Dear Sun Spots: Last Spring, one of the “Cooks of the Week” had a recipe for hamburg patties with a garlic butter wrapped inside it. I could not find it online searching back issues – I presume because it is too long ago. Thanks. – Karen Choate, Lewiston.

Answer: The recipe you are seeking ran in our Wednesday, June 22, 2005, Cook of the Week column. Hopefully you and other readers will enjoy the following:

Diane’s gourmet burger

Ingredients: 2 pounds fresh (not previously frozen) 85 percent lean hamburger, 8 quality hamburger rolls, 1 pound softened butter, 1 head garlic (not a clove – the entire head), 1 tablespoon sun-dried tomatoes (in a jar in olive oil), drained, 2 tablespoons fresh basil, chopped, 1 teaspoon kosher salt (other salt may be substituted), 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper. Method: Unwrap butter, place in a bowl and bring to room temperature. Cut top off a head of garlic and place in 350-degree oven. Bake for 30 minutes or until garlic is very soft. Cool for 15 minutes and squeeze garlic into softened butter. Add sun-dried tomatoes and basil to bowl with garlic butter and mix thoroughly by hand. On a 2-foot sheet of wax paper or parchment paper, spoon out butter mixture to form a log about 2 inches in diameter; roll tightly using the paper to form the log. Take the paper-wrapped butter and wrap it in plastic wrap and place in freezer for at least 4 hours. Divide hamburger into 8 equal portions Slice the frozen butter into ½-inch slices and place in the center of the burger, making sure to completely surround the frozen butter with hamburger to seal it. Sprinkle burgers with kosher salt and ground pepper on both sides. Preheat grill to medium heat; place burgers on grill and reduce the heat to low, cook for approximately 5 minutes or until moisture forms on the top, then flip them and cook for an additional 4 to 5 minutes.

In addition, regarding your online search for this recipe: Sun Spots was able to bring up the above recipe from the Sun Journal’s Web site and hopes the following steps will help you and other readers with future back issue searches.

• Starting at the Sun Journal Web site home page, at www.sunjournal.com, click on “Search and Back Issues” in the left-hand column.

• Type in keywords that appear in the article you are looking for. In this example, Sun Spots typed in “hamburger garlic butter” without the quotation marks.

• Select the category, in this case I knew it was “Cook of the Week” but this can be left at the “select category” choice if the category is unknown.

• Choose a start date and end date by clicking on the little calendar icon, clicking the left or right arrows in the calendar dialog box that comes up, and then clicking the desired day of the month. For this example, because you mentioned it ran last spring, Sun Spots chose April 1, 2005 as a start date, and June 30, 2005 as an end date.

• Click “Search.” This particular search brought up 26 results, one of which is “Picnic Perfect Grillin’,” which is the “Cook of the Week” article and recipe that you were looking for.

One tip: The more related keywords you use in your search, and the smaller window of calendar time you use will help narrow down your search results. For this example, Sun Spots also used a calendar range from April 1, 2005, to May 29, 2006, which brought up 115 results.

Dear Sun Spots: Donations to help with the request to raise money for a Veterans Park memorial bench, from the Monday, May 29, Sun Spots column, can be sent to: Community Credit Union, c/o Nancy Cunningham and the Daniel F. Cunningham Jr. Memorial Fund, 144 Pine St., Lewiston, ME 04240. Thank you. – Richard Winchester, Lewiston.

This column is for you, our readers. It is for your questions and comments. There are only two rules: You must write to the column and sign your name (we won’t use it if you ask us not to). Letters will not be returned or answered by mail, and telephone calls will not be accepted. Your letters will appear as quickly as space allows. Address them to Sun Spots, P.O. Box 4400, Lewiston, ME 04243-4400. Inquiries can also be posted at www.sunjournal.com in the Advice section under Opinion on the left-hand corner of your computer screen. In addition, you can e-mail your inquiries to sunspots@sunjournal.com.

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