Cottage Cheese Dip and Sour Cream Onion Burgers

Originally, this post was about the hamburger  (Sour Cream Onion Burger--Yum!), but.... last week, my mother moved into an assisted living home, so in her honor this post is all about her cottage cheese dip.  (which I had made for the chips, but never intended to write about)

Yes, it's one of those things.  You know---those things you ate when you were young, that you are SURE no one in the world ate except your family.  Like my friend Barbara Brown ate pork and bean sandwiches when she was little.  

We all have those things!

One of  ours was cottage cheese dip.  We loved it when we were little.

Truth be told, if I needed comforting today, I would make this and grab a bag of chips and put on an old movie and sit and eat the whole thing!  

I still love it.

Hey!  Don't judge ---what is your WEIRD family food?

Cottage Cheese Dip

cottage cheese

mayonnaise or miracle whip

ketchup

Just put a couple of blobs of each and mix and add until you reach a consistency you like.

Grab a bag of Ruffles chips and eat till you have to unbuckle your pants!

Growing up, my parents used Miracle-Whip, but as an adult, I use Mayonnaise--Best Foods or Hellman's (depending on which side of the Rocky Mountains you live)

Which might seem as if it ISN'T the same dip I had when I was little--- but it is.

My parents were huge picnickers.  Most of my summer memories from when I was younger are of picnics on the Columbia and Snake Rivers in Washington State.  

My mom would always make:

fried chicken (which we would eat cold)

baked beans   (which we would eat cold )

potato salad

pickles

deviled eggs

chips and dip  -- cottage cheese dip

homemade chocolate cake in a 9x13 pan

She got Pepsi and we got supermarket brand soda.

My dad would have a Budweiser or two.

That is the only menu I can remember on our picnics.

All things she made the night before, so our picnics were just spent swimming,  playing Frisbee OR  Lawn Darts (which are outlawed now ), cribbage, and of course, getting a tan.

Sorry, I digress....I am reminiscing. 

Oh...and about those  Sour  Cream Onion  Burgers?

I got the recipe from my friend Brenda, who used to have a blog  (Brenda's Canadian Kitchen), but has given it up.  I miss her blog---so many great recipes.  (Lucky for me I have a lot bookmarked)

This is a great burger!!  Just tasty and easy.

Sour Cream Onion Burger

INGREDIENTS:

2 pounds ground beef 1 cup sour cream 1 (1 ounce) envelope dry onion soup mix

1/2 cup dry bread crumbs 1/8 teaspoon pepper

DIRECTIONS:

1.	In a large bowl, mix together the ground beef, sour cream, onion soup mix, bread crumbs and pepper using your hands. Refrigerate while you heat up the grill so the flavors have a chance to blend.
2.	Preheat a grill for medium heat. Form the ground beef into 8 balls, and flatten into patties.
3.	Grill the patties for 6 to 8 minutes per side, or until well done.

Fry Sauce

Fry Sauce = Yum!
What?   You have no idea what I'm talking about? 

I just discovered that not everyone in the United States knows about Fry Sauce.

Let me backtrack a bit--
I love regional cooking, regional traditions and regional history/food history.

It's SO distinct in the South (grits, country ham, Cajun, GOOD--meaning real-- BBQ) the East ( lobster rolls, clam chowder, baked beans) the Midwest (cheese, pork sausage, jello desserts they pass off as salads--don't get me wrong, I love Jello desserts passed off as salads. I'm just sayin'--Deep Dish Chicago Style Pizza), the Southwest ( chilies,  enchiladas, rustic cooking, Mexican influence, tacos,)  The Pacific Northwest (smoked salmon, Alaskan King Crab,  trout, fresh water fish, fruits, berries). 
And so on.  Let me state, for the record, that Texas and California have their very own food stuff and styles.  They make it up, put their own inique spin on it (Tex-Mex and Fresh Mex and Baja Style).

