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.

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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!

Homemade "White Castle" Sliders

Homemade "White Castle" Sliders

1 Packet Onion Soup Mix
2 Pounds Ground Chuck 
6 Slices American Cheese 
12 Slider Rolls
Dill Pickle Slices

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. 

Mix the ground beef with the soup mix.  

Gently press the ground beef mixture into a 9 x 13 baking dish.   Press it out evenly into a big patty. 

Stab all over with a fork. (or a drinking straw which is what they do with the original white castle sliders.) 

Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20 minutes. Using a paper towel, pat the excess grease from the top of the patty, let set for 5 minutes then cut into patties. 

Using a spatula lift a patty onto each bun bottom. Top each slider with cheese and a pickle slice.  Top with ketchup and mustard, if desired. Then put on the bun lid. Serve immediately. 

Makes 12- 15 sliders depending on how big you cut them.

I served mine with salt and vinegar potatoes.  So good!

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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.