Summer BBQ

Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cheeseburger

August 20, 2015

Vacation is so close that I can almost taste it. And it tastes like burgers, hot dogs, corn on the cob, cake, wine, and s’mores.

Dear lord, that’s a lot of food. ha!

We leave Saturday morning to head to The Cape to have a big family vacation to celebrate my dad’s 75 birthday. woohoo!

I have some big cooking plans for the week, as there will be so many of us there. Man, I love cooking for a crowd! I am prepping by making big batches of macaroni salad and potato salad and a birthday cake with Oreo buttercream frosting on Friday night. Man, the car is gonna be packed on Saturday. ha!

I’m hoping to make these Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cheeseburgers again while I am down there. The kids will prob skip the jalapenos but I have a feeling the adults will dig in. Like, really dig in!

The flame grilled burger gets topped off with a big hunking dollop of a tangy cheese mixture, which is then topped off with slices of grilled jalapenos.

I love jalapeno poppers! I love ordering them at sports bars. They are delightfully naughty! Spicy peppers that are filled with tangy cream cheese. The poppers are always served so hot that the cheese is burning lava hot. And I never wait enough time so I always burn my mouth. Always. I will never learn.

So if you love poppers as much as me, this burger if for you. Plus, it has bacon. Yes!

I hope that you will enjoy this Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cheeseburger this weekend. You totally need to fire up your grill for this bad boy. It’s the perfect mash-up of one of the best spicy appetizers and a juicy burger. noms!!

Bacon Jalapeno Popper Cheeseburger

Makes 4 Burgers

Ingredients

8 slices of bacon
1 1/4 pound of ground beef
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 teaspoons black pepper
4 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/2 Cup Sour cream
1 1/2 Cups shredded cheddar cheese
3 green onions, snipped into small pieces
2-3 jalapenos
tomato, lettuce
4 Kaiser Rolls

Process

Cook the bacon over medium heat in a skillet. Place on paper towels when done.
Season the ground beef with the salt and pepper. Create 4 equal sized burgers.
Combine the cream cheese, sour cream, cheddar cheese, and green onions in a bowl.
Fire up your grill!!
Place jalapenos on your grill over medium heat. Rotate to evenly cook. When all sides have been blackened and the pepper is soft, remove and let cool. Once cool, cut the stem off the peppers, slice into long pieces.
Grill your burger over medium heat. After 2-3 minutes, flip your burger. Add a quarter of the cheese topping to the burger. At this point, add your buns to your grill in an area when the heat is low. Close your grill.
Serve your burger by placing a burger on the bottom portion of bun, add some grilled jalapeno pepper slices, top the burger off with some lettuce and tomato slices. Enjoy!

___________________

Be sure to ENTER this giveaway!!!

It’s filled with AWESOME prizes. AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!

A huge thanks to all of the creative bloggers who were just as inspired by a month of burgers as I was and the awesome companies that have donated prizes to #BURGERMONTH:

Char-Broil | Cabot Cheese

Le Creuset | Dreamfarm

Spiceologist | Woodbridge Wines

New Potato & Radish Salad in a Creamy Truffle Oil Dressing

April 27, 2015

Holy smokes guys, I bought a new bathing suit!!

I am so freaking ready for summer. It hurts me so much that it’s not yet warm.

…

The BEST you’ll ever have… My Signature Macaroni Salad

August 18, 2014

My Signature Macaroni Salad is the BEST macaroni salad EVER. It’s going to be the side dish that everyone loves at your BBQ.

I wish that macaroni salad was a food group.

And, of course, you’d get to have 4-6 servings to meet your daily servings requirements.

…

Nacho Cheeseburger- Burger Month

July 19, 2014

It’s the weekend!!!

It’s time to rock it. It’s time to get shhh done. It’s time to actually cook.

We’re going to be busy this weekend as we’re on vacation next weekend. So we really need to focus and try to tackle this weekend’s to do list, as well as much as possible of next weekend’s to do list. Here’s just a few things… laundry, mop the first floor, get the kitchen rug back down, clean Bunny’s cage, get to the post office, make SRC recipe, work on refinishing dinning chairs. Plus, I have a fun brunch to go to on Sunday while Price is visiting his sister and dad in NH. Oh yeah, and I have 4 hrs of work to do as well to make up time from always leaving early to get miss Autumn from daycare.