I grew up in the Pacific Northwest. I felt a camaraderie with the people when it came to food.
Then I moved to Nevada--The Great Basin area of the United States--there's not even a Wikipedia entry for foods of this region.  It's sad really.  
I guess  we could be lumped with chuck-wagon food  (cowboy beans, beef steak, fried potatoes).
I wanted to be known for something cooler than a T-bone steak tho.  Or a bowl of cowboy beans cooked in a Dutch Oven.

And then.... I heard some new friends from Texas say they just had Fry Sauce for the very  first time and really liked it.  I thought  WTH? It's fry sauce.   Then they explained they had never heard of it before, let alone  tasted it.
I emailed my friend in California--and said "can you believe it?--she said she has never had or heard of Fry Sauce.
I said,  YES YOU HAVE.  It's only stupid Fry Sauce--everyone's heard of it.

Then I Googled it.  It seems as if it is a regional thing. Apparently not everyone has heard of it.  Huh. Interesting.

 Fry sauce is a simple combination of ketchup and mayonnaise popular in Utah restaurants as a dipping sauce for French fries. Utah-based burger chain Arctic Circle claims to have invented fry sauce in the 1940s.  (this is from A history of fry sauce by Marsha Maxwell.  Click the link to find out more and to get the recipe on making your own fry sauce.  Be sure and click the AC link to see more about the burger chain)

Fry Sauce is not only popular in Utah. While it might have originated in Utah, there were Arctic Circle burger chains all over, UT, NV, ID, OR and WA when I was growing up, and we all loved AC!
WE HAVE OUR OWN REGIONAL FOOD IDENTITY!   How cool is that?  I'm so relieved.

Of course, it's just mayo and ketchup.  Mixed together.  Most 2 year olds could do it.   But it's good.  I like it better than ketchup.  I love it, in fact.
I LOVE stupid fry sauce!!

Unless I go to Zips. (Which is a really, localized burger joint in Washington and Idaho. )  THEN, I dip my french fries in their homemade tarter sauce.  Mmmmmm.   But that's another story.  For another time. 
Well, wait a minute!  Hold the phone!  Keep your pants on!   Hold your horses!
 I already told that story...see here.

Now, go eat some French Fries everybody. Make fry sauce and see if you like it.

PS:  I'm sure they have a version of Fry Sauce in every region of the U.S, right?  Except for Texas and California rumor has it.

*******************************************************************

For the record.... I present 

 "The Great Basin"

(yes, we really do have wild horses, and no we are not all cowboys)

Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers

On Friday, I received my  "Cook's Country" magazine in the  mail and was very excited to see this recipe for  'fried onion burgers'.  We love caramelized  onions, as well as a good burger, so I thought I'd give these a try.

MAN!  We loved them.  And they're a really simple burger to do, all you need is ground beef and some onions and some American cheese.  You can add other stuff if you want, I added some mustard and some pickles but that was it.   The Handyman, my son and his girlfriend added  (I shudder to say it) ketchup.  It's YOUR burger, add what you want!

Before I get to the directions of the  'fried onion burger',  let me paraphrase the article for you...because as most of you know,  Cook's Country  (as well, as Cook's Illustrated, America's Test Kitchen, etc)  takes a recipe and works it until it becomes the very best it can be.
Well.... I changed it all up for myself. 
This burger has  onions embedded in the burger---smashed right into the patty, and then fried up to a golden brown.  You are supposed to slice your onions very thin and then press them into the beef patty so the onion adheres to the ground beef.  Then you fry them so the onions caramelize and the burgers stays juicy.
These burgers come from a small  Oklahoma town, called  El Reno, at the Hamburger Inn on Route 66.  They were originally made during the depression to stretch ground beef, but were so popular they became a signature item. 

And I can really see why, they are great!

In the magazine they say that making these burgers without a flattop grill has it's challenges, and goes on to give some great suggestions and directions.

