Stout Burgers with IPA Glazed Onions & Smoky Pale Ale Cheese Sauce

This is a totally beerific burger!  I combined several yummy beer infused recipes and the end result was intoxicatingly delicious!  Not really intoxicating despite all the beer used in the recipe.  But super tasty, for sure!

The beer makes the burgers incredible moist and juicy.  Have a pile of napkins ready!

I used Saranac Imperial Stout.  It is a well rounded stout that adds nice flavor to the meat without overpowering the other ingredients.  

Stout Burgers 
With IPA Glazed Onions & Smoky Pale Ale Cheese Sauce

1 Pound Ground Beef
2 Tbsp Onion, Finely Chopped
3 Cloves Garlic, Minced
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce
1 Teaspoon Salt
1/4 Teaspoon Ground Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon Tabasco Sauce
1/4 Cup Stout

2 Kaiser Rolls
1 Cup Smoky Pale Ale Cheese Sauce (Recipe here)
1 Cup IPA Glazed Onions (Recipe here)  

In a large bowl, combine the ground beef with all ingredients in list up to and including the stout.  Mix gently but thoroughly.  Try not to work the meat more than necessary as it will make the burgers tough.

Gently form into two patties.

Grill burgers to desired temperature.  

Place burgers on the rolls.  Top with the beer glazed onions and cheese sauce.

Enjoy

Note:  I make these burgers really big.  You could get away with making this same recipe into four smaller burgers, if you want to.  Although, I can't imagine why you would.  ☺

Cheddarburger with Jalapeño-Garlic Remoulade

Prepare your mouth for a flavor explosion.  This is a delicious burger topped with a spicy sauce of jalapenos and garlic.


Cheddarburger with Jalapeño-Garlic Remoulade


8 Jalapeno Peppers, Halved & Seeded
8 Garlic Cloves, Peeled 
2 Tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Sea Salt And Fresh Ground Pepper
1 Pound Ground Beef
4 Kayser Rolls, Split
4 Slices Sharp Cheddar Cheese


Coat the bottom a medium sized skillet with the olive. Add the garlic and jalapeños. Cover and cook over low heat, turning the jalapeños occasionally, until they are blistered all over and the garlic is softened, about 15 minutes.  Season with salt and pepper.  Turn up heat to medium.  Cook until garlic begins to caramelize.

Remove the skillet from heat to allow garlic and peppers to cool.   


Transfer the jalapeños and garlic to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Scrape the sauce into a bowl and set aside.


Preheat a grill for medium heat (I use a George Foreman Grill).  When hot, lightly oil the grate. 

Divide the ground beef into 4 portions and form into patties.  Grill to desired temperature.





While the burgers are cooking smear a healthy spoonful of spoonful of jalapeño-garlic remoulade onto the bottom bun.  Place a slice of cheddar on top of the sauce and another on the lid.  

When the burgers are done place on the bun, top with the lid and serve.

Jalapeno Popper Burgers

Picture this:  A big juice hamburger stuff with cream cheese and fresh jalapenos on a potato roll and topped with a slice of cheddar cheese.  

Okay, you can stop drooling now.

Jalapeno Popper Burgers

1 cups seeded and chopped jalapeno pepper
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 pound ground beef
4 potato rolls, split
4 slices cheddar cheese

Preheat a grill for medium heat (I use a George Foreman Grill).  When hot, lightly oil the grate. 

In a food processor, quickly pulse together jalapenos and cream cheese.

Divide the ground beef into 8 portions and pat out each one to 1/4 inch thickness. Spoon some of the cream cheese mixture onto the center of 4 of the patties. 

Top with the remaining patties, pressing the edges together to seal.

Grill for about 10 minutes per side, or until well done, taking care not to press down on the burgers as they cook. This will make the cheese ooze out. 

Serve on buns and top with cheddar cheese.  Add whatever other toppings you like.

Chicken-fried Bacon Cheeseburger

This is no lo-cal burger . . . this is pure artery clogging indulgence . . . but oh so good!

