Summer grillin'

My roommate and I had a friend joining us for dinner tonight. I called her in a panic at 5pm "what are we going to make?!" Luckily, today was a beautiful day, the weather was perfect and I knew we had to fire up the grill. In order to decide what to make I had to take into consideration that our guest was a male, and that usually means meat. What better way to satisfy a hungry boy than with homemade burgers? So here is the recipe for my homemade jalapeno burgers (which did not contain jalapenos tonight much to my dismay because my roommate can't stand anything spicier than pepper), accompanied by sweet potato fries.

Ingredients
 For the burgers (makes about 6):
1 lb lean groud beef
2 onions, one chopped one sliced
2 cups mushrooms, sliced
3 tbsp BBQ sauce
2 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
2 cloves garlic
1 jar pickled jalapenos, drained and chopped
1 egg
Goat cheese
Butter
2 tbsp sugar
6 hamburger buns (I prefer ciabatta buns...my roommate likes plain hamburger buns. Luckily for me I won the rock paper scissors competition)

In a frying pan, melt a tbsp of butter and add the sliced onions. Add the 2 tbsp of sugar and saute for 7 minutes until caramelized.  Remove the onions from the pan and place in a serving dish. In the same pan add another tbsp of butter and fry the sliced mushrooms for 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a second serving dish.

 

  

In a glass bowl combine the diced onions, ground beef, BBQ and Worcestershire sauces, egg, garlic and jalapenos. Mix with your hands and form 6 balls of equal proportion. On a cutting board squish the ball down with a dinner plate until it is flat. This prevents the burger from falling apart on the grill. After you have made all the burgers fry them on a grill at medium heat for 15 minutes or until cooked through, flipping them over half way. Just before you take off the burgers, place a slice of goat cheese on top, meanwhile toasting the buns.

Today I assembled the burgers with grainy dijon mustard and the caramelized onions and mushrooms. I do have to say it was a good choice.

As a side, I made rosemary sweet potato fries served with spicy mayo. I love sweet potato but apparently not as much as my roommate (she hugged me in the grocery store when I suggested these for dinner).

Ingredients
For the sweet potato fries:
3 sweet potatoes
3 tbsp dried rosemary
4 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp low fat mayo
2 tsp sriracha hot sauce

First, wash the potatoes, remove the blemishes and slice them into french fry sizes. Place fries into a plastic bag and add the olive oil and rosemary. Twist the bag closed and shake it to make sure that all the fries are covered evenly with oil and rosemary. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350℉ for 10-20 minutes, turning half way. Fries should be soft and slightly crispy. In a small bowl combine the mayo and sriracha to make a spicy mayo to serve with your fries.

 

We convinced our dinner guest that it was worth it for him to trade his bike-fixing skills for our culinary expertise in the world of BBQing. Hope it was worth it for him, because it sure was worth it for me; a delicious dinner and a ready-to-ride bike, what more could a girl ask for?