Classy. To a Point.

This somewhat blurry photograph proves two things about the Oops! team:

1. We don't need a man to light our fireplace

and

2. We're always keeping it classy. To a point. What's classier than playing Zelda in a Traverse City penthouse? Playing it next to a roaring fire.

We're hoping you've checked out our recent comeback post about sweet potato curry burgers. Pancake expertly crafted tender, savory patties that each of us could JAZZ UP to our liking. And jazz up we did. I'm going to break down for you, dear reader, how you can boost the sophistication on your plate with some classy ingredients.

First, we started with some infused extra-virgin olive oil. Ours came from Fustini's, but it's super easy to infuse your own - just stuff some aromatic shit in a bottle of oil!

Secondly, braise your greens.

Braise –verb (used with object), braised, brais·ing. to cook (meat, fish, or vegetables) by sautéeing in fat and then simmering slowly in very little liquid

Sounds classy, doesn't it? Here at Oops! we avoid meat and fish, but we eat a LOT of kale. This champion of greens gets especially tasty when the weather turns to winter. To top our burger, we used Dinosaur kale, sauteed with ginger and braised in vegetable stock for 15 minutes or so.

Thirdly, don't just use regular onions in your dish- use carmelized onions instead. Caramelizing onions is easy! Just coat the suckers in your infused olive oil and cook over low heat, stirring often, until they look toasty brown and taste like candy.




We started the onions before anything else, and kept them going until everything was complete. What I'm trying to say is that they cooked for probably 40 minutes or so while we created our bean burger patties, braised the kale, toasted the bread, and drank a glass of wine or two.

Wine? Classy.

Another elegant ingredient we added to our burgers was roasted bell peppers - you may have noticed them peeking out beneath the delicious patty. Roasted bell peppers come either in a jar at the store or from your own oven, where they can be charred to your liking.

Are you noticing a pattern yet? To create swank, all you need to do is take normal ingredients and bump them one notch. ROASTED peppers. BRAISED kale. INFUSED oil. Fancy sea salt flakes, a garnish of cilantro, and scattered pomegranate seeds were also a part of this meal. All you need, in the end, is a little attitude.