Ted's Steamed Cheeseburgers

We decided to take a road trip up to Meriden, CT to experience Ted's Steamed Cheeseburgers. We've seen it featured on various foodie shows like Man vs. Food, the Travel Channel -100 Best Things to Eat, Food Network and even saw little blurbs of write ups in the local paper. What the heck, we were finally getting some beautiful weather and nothing better than a road trip to find our next meal.

Ted's is a place that was established in 1959 and steamed cheeseburgers are a local specialty. The burgers and cheese are cooked in a metal tray that is placed into a metal steamer box. The meat cooks in its owned juices and the cheese gets all gooey. It comes out and is placed on a roll with your choice of condiments. Unlike the Soup Nazi, we were able to order any combination that we wanted. Matthew and I ordered our standard, lettuce, tomato with a slab of raw onion. Tony skipped the lettuce, tomato and raw onion and ordered it with sautéed onions and mushrooms.

Last summer, we took a ride up to Louis' Lunch in New Haven, CT, the birthplace of the original hamburger. Louis' has a more dictatorial style. You can only get it one way and that is absolutely no ketchup and just lettuce, tomato with onion and cheese. Nothing else is offered. You can't even get french fries with that. You will get potato salad. No negotiations.

We liked both and we'll probably have to do this road trip again....just to do another tasting so we can make up our minds.

Whoosh

I can't believe that the summer is drawing to a close. It seems like it was just yesterday that Matthew got out of middle school and graduated. I spent the summer working from home and drove Matthew daily to his volunteer job. He spent most of the summer working at Pipers Hill, his former child care center. He was assigned to work with the two to three year olds and found out first hand, how much work little kids can be. Not to mention, he would come home every day with kiddie snot all over his clothes. Nevertheless, he was a real good egg. Armed with his supply of hand sanitizer, he had a good time with the kids. One of the kids drew a picture of Matthew and it's now hanging in his room. Quite cute.

We also had visitors as well. My sister Sandi and nephew Nicholas came to visit and we had a great reunion. Matthew even took Nicholas to work one day. Kind of like a show and tell display. Tony's cousin Laura and her son, Simone, came to visit from Milan, Italy and we did the usual sight seeing and spent some quality time with them as well.

The weather this summer was hot and humid and then we were hit with a barrage of non-stop rain. Tony and I scheduled some vacation time and did some touristy things as well. We stampeded into New York and set upon exploring Central Park. Something I haven't done in a very long time and Tony and Matthew never really experienced the real beauty of Central Park. We picked a beautiful day, packed up a picnic lunch and wandered all over the place. Starting off at Columbus Circle, we strolled all the way up the West side of the park and then cut over to the East side and exited out through Grand Army Plaza. We strolled down Fifth Avenue, I got to window shop along the way and walked over to Rockefeller Center and then continued down to Times Square. Total mileage clocked that day, 6.75 miles, complete with barking dogs.

Now, the summer is drawing to a close. Labor Day is around the corner, Matthew will be starting high school before the end of the month and I dread thinking about the fall and winter season that will be upon us.