Bacon Wrapped Turkey Burgers stuffed with Blue Cheese

I have been MIA for the last couple of months.  I would like to say it is because I have been vacationing on a yacht in some far off, remote and exotic locale but unfortunately that has not been the case.  I just semmed to have reverted back to my old, pre-cooking blog ways of not wanting to spend much time in the kitchen cooking.  I'd like to say that with this post, I have shaken my lazy bum ways off and will be posting recipes I've found and made weekly again, but I just can't guarentee that.  It is rather hard to shake the laziness bug when it takes hold, don't you think?   I have really enjoyed doing this blog for the last year so I am sure I will shake this thing silliness off and get back into the swing of things again in my kitchen. 

Since this is Memorial Day weekend, I knew I simply had to make burgers.  We have had some rainy weather here so we haven't yet gotten our grill in operating order, so I decided to use the oven for these.  I also have to tell you where I found great inspiration for my burgers from a post for Big Fat Bacon Sliders on The Pioneer Woman's website.  My version of these full size burgers came out great.  The bacon and blue cheese definitley helped to infuse great flavor into normally kind of bland ground turkey meat. Yum!!

Bacon Wrapped Turkey Burgers stuffed with Blue Cheese

Ingredients (makes 4 burgers):
1 lb Extra Lean Ground Turkey
4 Tbsp Blue Cheese crumbles
8 slices of bacon

Directions:
1.  Form 8 patties thin patties with the turkey meat.  Place a Tbsp blue cheese crumbles in the center of 4 of the patties.  Use one of the patties without the crumbles to cover and seal in the blue cheese. 
2.  Wrap your 4 sealed and formed patties with two strips of bacon, so they criss cross each other.
3.  Place the bacon wrapped patties on a broiler pan because these are going to drip a bit on you in the oven.  Bake at 400F for 20-30 minutes.



Over the Top, Amazing Green Bean Bundles!

I have never been a very big fan of green beans.  Never have been and never in a million years did I think this would change, ever.  My husband, on the other hand, absolutely loves green beans.  He can eat them by the can-ful, he loves them so much. 

Yesterday he came home with two bags full of green beans and asked me if I could find a recipe to try with them.  Inwardly, I groaned.  I just don't care for the vegetable and thought it may be difficult on me to find anything that even remotely sounded like it would be good to me. 

It turned out I didn't have to devote too much time before inspiration came, in the form of bacon.  I found countless recipes for bundling up green beans in bacon, which is downright brillant.  Recall the saying "Everything tastes better with bacon."  I am defintely a believer!  I decided I would take this idea and roll with it, developing my own very simple dish. 

Over the Top, Amazing Green Bean Bundles

Ingredients:

1 lb fresh Green Beans, de-stemmed
1/2 stick of salted butter
1/2 teaspoon garlic salt

Directions:
1.  Preheat oven to 375F
2.  Blanch the Green Beans, by tossing them in boiling water for 3 minutes then transferring to a bowl of really cold water for 3 minutes. 
3.  Melt butter and mix in the garlic salt.
4.  Wrap about 7 green beans in a slice of bacon and place on a baking sheet seam side down.  Continue until all the green beans are wrapped.
5.  Spoon the butter mixture over each green bean bundle.
6.  Cook for 20-25 minutes, depending on how crisp you want your bacon to be.

I was floored.  These were absolutely amazing, as I am sure you can tell by the inspired name I gave my dish! Mmm, I will be making these countless times from here on out. 

Celebrating National Grilled Cheese Month

It is most likely no surprise that I am a  lover of the grilled cheese sandwhich. I probably have it for lunch or dinner, once a week and I always make it the same way.  Bread, slice of cheddar, shredded italian cheese and lots of butter!  The shredded cheese can be a bit messy during the flip portion of the cooking process but I don't care because I have found it to be just so darn good this way and once you find the perfect combination of cheeses for your sandwhich, it becomes really hard to change it at all.  However, since April is National Grilled Cheese month, I thought it would be fitting to celebrate this tried and true sandwhich by changing it up just a bit. I did some digging around, searching for something to pep up my standard grilled cheese sandwich, and found many many different variations but one in particular intrigued me.  For some reason I seem to be really drawn to the sweet and salty flavor combinations lately.

Apple & Bacon Grilled Cheese modified from a Tyler Florence recipe found on Food Network

Ingredients:
2 slices of bread (I used Orowheat Oatnut, but use whatever bread you prefer)
1 slice Cheddar Cheese
Shredded Italian blend cheese, a good handful will do wonders!
2 slices of bacon, cooked
Thin slices of a Granny Smith Apple
Butter
Dijon Mustard

Directions:
1. Butter the bottom of each slice of bread. 
2. Spread one slice with dijon mustard, add slice of chedder, bacon, handful of shredded italian blend cheese and bacon and cover with the second slice of  buttered bread. 
3.  Place the sandwhich on a skillet, set to medium high heat.  I allow mine to cook about four or five minutes then flip and cook an additional four or five minutes.  I like mine nice and golden brown color.
4.  Cut sandwhich in half and enjoy! 

After painting our countertops last week, we got the painting bug and decided to paint the entire kitchen.  I decided two things: 1. I really hate painting and 2. I love my fresh "new"& improved kitchen, so it was well worth all the horrible, wretched work!

