Jul 13 2011

The Rubik’s Cube Revenge Burger

Rubic's Cube Revenge Burger

If you are a grilled cheese lover and you enjoy a good burger, Deede’s Rubik’s Cube Revenge is the right fit for you. A square patty sandwiched between two grilled cheese sandwiches? Yes. She. Went. There.

Ingredients:
1 lb. Ground Beef  – for 4 burgers
Salt and Freshly Ground Pepper
Dijon Mustard
12 Slices of Kraft Singles Cheese Product (That’s right… 2 slices per grilled cheese sandwich)
Butter – softened
4 Medium-Thick or 8 Thin Tomato Slices – your choice

Grilled Cheese Sandwich Assembly
It should be noted here that master chef Deede – cut single slices of Wonder Bread in 1/2 to create thinner pieces of bread. Now those are some serious knife skills.

  • Butter both sides of 12 pieces of bread.
  • Assemble each sandwich with 1 slice bread, 2 slices cheese and another slice of bread

Burger

  • Divide beef into 4 equal parts
  • Gently form square patties just larger than the slices of bread
  • Create a bowl like indentation in the center of each of the patties to ensure even heating
  • Preheat a cast-iron skillet or heavy-bottom pan to medium-high
  • Generously salt and pepper both sides of the burger patties
  • Throw those suckers in the cast-iron pan. – BTW, I love Deede’s way with words
  • Squirt/or spread a dollop of Dijon mustard on the raw side of the patty before turning over
  • Cook patties about 3 minutes per side for medium – Note: cook in batches of 2 if your pan isn’t large enough

Cook Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
Cook each grilled cheese sandwich until golden brown. “I recommend cooking them while the burgers are resting, so the danger of burning these babies is reduced.” (Deede’s exact words) – Cooking should take about 2 minutes for each side, but watch carefully because the thinner bread cooks faster than regular bread. Deede used a non-stick pancake grill to cook all 6 of the sandwiches at the same time. Genius! I have one, but only break it out for pancakes. To be honest, it’s a total bitch to get it out of the cabinet and I’m lazy.

Burger Assembly
Place the grilled cheese sandwich “bun” on the bottom. Add the patty on top of that “bun” along with a slice of tomato. Then place your second grilled cheese on top of that – creating the second “bun”.

Do not mentally add up the calories… o.k., I just had too…
4 pieces of Kraft Single Cheese – 320 calories
2 Slices of Wonder Bread – 140 calories
Butter – 1 pat – approximately  – 36 calories
Burger – 284 calories
Tomato Slice – 3 calories

783 calories – much better than I had thought.
For reference – a McDonald’s Quarter Pounder w/Cheese has 510 calories.

Deede’s burger delivered cheesy goodness with some good ol’ Wonder Bread stick to the roof of your mouth action.  I’m constantly amazed by Deede’s fun food adventures. I’m surprised she hasn’t tried a burger inside of some sort of baked good. 😉 You never know, she’s already mastered Charles Phoenix’s Cherpumple – Pie Stuffed Cake.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=5302

Jul 12 2011

The TJ Hooker Burger

Dan’s TJ Hooker creation for the contest came about as we shopped our local Nugget Market. His first vision was to create a teriyaki/pineapple burger. We were on the hunt for the ingredients and then realized that Deede and I had created a version of that a few weekends before. Dan didn’t want to copy an idea, so he decided on a southwestern themed burger, creating the recipe on the fly as we walked down the store aisles.

The All-Natural Ingredients 😉
1 lb. Ground Beef – 80/20
2 oz. Cubed Kraft Velveeta Mexican Mild Cheese
1/4 Cup Corn – Del Monte Summer Crisp Golden Sweet Corn
1/4 Cup Tortilla Strips – Fresh Gourmet Tri-Color Tortilla Strips
Sliced Pepper Jack Cheese – Sargento
Chipotle Mayo – Kraft Sandwich Shop
Corn Dusted Kaiser Rolls – Sara Lee Whole Grain
Sea Salt and Ground Pepper to Taste

Directions:

  • Combine beef, Velveeta, corn, tortilla strips, and salt and pepper in a bowl.
  • Shape into 4 small or 3 large patties. (We made them again after the contest and preferred the bigger patties)
  • Cook patties for 8-9 minutes on the Foreman Grill. (Any grill would work – he opted to use the Foreman in case someone else wanted to use the outdoor grill)
  • Place cheese on top of the burger and let sit on paper towels (to absorb some of the juices) before adding the burger to the bun.
  • Spread chipotle mayo on both sides of the bun, place the patty on top of the bottom bun and add more tortilla strips on top of the cheese. (Got all of that?)

The burgers had a little kick with the pepper jack and chipotle mayo and the texture with the added tortilla strips and corn was awesome. Like I mentioned above, we’ve already made them again since the party. Partly because we had leftover ingredients, but more because they tasted really good!

I’m very proud of my husband, I was definitely impressed. Awesome job Dan!

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=5276

Jul 11 2011

The Wilford Brimley™ Burger

Our friend Aaron created this fabulous dessert burger for the “Alternative Burger” category of our Burger-Palooza contest. It truly was the most creative of the bunch. He talked to a local donut shop (who thought he was crazy) and ordered a dozen unfilled (glazed) jelly donuts – which he turned into hamburger buns. He baked up a batch of double chocolate chunk cookies for the patties, made his own marshmallow fondant (I’ve never even made fondant) to create the “provolone” cheese. He used Smucker’s Strawberry Squeeze Jam to mimic the ketchup, a tube of yellow #5 cake frosting for the mustard and he sorted through gummy worms to find the yellow and green ones to cut up to create hamburger relish.

Freakin’ Brilliant!

While we were all running around the kitchen like chickens with our heads cut off… Aaron’s entry was already prepared and ready for judging. He did all his prep and baking at home. We set up the mini burger bar and everyone could top their dessert burgers as they wished.

A dozen of these babies and a direct quote from Aaron – “A little love (and diabetes) in every bite!” 🙂

I can’t wait to share the other burgers and recipes with you.

Permanent link to this article: http://foodiddy.com/?p=5255