At least Price and I are ah-maze at tackling the to do list. I’m just hoping we ca pull it off this weekend. #Fingerscrossed.

While we’re talking to-do lists, I’m giving you this burger to add to your to-do list.

Yep, I give the marching orders here!

These Nacho Burgers are the perfect mash up of a great dinner and a great appetizer. But if we’re truthful here, I’ll just admit that we eat nachos for dinner a lot. Anyway, these are so great because of all the yummy toppings. AND the tortillas chips. The tortilla chips add the best crunch to the burgers. Don’t skimp on them.

You know how they say not to mess with things when grilling, well don’t mess with these burgers while you are grilling them. They are a little delicate since they are filled with a mixture of beef, beans, and cheese. So just put the burgers down and let them be until they are ready to be flipped once. Grab a beer and just relax.

I’ve made these burgers two times in like 9 days since I wanted to tweak things and since I enjoyed them so much I had to have them again ASAP. I first had taco seasoning in the burger mix. While it was good we were remarking that it was more like a ‘Taco Burger’ than a ‘Nacho Burger’. I guess they are similar so no foul there but I decided I wanted to mellow that flavor out so I took it out. Feel free to add it in if you would like. As well, one we ate these burgers with jarred salsa and another with pico de gallo. Both ways are really good and I’d say just go with your personal preference.

You can’t go wrong here. I swear since I picked these black olives off of mine the moment I was done taking pictures (we just aren’t friends) and still enjoyed it so just do what you want, just make sure you have a lot of tortilla chips on there. You need that crunch!!!!!!

Nacho Cheeseburger

Makes 4 burgers

Ingredients

24 ounces of ground beef (80/20)
10 oz of canned blacked beans
12 oz of shredded cheddar cheese, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper
4 burger buns (I suggest Kaiser rolls)
salsa, such as pico de gallo
tortilla chips
1 avocado, pit removed, thinly sliced/guacamole
aproximately 1/2 cup of sour cream
sliced black olives
pickled jalapenos slices

Process

Combine the ground beef, black beans, 1/2 of the cheese, and salt and pepper. Form 4 equally sized patties as round as your buns.
Prepare the grill by cleaning the grill grates and preheating to ‘medium’ heat. Just prior to putting the burgers on the grill, spray the grates with non-stick cooking spray.
Grill the burgers over medium heat until they are half way done prior to flipping. Once you flip them put the remaining shredded cheese on the burgers and put a lid on the grill.
While the burgers are cooking, grill the buns as well to toast them.
When the burgers are cooked through and the cheese has melted, remove from grill and place on the toasted buns.
Top the burgers with the salsa, tortilla chips, avocado, sour cream, olives, and jalapeno slices.

Be sure to enter the giveaway!!!

A huge thanks to all of the fun bloggers who were just as inspired by a month of burgers as I was and the awesome companies that have donated prizes to #burgermonth , El Diablo Hot & Spicy Mustard, FireWire Grilling Skewers, Hamilton Beach, KitchenIQ, The Spice House, and Wisconsin Cheese

Fiesta Pasta Salad

June 26, 2014

Fiesta Pasta Salad

Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé
Olé, Olé, Olé, Olé

FIESTA!

…

Pimento Cheese Mini Burgers

May 10, 2013

It’s getting warmer up here in Boston. So we’ve been doing some garden work and busting out the grill. I just love the summer and spending our time outdoors drinking icy cold beers, snacking on chips and homemade guac, and dining on burgers. So lately I’ve been dreaming up all the fun burgers we can make this year (all of these sound awesome) and one such burger on my mind was a Pimento Cheese Burger.

We first had Pimento Cheese Burgers years ago while in Charlotte. Ahhhh-mazing. I’ve only made them a few times since then since they are so rich and indulgent. But the flavor combos are so dang good. I love mayo on my burgers and obviously cheese burgers are better than plain burgers so it all just adds up perfectly.

So when it came to thinking up something for my Sprint Cup Snacks recipe for this weekend’s Bojangles’ Southern 500 in Darlington, SC I pulled out my Pimento Cheese Burgers. So perfectly Southern! I whipped up some Mini Burgers since everything mini is just so dang cute. Plus I’m always trying to think of fun recipes for a crowd or ones to quickly nosh on while watching that week’s NASCAR race.