My challenge tho?  I wondered if the onions would still be 'raw'  when the burger was cooked to perfection.  Which, truthfully, might be really good,  some caramelized onions on the outside with raw onions on the inside.  BUT I thought I needed to cook my onions a bit first before smashing them into the burger.  So that's what I did.  And these were so good!
This isn't a grilling or bbq burger, but a real 'fried' burger... even tho it was fried in a pan,  it was juicy and yummy and very oniony.  Mmmmm..
I make my own hamburger buns with the recipe from Brenda's Canadian Kitchen.  This is only the 2nd time, I've attempted it.  My family LOVES them, but they don't look like Brenda's buns...yet.  (practice makes perfect I hear)

Here is the recipe for the burgers, but for more detailed directions (and  the whole story of the fried onion burger ) check out Cook's Country Website or run out and buy their magazine.

Oklahoma Fried Onion Burgers

1 large onion, halved and sliced 1/8 inch thick
salt and pepper  ( I seasoned my meat with season-salt and garlic powder too)
12 oz 85 percent lean ground beef  (I used 80 percent )
1 T unsalted butter
1 tsp vegetable oil
4 slices of American cheese
4 hamburger buns, buttered and toasted

1.  Combine onion and 1 tsp salt in a bowl and toss to combine (I did not do this, as I fried my onions up instead).  transfer to a colander and let sit for 30 minutes, tossing occasionally.  Using tongs, transfer onion to clean dish towel, gather edges and squeeze onion dry.  Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp pepper.

2.  Divide onion mixture into 4 separate mounds on a rimmed baking sheet.  Form beef into 4 lightly packed balls and season with salt and pepper. Place beef balls on top of onion mounds and flatten beef firmly so that the onion adheres and patties measure 4 inches in diameter.

3.  Melt butter with oil in a  12-inch skillet over medium heat.  Using spatula, transfer patties to skillet, onion side down, and cook until onion is deep golden brown and beginning to crisp around the edges,  6-8 minutes.   Flip burgers, increase their heat to high and cook until well browned on the 2nd side, about 2 minutes.  Place 1 slice of cheese on each bottom bun.  Place burgers on buns, add desired toppings and serve.

Enjoy!

Smokey Jalapeno Burgers

Last week was very busy,  which in turn, meant a slow reading week for me, so instead of a  "It's Monday, What are you Reading?" ( same thing as last week) post,  I thought I'd share with you what we ate last week instead.

And that would be---hamburgers.  Not just any hamburger, but a Smokey Jalapeno Burger.  I do not know exactly where I got the recipe, but I know it is off the Internet, so if you feel you made it first, please send me a note and I will be happy to THANK YOU (and give you credit), because this is such a great hamburger....a keeper.  One I will make again.  In fact, I already have ... I made it twice in last week.
It's a good, juicy, smoky and spicy burger. With bacon!  I don't know what else to say about it.
The chipotle sauce gives it a good smokey flavor and the jalapenos on top gave the perfect amount of spice.  The pepper-jack cheese was good too, altho next time I just might use a good cheddar.  I like cheddar.  And I might shred it instead of using the slices.  I like the texture of melty shredded cheese.

Anyway enough of that...here is the burger recipe.

Smoky Bacon Jalapeno Burgers
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup chipolte sauce (I could not find chipolte sauce, so I used chipolte bbq sauce.  who knows....maybe that's what it meant in the first place.  It was good)
1/2 red onion, diced
Montreal Steak Seasoning

4 oz pepper-jack cheese slices
1 slice bacon per burger (I used two)
pickled jalapeno slices, to taste
mayo
buns or Texas toast

1.  Mix ground beef, chipolte sauce and diced red onion by hand  until thoroughly combined.
2.  pat into  3 or 4 burgers.  Sprinkle the tops with the Montreal Steak Seasoning
3.  Grill the burgers,  top with the cheese
4.  spread the bun with mayo and top the burger with the jalapenos and bacon.