Chicken-fried Bacon Cheeseburger  

Peanut Oil For Deep-Frying

2 Pounds 80% Lean Ground Beef 

Salt And Pepper

4 Large Eggs

1 1/2 Cups Heavy Cream

All-Purpose Flour For Dredging

Hamburger Buns

Bacon

American Cheese

Preheat peanut oil in a heavy skillet over high heat to 375 degrees. Form the meat into five to six patties. Season liberally with salt and pepper.

Whisk the eggs and cream together in a shallow bowl. Put the flour in a separate bowl. 

Dredge each of the hamburger patties in the flour and brush off the excess then dunk the into the egg and cream mixture . . . repeat three times per patty.

Carefully place the burgers in the oil, being careful not to overcrowd. 

Cook the burgers for 4 to 5 minutes per side or until the crust is golden brown. While the burgers are cooking, butter and lightly toast the buns.

Top with bacon and cheddar cheese.  Top with whatever other toppings you like.

Print Recipe

Burger shmurger

Hubby and I were out on our weekly date night.  Instead of going for our usual wings and beer place, we went to a local restaurant that has some of the best and most inventive hamburgers around . . . Plan B. 

The reason we went there was because they were celebrating their one year anniversary and they were offering up all kinds of bacon fare.  Who doesn’t love bacon??

So I’m thinking a bacon burger would definitely be in order.  To me, a bacon burger brings to mind a ground beef patty on a bun with strips of bacon.

On the special menu was Bacon Candy Bars, Bacon Cotton Candy, and Bacon infused Bourbon cocktails but the one menu item that caught our attention was the Divine Swine . . . a burger made with 100% ground bacon burger topped w/ thick sliced chicken fried bacon, bacon aioli, bourbon bacon red onion jam, and a fried egg all sandwiched in between a grilled cheese. 

That, my friends, is a bacon burger . . . BIG time!

This burger lead to a conversation about what exactly qualifies as a “burger” or a “hamburger”.

I’m not going to get all into the history of the hamburger or the multitude of people claiming to have invented . . . I already did that (click here).

Suffice to say that the hamburger came to be what we know to be a hamburger in the late 1800’s.  At that time it was called a hamburger steak, which was ground up beef served on a bun.  At some point in history it got shortened to hamburger and then simply to burger.

So, if that’s what a hamburger is then how can it be that we were enjoying a burger made of bacon? 

Well, sometime during the late 1900’s some granola crunching type invented burger made out of vegetables . . . the horror!  And then came along other alternative burgers made of turkey, chicken . . . you name it . . . oh those silly health nuts.

So, nowadays, we can have a burger made out of just about anything as long as it is prefixed by a descriptor indicating what it’s made of.

But to me . . . a burger is made from cow and it better damn well go “moo” when I bite into it!  That’s all I’m sayin’.

How was that bacon burger you may be wondering?  Hmmm . . . it was good but it was seriously over the top with all that bacon and the bacon condiments and whatnot.  But that’s what it was all about.  Bacon!

From the pages of a girly magazine

Hubby and I were recently off on yet another motorcycling adventure.  So, there we were cruising along with me taking up the rear, when he pointed with his toe at some debris lying in the middle of the road.  Thanks to his considerate  heads-up toe alert I missed it.  




As I passed it . . . a simple magazine splayed open with pages fluttering in the breeze . . . a childhood memory came flooding into my mind.  Yup, just like that.

When I was a kid I lived in the sticks of Pennsylvania on a mountain called Blue Knob.  My summer days were spent riding my bicycle, exploring the mountains and taking long walks.  If I was lucky enough to have a buck or two burning a hole in my pocket . . . a rare occasion to be sure . . . and it was a particularly hot day I would make the half mile trek up the road to Marie's Store to get a Nutty Buddy.

Marie's Store  was one of two little stores on the mountain that sold penny candy, staples and other stuff at higher than average prices.  It was either pay their prices or drive 25 miles to the nearest town.  Sometimes it was a no brainer.


