Easy designer burger topped with red
caramelized onions and lettuce and tomato
lightly dressed with vinaigrette. Photo
courtesy Built Burger.

No matter how good your ground meat and buns are, they’re just a starting point to creating a memorable signature burger.

A signature burger adds special condiments and toppings—and perhaps a special bread—to the basic burger. There are as many variations as there are ingredients on the shelf.

We’ve made it easy to create your own special burger. Take a look at almost 50 recipe ideas for hamburgers, turkey burgers and veggie burgers. There are separate checklists to build your own, from:

 
If you’re inspired to create more than one type of burger, consider making smaller sliders, so guests can taste one of each.

Just don’t read the article when you’re hungry: It will make your mouth water.

If you’ve never had creme honey before, it’s a real treat. In many countries around the world, creme honey is preferred to the liquid/syrup form and is used instead of jelly or jam.

Creme honey (also known as churned honey, cremed honey, honey fondant, sugared honey, spun honey and whipped honey) is brought to market in a finely crystallized state.

While all honey will crystallize over time, creme honey is intentionally crystallized via a controlled process so that, at room temperature, the honey can be spread like butter.

Honey, a natural product, is better for you than refined sugar-laden jam. And honey has a lower glycemic index than sugar.

Use creme honey:

 
Treat yourself to our favorite creme honey, from Honey Ridge Farms:

 
The line is certified kosher parve by Oregon Kosher.

More About Honey

 
FOOD TRIVIA
What’s the difference between creme and cream? Why is it creme honey instead of cream honey?

Crème, pronounced KREHM, is the French word for cream. In America, French recipes were served at the tables of the wealthy, many of whom knew how to pronounce crème de légumes (mixed cream of vegetable soup).

As these recipes entered the mainstream, people who did not know French began to pronounce crème as cream. Some people dispensed with the accent mark, and now we have a mashup of French and English. If you were to write “cream honey,” you would not be incorrect; however, the industry has adopted crème or creme.

The word for honey in French is “miel” (pronounced mee-EL).

But black, green, oolong and white teas, which come from the plant Camellia sinensis, are also herbs themselves.

According to Chinese legend, in 2737 B.C.E., Emperor Shen Nong discovered tea by accident.

While boiling drinking water in the garden (a standard safety practice in the millennia prior to safe water systems), a leaf from an overhanging wild tea tree drifted into his pot—inadvertently brewing the first pot of tea. (Here’s more on the history of tea.)

While you probably can’t grow a tea tree or bush in your home or garden*, you can grow other herbs that steep into delicious “herbal” teas.

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*If you live in a hot, moist climate, you can try it. Tea grows in temperatures ranging from 50°F to 86°F, in areas with an average yearly rainfall of 787 inches and an elevation of between 2000 and 6500 feet above sea level.

Herbs To Grow For Tea
Most herbs have some type of homeopathic quality—but grow and brew the flavors you prefer. Take a look at:

 
How To Brew Fresh Herb Tea

1. PLUCK and rinse the herbs.

2. CRUSH them in your hand to release the essential oils.

3. ADD the leaves to a cup or pot and cover with boiling water to steep, for three minutes or longer. Use 3 teaspoons of herbs per cup of water (if the herbs are dried, 1 teaspoon per cup of water).

4. ENJOY the tea hot or iced.

Suggestions From Experts

August is National Water Quality Month.

Whether you rely on tap water, bottled water or both, celebrate it by learning more about this substance without which no life form can live. Clean drinking water (called potable water) is essential to humans and other life forms.

However, about a billion people around the world have no access to potable water. The unhealthy water they drink results in every tragedy from blindness to mortality.

You may wish to celebrate National Water Quality Month by making a donation to CharityWater.org. Just $20 means clean water for one child or adult. You can also support the cause by purchasing an attractive Gelaskin for your phone, iPod or laptop.

Learn more about the water you drink:

Healthful and flavorful, Beanitos are a
better-for-you chip. Photo by Jaclyn
Nussbaum | THE NIBBLE.

Serve Beanitos Bean Chips.

We first wrote about this flavorful bean chip—think bean dip in a chip form—some 18 months ago. They’ve become a favorite snacking chip at THE NIBBLE, so much so that they’re our Top Pick Of The Week.

For Labor Day, serve them with black or refried bean dip, tomato salsa or black bean salsa.

 
Dip Recipes To Serve With Beanitos