Enjoy!

I just got back from my birding weekend!  It was so much fun... will be posting about that soon. Very soon.

Southwest Burgers

We had Southwest Burgers Friday night, and they were really good.  I'll probably never make them again.

Yes,  you heard me right. Why?  Because I'm a part time food blogger (book blogger, garden blogger, etc) and there is not enough time in the world to make and eat everything I want to.

Do you, as a food blogger, (book bloggers need not reply) ever feel that with some of these great dishes you make, you'll never  'get a chance' to try again, because you are so busy looking for something new for your blog?      Always on the lookout for something new and tasty?   And it's fun and we enjoy it, but sometimes while looking thru my blog, I'll come across something and say,  'that was really good, I should make it again.'  But I don't.  Usually.   I hate that.  And the Handyman hates it more.  He'll sometimes ask about something I made once and say,  "that was really good, why don't we have it again?"
I have no answer for him.  Do you?

    
I said this was a really good burger and they were.  They were a fun, novel, unique kind of burger. 
Everyone liked them and they  were really pretty easy to make.  BUT ---while they were really good,  they weren't really 'great', if you know what I mean.  So, that's another reason I probably won't make  again.
YOU should try them  if:
you love the southwest flavor  (They had a great taco flavor! They really did.)
love french fried onions  (I now have half a can leftover that I don't know what to do with)
are so burger crazy, you feel you must try them all.

I found this in Sandra Lee's Semi-Homemade  Best of Summer  magazine and we had our friends, the Milton's to dinner to help do the taste test.  As I said,  everyone did like them, and it was a really fun evening, eating out on the patio, drinking wine and finishing the meal with a  Lemonade Pie  (post tomorrow).
All said, they were a fun burger and a fun evening.


Southwest Burgers

1 pound ground chuck
1 package original taco seasoning mix
4 Colby-Jack cheese slices
2 Tbls butter
8 slices Texas Toast
1/2 cup sour cream
1 cup french-fried onion rings
1/2 cup chunky salsa--medium

1.  In a large bowl, combine ground chuck and taco seasoning mix.  Form mixture  into 4 patties.
2. Spray grill rack with nonstick cooking spray.  Preheat grill to med-high heat.
3.  Grill burgers covered with grill lid, for 5 minutes on each side or until desired doneness.  Top each patty with 1 slice cheese and grill, covered with lid until cheese melts, about  1-2 minutes.
4. Spread Butter evenly on both sides of toast.  Grill toast for  1-2 minutes on each side, or until  golden brown.
5.  Spread  2 Tbls sour cream on 4 slices of toast. Top each with 1/4cup fried onions, 1 burger and 2 Tbls salsa.  Cover with remaining 4 toast slices.
Serve immediately.

The Classic American Hamburger

Before I could even sit down to my dinner last night  (I was busy trying to get a good picture in the fading sunlight),  the Handyman said he loved my buns!   
Man...after all these years,  I can still excite him.

Of course, the buns he was talking about were the homemade hamburger buns he had stuffed in his mouth.
So,  the phrase didnt' come out seductive or anything.  It was more like  "Mmph, mann yer bbunnzz (chomp chomp) er ghraate"
His mouth was full AND he was talking at the same time.  (sigh)
But I was thankful for the compliment all the same.  My buns were great! I made them from scratch. They were so much better than store bought buns. 

I'll return to the bun recipe in a moment...
but first let me say--I like hamburgers.   And lately it seems there has been a lot of great burgers being posted in the food blogger world, some of them very fancy, some of them not.  (I wish I could try them all)

This burger is not. Fancy, that is.