The walk to Marie's . . . who happened to be the grandmother of my future brother-in-law . . . was short.  On a really, really hot day the heat would bake off the pavement smelling of the fresh tar and shale they lay down every year. 

One day, as I was walking to get my rare ice cream treat, something unusual caught my attention as I passed by the long grass and weeds growing alongside the road.  On further inspection, I discovered it was a magazine . . . the paper wrinkled and brittle from exposure to the elements.  Curious, I pulled it out with a stick to inspect it further.  As I flipped through the pages I was shocked to discover the pages were filled with dirty pictures . . .  I was 7 or 9 at the time.  My first exposure to pornography was a 70's era soft porn magazine filled with half naked women splayed out on muscle cars.  




Slightly shocked but not particularly effected, I continued on my way.  I loved those Nutty Buddy's and was a really hot day.


The funny thing is that it had apparently made some sort of impact because 35 years later that recollection poured into my brain while I cruising along on my motorcycle on a beautiful summer day . . . not unlike the one when I found that girly magazine so many many years ago.

Tube Steak Patty Melt . . . Cheesedog Cheeseburger  . . . or . . . Hot Dog Stuffed Cheeseburger

(makes one burger . . . more than enough for a hearty appetite)

1 Premium Hot Dog

1 Mozzarella String Cheese Sticks

12 Ounces Quality Ground Beef

Tony Chachere’s Creole Seasoning

Season beef with a couple teaspoons of Tony’s and mix well. Separate the beef into two equal sized patties about ½ inch thick.

Split the hot dog and brown in a bit of butter in a skillet.  Place the hot dog in the middle of a patty and place string mozzarella cheese on top of the hot dog.  

Press the edges of the beef so the meat fully covers the hot dog. Firmly form the meat around the hot dog and tightly.

Grill for about 8 minutes on each side . . . or 10 minutes total on a Forman Grill like I do.  This is not a burger you want under cooked . . . and that’s saying something from a person who likes her meat to moo when I cut into it. 

Serve on a Kaiser roll topped with American cheese and your favorite condiments.  A burger that eats like a 3 course meal.

He's 6 feet tall if he's an inch

When ever I need to measure a space . . . whether it be the garden or a room . . . I call on my husband.  Not because he's the sole proprietor of the tools in our home . . . although he'd like to think so.  It's because his tooties are exactly twelve inches long.


Believe it or not, a foot is called a foot because it is about the same size of the foot of an average grown adult man.  

However, whenever I need to figure out the length of something smaller I do not call on my pet inchworm.  Why?  Because not all inchworms . . . not even the average sized ones . . . are an inch long.  Inchworms are called inchworms because they inch along.  

The word 'inch' comes from Latin uncia meaning "one twelfth part" . . . an inch is 1/12 of a foot which is 12 inches . . . duh.


Just a bit of trivia based one my perfectly proportionally footed husband's suggestion.  

Biscuit Sliders

6 Pillsbury Grands Buttermilk Biscuits

   (Or This Recipe From A Previous Post)

6 Slices Bacon

1 Pound Lean Ground Beef

1 Tablespoon Worcestershire Sauce

1/4 Teaspoon Pepper

6 Slices Sharp Cheddar Cheese

Heat oven to 350°F. Place biscuits on cookie sheet. Bake biscuits as; cool slightly, bout 5 minutes.

In a large nonstick skillet, cook bacon over medium high heat about 5 to 7 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from skillet; discard bacon drippings.

In medium bowl, season beef with Worcestershire sauce and pepper; mix well.  Shape into 6 small patties.

In same skillet, cook patties over medium-high heat 8 to 10 minutes, turning once, or until meat thermometer inserted in center of patties reads 160°F.

Split biscuits horizontally. Top each biscuit bottom with patty, cheese slice (I like a slice of cheese on the top and the bottom, bacon and biscuit top.

 

Serve with additional condiments as desired.