A quinoa burger catastrophe and the better mushroom gravy

I wanted to try out a new veggie burger recipe, this one using quinoa for the grain to add that extra protein to the mix. Here's what came out:

They were tasty but decidedly less burger-y than I would have liked. In fact, if you so much as touch the things, they disintegrate. Somehow, though, I managed to collect the bits of my burger and envelope them in a pita.

It was all very sloppy joe-like but without the tomato sauce. I was less than satisfied. See, I'm not even bothering to include the recipe. You don't want it.

Trust me.

On the post-holiday front, I did discover a way to fix my mushroom gravy. It always comes out a bit thin and takes a lot of corn starch to make presentable. Not any more.

Instead of 1 cup of mushrooms, I used two. Thickened things right up. Put it on top of some whipped taters with green bean casserole on the side, you've got yourself a nice solstice feast.

Here's to a new year where the gravy's thick and the burgers stick together. Mazel tov!