I was going thru some old cooking magazines, deciding what to toss and what to keep  (one can't keep them all, can one?) and I came across Cooks Illustrated, special publication "American Classics"  display until October 19, 2009.
And in it there is a recipe/article  for bringing back the "Original Drive-In Burger."  As I said, I like hamburgers and I had been wanting to make my own buns for quite some time now, and this looked like an easy burger to do.....sort of.
They have you  grinding your own burger mixture.
I just didn't want to do that, but I was intrigued by the  'classic burger sauce' and the simplicity of the burger.  Onions only.  And  cheese.  It said to use American cheese, but I didn't have any, so I substituted some Colby-jack slices and we loved  them like that.

I went ahead and decided to use store bought hamburger meat, seasoned it with season salt and a bit of garlic salt and pepper.  And we grilled them instead of pan-frying.
But the sauce and the buns?   Completely homemade AND they made this burger--so dang good I can't even tell you.  Words can't describe it.
It did indeed remind me of the old Drive-In's of the 60's.    WHICH I only remember going to with my parents.   In the 70's, when my teenage friends and  I where hopping around to burger joints, it was  the beginning of the fast food craze.  McDonalds was new,  (to us anyway--it was expanding west)  Burger King and Wendys were just barely creeping to the west coast. So we were very excited about those.  But they don't really bring back the great food memories of the past.  We had one local place that we loved.   We had Zips! (see original Zips post here )
This Cooks Illustrated recipe is more similar to Zips than to any fast food mega-drive in of today, but as I said, it really reminds me of those old highway joints of the 1960's.

I used this recipe for my homemade hamburger buns.    (okay, I got it from Brenda at BCK, but I am feeling like a stalker, or someone who has a blogger crush, because I  use  her name in every other post I do.  She makes good stuff tho, so what can I say?)

I had never made homemade buns before, but I definitely will again.  One, because they were endorsed so highly by the Handyman  (mphmmfly  grrraate bunzzz) and two, they were REALLY GOOD BUNS.  Processed white buns?  Never again.  These were soft and tasted fresh and all  homemadey  (words like homemadey are why I'll never make it as a food writer)  And they went so well with the  classic sauce and burgers!
I might even make all the hot dog buns for our annual  "Weiner-Fest" bbq at the end of the summer.   Maybe.  That's a lot of buns to make.

I really feel like anyone who actually wants to grind their own hamburger mixture is working too hard....but it probably tastes great!
Here is what you do if you want to work: (me?  I just used store bought)

10 oz sirloin steak, cut into 1-inch chunks
6 oz boneless beef short ribs, cut into 1-inch chunks
kosher salt and  pepper

Place beef chunks on baking sheet in single layer--freeze meat  until very firm and starting to harden around edges, but still pliable,  15-25 minutes.
Place half of meat into a food processor and pulse until meat is coarsely ground, 10-15 one-second pules, stopping and redistributing meat around bowl as necessary to ensure meat is evenly ground.  Transfer to baking sheet, repeat with other half.
Spread meat over baking sheet and inspect for gristle or fat.
Gently separate ground meat into 4 equal parts and without picking meat up, gently shape into a loose patty.  Season top of patty with salt and pepper.  Using spatula turn and season the other side. Refrigerate.

Pan fry when ready, cook without turning for  3 minutes one side,  1 minute the other side.  Top with American Cheese and cook for another minute.  Transfer to buns,  top with onion and spread on sauce. 
***********************************

Now for the rest of us.... season your burger meat however you want.  I used season salt and a bit of garlic and pepper and the Handyman grilled them on the grill, he topped them with the Colby cheese and let it melt till it bubbled.

We took our homemade buns and melted some butter in a pan and toasted the buns, which I highly recommend to get that old timey  drive-in taste,  slathered the buns with the classic sauce and added onion.  Walla Walla Sweet Onions.
YUM!

The Classic Burger Sauce
I doubled this, so that we had enough.  You never know!

2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon ketchup
1/2 teaspoon sweet pickle relish
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon white vinegar
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Whisk all ingredients together in a small bowl.

Enjoy!