Pimento Cheese is yummy with just crackers but slather it on some burgers and it will become your favorite way of enjoying it. But, of course, putting it on sliders makes the whole situation that much better. Plus the best thing is that it is super easy to whip up. As much as I love our grill, I used my cast iron skillet since I didn’t want to run the risk of flipping the mini burgers through the grates. In all it took about 15 minutes of prep for this dinner. awesome!

I swear these will be a hit with you crowd!

Pimento Cheese Mini Burgers

Makes 6 sliders

Ingredients

Pimento Cheese

8 ounces of shredded sharp cheddar cheese
4 ounce jar of diced pimentos, drained
1/3- 1/2 cup mayonnaise
cayenne and black pepper to taste

Burgers

1 pound of 85/15 ground beef
1 teaspoon of Lawry’s Seasoned Salt
pinch of black pepper
6 whole wheat dinner rolls

Process

To make the Pimento Cheese, combine the cheese, pimentos, and mayo. Mix thoroughly. Add the cayenne and pepper to taste. Set aside to chill for at least 1 hour.
In a large bowl combine the ground beef and the Seasoned Salt and black pepper. Evenly divide the burgers into 6 rounds. Shape and flatten each burger so they are slightly thicker than 1/4″.
Cook the burgers until desired doneness.
Slice the dinner rolls in half. Place each burger on the bottom portion of the buns, then scoop about 2 tablespoons of the pimento cheese on each burger, and top off with the rest of the bun.

Pimento Cheese adapted from Epicurious

Tropical Pork Pineapple Kebabs- SRC

July 30, 2012

Another month is wrapping up so it means it is Secret Recipe Club time! How is this summer flying by?!?! It is crazy! At least it has been jam packed with great food, lots of fun with family and friends, and some awesome adventures. It just makes me wish summer was so much longer.

This time I had the blog called Without Adornment by Bean. The blog is packed full of gluten free recipes, as well as other allergen free recipes. This is perfect for someone with allergies, as well as anyone who just likes great food. I immediately saw her Tropical Pork Pineapple Kebabs and knew they would be perfect for a satisfying summertime dinner.

The original recipe was just a guide with the ingredients, and not the amounts used. I generally cook that way so I liked that there was freedom to have my own stamp on this recipe. I added some soy sauce to the marinade just so it would not be too sweet for my liking. I also had zucchini in the fridge so I added that to the kebabs too. I served this with some rice that I prepared while Price grilled up the kebabs. Totally loving our new grill, this summer, and this recipe!

Beans recipe was gluten free which I respect because for a while last year I ate gluten free and enjoyed the process and felt better from it. Anyway, I did add the soy sauce for flavor but it does wheat so if you want this to be gluten free just be sure to use a gluten free soy sauce. Or you can use Worcestershire Sauce which is naturally gluten free instead of the soy sauce and has 80% less sodium than soy sauce.

Tropical Pork Pineapple Kebabs

Serves 4

Ingredients

For Kebabs

1 pound of pork tenderloin cut into 1″ cubes
pineapple cut into 1″ cube pieces, approximately half a pineapple
1 red pepper, cut into 1″ x 1″ pieces
1 zucchini, sliced into 1/4″ thick pieces
8 oz whole white button mushrooms

For Marinade

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup pineapple juice
2 gloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce, known as sambal
1 cup of diced pineapple
1 tablespoon of brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon of white pepper

Process

Soak 10 wooden skewers for at least an hour before using them.
Prepare the marinade first by combine all of the marinade in a bowl or large plastic bag. Mix thoroughly and then add the pork pieces to the marinade. Store in the refrigerator while the meat marinates for at least 1 hour minutes.
Once skewers are soaked and the meat is marinated, thread the pork, pineapple, pepper, zucchini, and mushrooms. Repeat the series twice and end with a piece of pork.
Grill the kebabs over medium-high heat. Using a basting brush, brush the kebabs with the marinade each time you turn the kebabs grilling each side.
Cook the kebabs until done with an internal temperature of the pork is 145 degrees. Let rest for about 5 minutes before serving.

____________________