cooks. Some say it is the grill, others say it is the meat. I’m definitely learning a thing or two about how to build a better burger. Here’s what I’ve found in my search for the best burger ever:
HEAT MATTERS: You can cook an excellent burger on the stove or on an outdoor grill. The key is heat. Pre-heat your grill pan or skillet so the patties will sizzle when they go. With grills, the better your control of the heat, the better the result. I would say tools are important, too, but I think it may be finding the right tools to make you a better cook. We’ve had better results from stainless steel grates than cast-iron, and for us, a high-quality gas grill gave us better control than a charcoal grill. Indirect cooking methods and the right level of heat made for tender, juicy patties as opposed to hamburger pucks. You may find the opposite.

SEASONING MATTERS: Burgers cook beautifully with most any recipe. But, the wow factor is personal taste, pure and simple. A ranch burger (ranch dressing mix with ground beef or turkey and maybe shredded cheese) got raves from friends. The burgers came off the grill juicy and ready to eat. And, I took one bite and almost spit it out — preferring simple seasoning salt, or a bit of Worcestershire. My favorite health-boosting tip was to mix in diced tomatoes or zucchini—an excellent use of farmers’ market bounty.

SHAPE MATTERS: There was some debate about the best type of meat to use—100 percent grass-fed buffalo and beef or organic turkey were recommended for being earth-friendly and humanely raised. And, some swear the flavor is better. I found that my perfect patty had little to do with whether it was 93 percent lean ground sirloin or grass-fed buffalo. I simply looked for something fairly lean and within my budget. The key is to shape the patties by hand and create a small dip in the center of each one. The burger shrinks as it cooks. That thinner center ensures the end result is a flat patty with no cracked edges.

MAGIC ONION BURGER TOPPER

• Pretty much everyone agreed that grilled onions were a must. So, I took my favorite onion recipe—the Magic Onion which was first shared with me by Tessa Leung, owner of Söntés in Rochester—and turned it into a quick and easy version for the stovetop.
• 1 onion
• 2 tablespoons salted butter
• 1 beef bouillon cube
• Dice that onion. Cook it in a frying pan with the butter with the bouillon cube until onions are soft and starting to burn just a little bit. Serve this with your other favorite burger toppings—bleu cheese is a popular partner to slightly sweet grilled onions.

THE BEST BURGER EVER (SO FAR)

• 1 pound ground beef
• 1 packet onion soup mix
• 2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 tablespoons Jack Daniels No. 7 Barbecue Sauce
• Mix it all together and form into patties. This makes 4-6 burgers. “Make them large and use Kaiser rolls and garnish with condiments and vegetables of your choice,” says Dennis Casey of Burnsville, who shared this recipe with me. He uses ground sirloin and says onion soup is the trick. He also adds hot sauce to taste. I’d say part of the magic is the smoky barbecue flavor from the Jack Daniels sauce.

 

Sarah Tieck is a Burnsville writer.

Not everyone would have seen the potential of a narrow strip of land, sandwiched between two bodies of water along northern Lake Minnetonka. To build a house on a lot so restricted by bluff and shoreline seemed foolish to former owners.

But doctors David Feldshon and Archelle Georgiou saw what few others could see – their dream house.

Their white stucco home conjures images of the Mediterranean with its red tile roof and lofty vantage. Inside, the house is an ode to the doctors’ ethnic roots and neo-classical tastes.

“We both came from immigrant families without a lot, and we feel like the house is a reflection of everything they gave us, combined with our hard work of bringing it to this,” says Georgiou, 49, a health care consultant. “It’s really the crystallization of everything from the American dream to just working hard.”

Built in 2003, the house is a stunner. Perching over well-manicured landscaping and tiered patios where the couple and three daughters often eat summer meals, the 6,500-square-foot house is a peaceful retreat from everyday life.

For Feldshon, 60, a gastroenterologist, its lake location brings back childhood memories of fishing from the Long Island pier.

“To me, it’s just the ultimate kind of living when you’re on water,” Feldshon says.

Well designed

The East Coast natives, who met while practicing medicine in San Francisco, moved to Minnesota in 1997 when Georgiou became United Health Group’s chief medical officer.

The adjustment wasn’t easy for the couple or their daughters, Ariel and Athena, now 22 and 19, (Zoey wasn’t born yet), and at times, the Feldshons contemplated moving back to California.

