Recipe 34- Backyard Burgers With The Works

Recipe 34- Backyard Burgers With The Works 

Hello Everyone! 

I hope everyone is having an excellent and fun filled summer. My family has been very busy since the beginning of June. My husband and I made a weekend trip up to Timmins Ontario, where I got to hand deliver the Michael Smith Cookbook to my blog follower and blog contest winner, Lucie! 

We had an excellent visit filled with yummy food, drinks and a special delivery from Lucie, CUPCAKES! 

Seems we had something in common, our love of food and making beautiful cakes. 

We stayed the weekend with our long time friends, Emilie and Doug and they showed us around Timmins. My mom being a huge Shania Twain fan, we made a roadside stop to snap a picture! 

We had an excellent fun filled weekend, and it was great to meet Lucie.

The kids wrapped up school and I have been trying to make their summer memorable by planning fun filled days and weekends. Hence the radio silence on the blog, I haven't had a ton of time to sit and blog with peace and quiet. 

Today is a very rainy and stormy day here, so the kids are busy building tents in the basement and our little Emilie is happily napping. 

One small outing we made this past weekend was to St. Jacobs Ont. 

When I was young, I spent many, many happy days in St.Jacobs with my Grandma Rose. When I was flipping through the Michael Smith book and picking my recipes, I knew I wanted to incorporate 2 of my favourite childhood shops into the recipes. 

When I was young, my grandma would send me up town to the bakery and the meat shop.

The bakery was always for a $2.00 pie shell & top, and then of course a special treat.  

My sister Amanda and I always went for the "long john" donut. 

The next stop was usually the "Meat& Cheese". Here my grandma would send a hand written letter of what she needed, but never any money. They meat shop had "the book" where local residents would have a tab for their purchases. I actually asked about "the book" this past weekend, hoping for a picture for my own sake, but that was a no go... it no longer exists. 

Anyways, I picked up some fresh Kaiser rolls, as specified in the recipe. I also picked up some fresh ground beef and some cheese. The "Colby" cheese was always on grandmas list and I haven't had it many years. It was exactly the way I remembered it :) 

So to start off with this recipe, I honestly had to read it over about 4 times, it seemed WAY too simple for burgers. In the past I have made homemade burgers many times, I usually incorporate different seasonings, onions and herbs into the meat. This recipes calls for.... JUST THE BEEF! 

Literally, just the beef and some salt and pepper. 

Yes, its a simple recipes.. but I learned some really cool things making this one.

First I sliced my lettuce, red onion, tomato and cheese. 

Then I brought out the beef, sectioned it into 4 equal pieces, shaped my patties and sprinkled both sides with salt and pepper. 

One key tip for this recipe, that will FOREVER be with me... (Thank you Chef Michael)

is to indent your patties. This will help the burger shrink evenly. 

THIS TOTALLY WORKS. 

I can't tell you how many times my homemade burgers come out like wonky looking hockey pucks! 

Next, I headed out to my BBQ with a drink in hand and ready to grill. 

I also brought along my sliced and buttered kaiser rolls & cheese slices. The rolls will be toasted just before the burgers are done cooking. I made sure to use my favourite butter, "Cows Creamery" oh my, that stuff is just the BEST! 

After a few minutes on the grill, they were ready to flip. My husband was looking on as I bbq'd and said " wow those have hardly shrunk at all" Guess he noticed the "wonky hockey puck burgers" before too LOL 

After the 'flip' I gave them another few minutes of cooking and they draped them with some cheese. At this point on went the buttered kaiser rolls. Watch yourself if your doing this, the butter does drip a little and can cause a flame on the grill. No one likes burnt buns ;) 

I pulled the buns off when they had a nice golden brown and were a little crispy. 

At this point the burgers were nicely cooked and ready to be served. 

We served up the burgers just as Chef Michael suggested, lettuce, onion, tomato, dill pickle slices ketchup and mustard. He also said "relish" but I had none on hand. 

IS this not a beautiful burger!? 

I have to say hand down this is the BEST burger I have EVER eaten. EVER.

It was the perfect amount of juiciness, tender, tons of flavour and NO greasiness. 

PERFECTION! 

The taste of the beef along with the other toppings is what a burger should be about, and the addition of the buttered kaiser rolls... heaven! 

We enjoyed these all so much that we are planning them as another meal this week. 

You will not be disappointed with this simple, but delicious recipe. 

I have decided to never buy another store frozen burger patty. For the price of a pound and a half of ground beef, you can have the most delicious burger of all time. 

P.S my husband suggested Bacon as an added topping, I don't think you could go wrong with that either! 

Thank you once again for your continuing support of the blog, keep your eyes peeled for the Recipe 35- Steakhouse Salad with BBQ Blue Cheese Dressing! 

As always, my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you my friends!