Jalapeno Popper Burgers

I live in the United States, but obviously I need to subscribe to Canadian Living Magazine, because my friend Brenda is finding some good recipes  in the June 2011 issue.

Since our kitchen is still 'in progress'  (the tile is in, but painting is in progress--then a new counter top and sink) I like something that can be cooked on the grill.  I can put it together , hand it off to the Handyman and  then sit back and relax while he finishes up.  I love summertime for exactly that reason.

These burgers are going inside my 'keeper' notebook...they tasted great.  Every bite of this burger was filled with  creamy, cheesy, spicy popper filling.  Seriously, every bite!
I hate it when you cook a cheese filled burger and it all melts and   disappears into the meat.  In this recipe you freeze the filling for about 15 minutes before placing it in between 2 thin patties, and it when cooked it melts just enough so that you get that cheesy goodness in every bite.

(I got the onions a bit done....but we like them that way. )

While the canned pickled jalapeno peppers worked well for us,  some people prefer to use a fresh jalapeno, which I'm sure would work just fine, and give that little bit of spicy crunch inside the filling.

The Handyman and I enjoyed these burgers very much.  A great summer backyard meal with a cold beer, or in my case Bullfrogs  (which is what we call  vodka and lemonade).    I plan to make them again soon!

Look at all that cheesy goodness!!  In every bite!

Jalapeno Popper Cheeseburgers



1 egg
1 small onion, grated and drained
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs (I used Panko)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 lb. lean ground beef
Three-quarters sweet onion, cut in 4 thick rounds
2 tsp. olive oil
Pinch each salt and pepper
4 hamburger buns
Cheese Filling
1 cup shredded old Cheddar cheese
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup chopped drained pickled jalapeno peppers (I will use fresh next time)
2 T chopped fresh parsley


In bowl, stir together Cheddar cheese, cream cheese, jalapeno peppers and parsley. Divide into quarters; flatten each to 2 1/2-inch circle. Freeze on tray for 15 minutes.


In bowl, whisk together egg, grated onion, bread crumbs, salt and pepper; mix in beef. Shape into 8 balls. Flatten each into 5-inch wide patty. Top 4 of the patties with cheese circle; top with remaining patties, gently pressing and pinching edges to seal. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.


Place patties on greased grill over medium heat; close lid and grill, turning once.

Meanwhile, brush sweet onion rounds with oil; sprinkle with salt and pepper. Grill over medium heat, turning once, until softened and caramelized, 8 to 10 minutes.
Sandwich burgers and onion in buns.


Makes 4 burgers.

Copy Cat Dinner and the Superbowl

Am I supposed to have a Superbowl food posted here?  Before Sunday?  Really?  Dang.  How about a Superbowl book to read between the commercials, before Sunday?
Yes, I did say  "between the commercials".  I love those (commercials), and while I am also a football liker, I'm not a football lover, so I don't have to keep both eyes glued to the TV.  The party is great, the food is great and the company is great....but do you want to know a secret?  If it were the Handyman and I alone on Superbowl Sunday, I'd make some nachos, open my book and read while he watched the game.  And we would both be happy.

And a great Game Day Book?  Janet Evonovich's Stephanie Plumb books.  Yes, I know I was crabby the other day and said they were all alike---  (see here) but I got over that quickly and just finished 'Sizzlin' Sixteen', a very fun read.
The SP books are quick, fun, and you fall in love with all the characters.  Simple enough to read and watch the big game at the same time.

I do need to make an appetizer for the big game on Sunday--we are going to friends--I guess I better search the food blog world for some great ideas!





Last night I made a copycat dinner.
I made dinner from Brenda's Canadian Kitchen.