But in 2001, they decided, instead of leaving, they would bring a piece of what they considered home to Minnesota.

Within a month, the Feldshons had sold their Eden Prairie house and soon after found a narrow lot between Tanger Lake and Brown’s Bay in Orono, which had been vacant since 1996. They tapped luxury homebuilder Keith Waters to design their dream house.

Waters encouraged the couple to think about how they lived, moved, and entertained in their home. With a meticulous eye and attention to detail, the Feldshons spent a year designing the house on paper before breaking ground in June 2002.

“We wanted them to think about how they’re going to use the spaces and not what they’re named,” Waters says.

Looking back, Georgiou and Feldshon say the time was well spent, for when they moved into the house the night before Thanksgiving 2003, it was exactly what they wanted.

“It was like a dream come true for us,” Georgiou says.

In the details

Running the length of the house is a wide galley with limestone floors, Doric columns and floor-to-ceiling windows, reminiscent of a colonnade.

To the left, a formal living and dining room welcome guests with dramatic drapes and special finishes, like an under-lit onyx sideboard.

The family room sits at the back of the house with large comfortable furniture and within close proximity to the kitchen and family office, known as “home central.”

“We deliberately put [the office] next to the kitchen because that’s where all the activity takes place, so I can sit there and do my work and hear everything that’s going on,” Feldshon says.

The natural flow between rooms was intentional, as was the balance between formal and informal living, according to Georgiou. The house is ideal for both formal and casual entertaining, she says, noting she threw 22 parties the first year living in the house.

“We love contrast, visually and how we live our life,” she explains. “So we’ll have really formal dinners, and we’ll have really casual dinners, and we wanted all of those options.”

What immediately stands out is the attention to detail. From custom painted cabinets that match the iron railings to coved lighting and walls painted to look like wallpaper, nothing was overlooked.

“[The Feldshons] are really into details and they have a really good eye for design,” Waters says.

Georgiou credits the look to designer Ramsey Engler, who came on board in March 2003 and put her whole firm on the project.

Upstairs, each bedroom has its own personality with special details, such as the handmade seashell mirror in daughter Athena’s room and crystals hanging from lamps and window treatments.

Georgiou calls the house’s style neoclassical, and with 18 columns and dozens of arches, it definitely evokes images of the Mediterranean.

For example, above the family room fireplace hangs a 7-foot painting by Italian Nazario Fusco, commissioned specifically for the house. The Feldshons came upon Nazario’s work during an anniversary trip to the Amalfi Coast. The piece, Fusco’s largest ever, took him four months to complete and depicts a village staircase.

Family roots

More than just an ideal space, the Feldshons’ home also honors the family’s past.

An alcove off the foyer celebrates the Feldshon roots as photographs and immigration papers from the family’s 1920s entry into the United States flank the Feldshon’s grandfather’s refurbished rabbi chair.

Georgiou’s Greek roots are evident in the basement’s rustic family room, complete with white-washed walls and a large semicircle fireplace that wouldn’t be out of place in her family’s ancestral home island of Rhodes.

Georgiou’s mother’s hope chest (her first purchase after immigrating to the U.S.) and her father’s sewing machine where he made his living as a tailor are also displayed.

“We can’t go to Greece very often, but we can come down here,” she says.

Georgiou and Feldshon agree their Lake Minnetonka house is the result of a lot of hard work, sacrifice, and risk by them and their parents. It’s something they don’t take for granted.

“We really feel blessed to be able to be in this home,” Georgiou says. “It’s just a house, but what it symbolizes to us is so important.”

Kristin Holtz is a writer and editor for Southwest Newspapers, which publishes Dockside Minnesota.

The Minnesota Lake Maritime Museum in Alexandria is paying tribute to the sport of duck hunting through a collection of boats, hunting memorabilia, vintage photos, and an original John House painting. The exhibit includes rare duck boats and decoys, including wooden decoys from the Minnesota Decoy Foundation Collection. The exhibit runs through October.

Also on display at the Minnesota Lake Maritime Museum is an exhibit on famous boat builder and racer, Garfield “Gar” Wood, as well as the largest Chris Craft display in the Midwest.

The museum, which celebrates the Minnesota lake tradition, is open mid-May through mid-October. It includes classic boats, grand hotel and resort history, fishing memorabilia, and much more.
Learn more about the museum at mnlakesmaritime.org/museum.cfm.