Maple Bacon & Cheddar Oven Pancake

The recipe I decided on for tonight's dinner wasn't due to any past memories of people or places.  I decided on this dish because I needed to get rid of some eggs and bacon that were about to expire in my fridge.   It is as simple as that.  I did have a dish in mind though.  One that I had been wanting to try since I saw a friend of mine tweet about eating bacon pancakes months ago.  (Inspiration from twitter, who'd of thunk it?)  I thought it was such a brillant concept.  Bacon and pancakes go hand in hand in my life anyway.  I always have to have a couple of slices of bacon when I eat a pancake, which I swirl around and, to be quite frank, drench in maple syrup.  Oh my but that sweet & salty combo is just simply fabulous, don'tcha think?

I did a quick search on Google to find ideas on just how I should make this dish.  The second recipe that came up on my search was the one I knew I had to try, although I did decide to modify it a bit from the original recipe.

Maple Bacon & Cheddar Oven Pancake modified from chefjulie1

Ingredients:
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup whole milk
1/4 cup pure maple syrup
2 eggs
1 1/4 cup cheddar cheese
6 slices thick cut bacon


Directions:
1.  Set oven to 375F, line rimmed baking sheet with foil and bake bacon for 20 minutes.  (I am obsessed with baking bacon in the oven, I can simply leave it alone and clean up is super easy since all you do is toss the foil away!)
2.  While the bacon is cooking, whisk first five ingredients in a large bowl until combined.  Mix in eggs, milk, maple syrup and 3/4 cup cheese until well blended.  Pour mixture into a buttered cast iron skillet, turn heat on oven down to 350 and bake for 15-20 minutes or until a toothpick comes clean from the center. (Bacon should be done now, I let it cool for a bit, soaked up some of the grease off it and then crumbled it up.)
3.   Add the bacon and cheese over the top of the pancake and bake until cheese melts, about 2 minutes.
4.  Allow to cool, cut into wedges and serve with maple syrup.

Such divine yumminess, you are my new favorite pancake!

I indulged big time on this dish.  I had two huge wedges, it was just so darn good I couldn't resist.  My hubby had four slices.  He loved it too, although I think he was a bit unsure what to think about it at first, but that first bite just reels you in.  He had worked up quite an appetite since he is currently in the process of painting our countertops.  Yes, you heard correctly.  He saw this paint advertised on Good Morning America or one of those shows anyway.  It makes your counters look like granite.  I was skeptical at first too but we had awful horrid colored countertops and if this didn't work, it would give us a good excuse to get some new ones.  If it did work, then all the better for us.    

 It is still a work in progress, but it looks really good so far. I will post another photo when it is completely finished!

Better than a Restaurant Bacon & Bleu Burgers

"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today," Wimpy (from Popeye)


I love Cheeseburgers.  In fact, I love them sooo much my Grandpa used to tell me that I was going to turn into one! (Hasn't happened yet, but I am still working on it.)  Looking back, I would have to say that my love for all things cheeseburgers came from my Aunt Dode, who enjoyed taking my Mom, Brother and I out to eat at Buger King on a weekly basis.  These outings are a part of some of my very fond memories of my Aunt Dode, who passed away when I was just 5 years old.  Since I was so little my memories of her are mostly hazy ones, like she loved to play Bingo, she would get her hair done at the salon every week, and she had this amazing red plastic toy box in the shape of a train that I loved pulling the toys out of so I could crawl inside.  I loved that toy box.


I have carried this love for cheeseburgers throughout my life.  I make no attempt to hide this love of mine.  I probably order a cheeseburger from restaurant menu's 8 out of 10 times.  In fact, the last time I went out to eat with my friends, one of them commented on the fact that I wasn't getting the cheeseburger and she was! 

It was only in the last 5 years that I started getting advertureous and began trying new variations of cheeseburgers when I went out to eat.  One of my favorites is a Bacon and Bleu burger.  Mmmm, my mouth starts watering just thinking about it.  I thought to myself, "Why not give this one a try myself?"  And so I did!  And I did it without adding many ingredients to it.  I figure less is better with something as rich and flavorful as bleu cheese. 

 "Better then a Restaurant" Bacon & Bleu Burgers

Ingredients: (makes 4 burgers)

1 lb ground hamburger

2 oz bleu cheese crumbles

2 oz cream cheese

8 slices bacon

salt

pepper

hamburger buns

butter

Directions:

1.  Preheat oven 400F.  Line rimmed baking pan with foil and place bacon slices side by side on the pan.  Bake for 20 minutes. 
2.  Combine bleu cheese and cream cheese, salt and pepper to taste, in a small bowl.
3.  Flatten hamburger into 8 uniform patties.  Spread about a tablespoon of the bleu cheese mixture on top of one patty, then place a second patty on top of that and seal the edges up well.  Continue until you have all four burgers formed.  (Side Note: Make a indentation in the middle of each burger before putting on the grill.  This helps keep them flat when cooking instead of rounding, can't remember where I heard about this little hint but it works, so give it a try.)
4.  On an indoor grill, set to about 375F, grill the patties until done to your likeness.  I like mine well done which was about 6 minutes on each side. 

5.  Butter both sides of  your hamburger buns and set them on the grill until toasted.

6.  Stack the bun with the bacon and patty and ketchup.  I kept mine pretty simple.  You can add any other toppings to your liking. 

 Just look at all this burger!  YUMMY!!!

I have to tell you how the name of my dish came about.  My hubby took one bite of his burger and said, "This is better then a restaurant!" and he was so right.  This is one amazing, juicy and flavorful burger.  I am so absolutely thrilled this turned out as yummy as it did.  Woo Hoo!!!   

My hubby snapped an action shot.  Note my little kitchen helper, at least he stayed out from under foot this time, barely!