You can go to her blog to check out the recipes. (and that way I don't have to write them all out--I hate that part about posting   -grins- )

I can tell you that  both the Jucy Lucy Burgers and the 'Lime in the Coconut' Frosted Cheesecake bars, were really good!!
(my toasted coconut on top was REALLY toasted.  But it was REALLY good too)
(I am laughing at myself because I just went to Brenda's blog and her  bars were very nice looking and mine are all crusty on top---a bit too much toasting?  but it's the taste that counts.  Check  out her bars!)

We liked the garlic toast as "the bun" too, for these burgers.  I sent the Handyman to the store once again, and once again he called me once he was there, "are you sure we don't need buns?" he asked.

And I used cheddar, because I had it at home.

So now....go check out Brenda's site for all the details and make your own

copy cat dinner.

It was very good!

Lime in the Coconut Cheesecake Bars

Cookie Base

1

pouch (1 lb 1.5 oz) Betty Crocker® sugar cookie mix

2

tablespoons Gold Medal® all-purpose flour

1/3

cup butter or margarine, softened

1

egg, slightly beaten

Filling

2

packages (8 oz each) cream cheese, softened

1

can (16 oz) cream of coconut (not coconut milk)

3

tablespoons lime juice

1

teaspoon vanilla

2

eggs

Topping

1

container (12 oz) Betty Crocker® Whipped cream cheese frosting

1 1/4

cups coconut, toasted

2

teaspoons grated lime peel

• 1Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom and sides of 13x9-inch pan with cooking spray. In large bowl, stir cookie base ingredients until soft dough forms. Press evenly in bottom of pan. Bake 15 to 18 minutes or until golden brown. Cool 15 minutes.
• 2Meanwhile, in large bowl, beat cream cheese with electric mixer on medium speed until light and fluffy. Beat in cream of coconut until well blended. Beat in lime juice, vanilla and 2 eggs until smooth. Spread over cookie base.
• 3Bake 40 to 45 minutes or until set and light golden brown on edges. Cool 30 minutes at room temperature. Refrigerate 1 hour to cool completely.
• 4Carefully spread frosting over filling. Sprinkle with coconut and lime peel. Cover; refrigerate 30 minutes. For bars, cut into 6 rows by 4 rows. Store covered in refrigerator.
  ********************************
  INGREDIENTS
  • 4 slices American cheese (about 3 ounces)
  • 1 1/2 pounds ground chuck (15 to 20 percent fat content), chilled
  • 1 1/4 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • Vegetable oil, for oiling the grill
  • 4 (4-inch) hamburger buns, split and toasted
  • Sliced pickles, for serving
  • Combine ground beef, Worcestershire sauce, garlic salt, and pepper in a large bowl; mix well. Form 8, thin patties from the beef. Each patty should be slightly larger than a slice of cheese.
  • Cut each slice of American cheese into 4 equal pieces; stack the pieces. Sandwich one stack of cheese between 2 ground beef patties. Tightly pinch edges together tightly seal the cheese within the meat. Repeat with the remaining cheese and patties.
  • Preheat a cast-iron or other heavy bottomed skillet over medium heat. Cook burgers until well browned, about 4 minutes. It is common for burgers to puff up due to steam from the melting cheese. Turn burgers and prick the top of each to allow steam to escape; cook until browned on the outside and no longer pink on the inside; about 4 minutes. Serve on hamburger buns.

The Perfect Burger

The truth is, some of you will not read this all the way to the bottom of the post.
Some of you will skim it and make a comment.
Some of you will scroll down to the recipe to see if you like it.
Some of you will actually read it word for word.

So....for you skimmers, and scrollers, I want to ask you this:

What do you put on your hamburger?
Do you even eat hamburgers?
Is there a special place from your youth....that made great hamburgers. Your "hang out" joint, if you will. The place that made the burgers of your dreams?

(you may comment on this OR write your own blog reminiscing about your favorite hamburger joint. If you write your own memory blog post, let me know )

When I was a teenager, my friends and I had a favorite hamburger joint....Zips, on Columbia Drive in Kennewick, WA.
Unbeknownst to me, my husband and his friends (who were much, much older than me and my friends) went to the Zips in Richland, WA. (across the river).
We argue to this day....just right now in fact....about which "Zips" was best.

YIKES! I win...the best and the FIRST Zips was in the town I grew up in. LOL
from their website:
Surprise! There really was a guy named “Zip.” Robert “Zip” Zuber built his first Zip’s Drive-in with the motto “Thrift and Swift” in Kennewick Washington in 1953, wisely figuring to serve the workers, scientists, and their families coming to the Tri-Cities to work in the new nuclear industry.

(okay, so we grew up in a government made, nuclear city. Richland...that's what it started out as in the 1940's..... our fathers "were" workers and scientists...really. But that's a story for another time )

Zips made the best hamburgers....the ones we dream about. Whenever we go home to visit our parents, we make it a point to stop at Zips and get a "papa joe" and some fries and fry sauce.
I searched the Internet, and I found a few reviews...
This is a really fun place to go out to eat when you are in a hurry. The food is great, the staff is nice, and the food is cooked quickly unlike a lot of other places I have eaten at.

I grew up with Zip's. They have the best burgers, fries and onion rings and oh yeah don't forget to ask for plenty of their Zip's sauce to dip them in. Been around for ages--nothings changed except the menu has gotten bigger.

But back to my friends..... we used to eat at Zips a couple times a week. We used to joke about growing up and getting married and bringing our children to eat once a week at Zips. We thought we'd never outgrow it! (and we didn't...we just moved away)
This was back before fast foods and play-yards, but we did have..... collectible glasses. Coke glasses. (or beverage glasses) and it was the thing to drive by everyday and get a coke....we had to collect the whole set of "Flintstones" or "Loony-Toone" glasses to put in our "hope chests". It was a cool thing to do.

On any given Saturday night, the parking lot was filled with cars full of teenagers....circa 1970's. My friend Sherry once, ran over to the car of a boy she liked (he must have been in the bathroom or somewhere ), leaned in and said to his girlfriend, "oh, I was just wondering if I lost my earrings in here."
We thought we were so funny!! So Cool, so..... hip.

from their website :
In the 1960’s Zip’s Drive-in was the quintessential American Graffiti-era drive-in, replete with cars encircling the buildings beneath colorful awnings, phones for calling in your order from your car or table, and carhops and waitresses to bring you your food. As charming as this might have been – and as much as it is missed by some – it was not quick enough to keep up with America’s fast paced lifestyle, and by the early 70’s drive-ins all over the country were closing. Minor and Kelly were savvy enough to see this trend and built some of the Northwest’s first drive-through lanes, allowing Zip’s Drive-in to remain one of the few local hamburger chains to continue to thrive, still keeping Robert “Zip” Zuber’s motto “Thrift and Swift” at the heart of our business today. Thank You for letting us serve the Northwest for the past 50 years

Every once in awhile, here in the Big backyard, we try to reproduce the Zips burger...the Papa Joe. It had ham on it. The Belly Buster? Ham AND bacon. And don't forget the fry sauce, the homemade tartar sauce, fish and chips---the best anywhere!!
I am usually a mustard and relish and onion hamburger person. Ketchup, nope, and Mayo--hell no!
Except when I'm trying to reproduce the Papa Joe from Zips.
It had a burger, ham, lettuce, cheese, a thinly, thinly sliced tomato and.....mayo? or some white Zips sauce. I can come close to a Zips burger, but not quite.

I will answer the questions I asked you earlier....

Yes I will eat a burger.
98% of the time I put mustard, relish or pickles and a slice of onion on it.
I like my cheese melted and my buns toasted.
My favorite hang-out joint was a local hamburger and fish drive-in (not a drive-thru, but a drive "in" )
It made the burger of my dreams.

and I tried to recreate it....like tonight. (it never quite works out)

PS where are "hang out" joints today? do teenagers really have them anymore? Like we did?