Getting Better

Looks like I am getting the hang of this thing.  Today I was able to grill myself a burger without it falling apart AND keeping it rare.  Although it probably stayed together because it was formed by someone else, but that's not the point.  I went with a combination of Worcestershire sauce and spicy Montreal steak rub to make it slightly more awesome.  This was successful.  I also got to have chips and jalapeno cheddar dip, since I was at Dad and Kelly's house.

In other news, Casey is finally supposed to be contributing here, and that should make the amount of burger related news roughly double.  We'll see how that works out.  I reserve the right to make snarky comments on her posts as well, since I apparently have admin rights.  Hooray abuses of power!

-Jon

A First

In what I believe is a first for me, today I ate a burger which was specifically designed to make it on any future top 10 lists that I may put up here.  I feel kind of special.

Since I was invited to a Memorial Day barbecue that was rumoured to have cheeseburgers, I threw out my original plan of not going to a barbecue and replaced it with a plan of definitely attending a barbecue.  This turned out to be a good decision.

Erica's roommate Kelly was determined to not only make the blog (which is obviously going to happen if there is a burger eaten) but to get her burger noticed.  Well, wish granted.  She not only made some homemade patties from ground beef instead of frozen stuff (hey, that is impressive stuff for a barbecue), there were 3 different choices for burgers!  I ended up going for the bacon & blue cheese burger, which had bacon and blue cheese inside the meat!  There were also tomatoes in there.  Apparently that is a popular thing to do out in Eastern Mass.  Who knew?  Additionally, there was bacon to go on top of the burger along with some pepperjack cheese (which may be my new favorite cheese).  And to make it even more awesome, the cheese was melted over the bacon so it couldn't escape.  There were also tomatoes and onions to go under the burger as well.

Looks like I am going to have to try harder from now on at my own house.

-Jon

The Required Somerville Experience

Ever after all the burgers of the past week, I still had to make a command decision to visit R.F. O'Sullivan before the weekend was over.  I think that my journalistic integrity requires it.  Plus, I was pretty pumped to try the Blackjack burger after the last time I was there.  So after a pretty action packed day which included a surprise trip to the Red Sox and an incredibly expired beer at a place called The Lower Depths (although there were also some good, non-expired beers as well), we headed over to R.F.'s with Alex's friend Lindsey.

Since I was already planning on this burger being super fantastic, I was a little nervous that it wasn't going to live up to those expectations.  Fortunately, that was not the case.  There were some cajun spices on that thing, and the sauce on top was great.  I think it was some kind of creole sauce, but I am pretty sure I don't know what that means.

I do know that this is now the burger against which all future burgers will be judged.  ESPNZone Black & Blue Burger, you have been displaced!

-Jon

As Promised

After a cheeseburger for lunch and some wings for a snack, we headed over to the SWC party to celebrate our workout successes slash bemoan our failures.  Since the penalty for failure is $20, and I am quite cheap, I was in the celebration group.  The money from all the failures goes toward the food and beer for the party, which makes the beer even more delicious.*

Shortly after arriving (we were on beer #2), the party coordinator, Shakes, brought down a bunch of hamburgers and threw them on the grill with a request to me to keep an eye on them.  Then, perhaps because he heard about my difficulties Tuesday, he asked Alex to keep an eye on my keeping an eye.  Then he realized his foolishness and asked 2 other people to watch us and make sure we didn't forget.  Eventually this ridiculous chain-of-command broke down into Alex watching the burgers with me supervising (a fancy word for doing nothing).

The burgers ended up being quite delicious.  There was some kind of seasoning that we could not identify, as well as onions being chopped up inside.  There were also some tomatoes chopped up in there as well!  That was quite a pleasant surprise.

From there the night got a little wacky, and somehow I ended up wearing a toga.  It's not quite as strange as it sounds, since the party was a toga party, but I am not positive of the order of events that resulted in me not wearing pants and instead wearing a bed sheet.  Life is funny sometimes.

-Jon

*Since the beer was some kind of domestic keg beer, the level of deliciousness is debatable.  

One Down, 49 To Go

So obviously with my borderline insane love of burgers, I was fairly excited to come across this link.  Now I clearly have a lot of work to do, but I can cross off the easiest (in theory) one after visiting Christopher's in Cambridge (conveniently located right near Alex's).

Since the burger on the list was the English Burger, I didn't even consult the menu and went for it rare.  Remember when they stopped letting you order burgers rare?  That was a terrible time for eating.  Anyways, this burger was great.  I am not sure if it was the seasoning stuff or the fact that it was marinated in some kind of Sam Adams based marinade (ok, it was the beer) but that was a good burger.  I am not sure if it's the best in the state though, because those burgers at R. F. O'Sullivan are also quite good.  Actually, this burger was probably good enough to be on the menu there.  And it was served on an English muffin, which I think may be where they came up with the name. 

I think that dinner may also be cheeseburgers.  Is it possible to get meat poisoning?

-Jon

Two for one

As is generally the case on Thursdays, I ended up at Dad and Kelly's for dinner, and it just so happened that this week was burger week.  Score.  And, much like Tuesday, the side dish was corn.  Except this time is was grown-up corn, as in corn on the cob.  This was a slight improvement over the Smartfood popcorn side dish with the last burger.  Also, the grilling was performed at a much higher level.  So basically Thursday's burgers were all around done better than Tuesday's burgers.  And I ate 2.  With tomatoes.  Then, Bill was quite upset with himself after only asking for one burger since they ended up being so delicious.  My guess is this is going to result in him asking for 2 next time and then being sorry.  Only time will tell.

Even after 3 burgers this week so far, there are going to be a plethora of burgers eaten this weekend in Cambridge.  Stay tuned.

-Jon

I Actually Grill Something. . .

. . . although it was with mixed results.  On the plus side, no one got food poisoning (yet).  And it's been over 24 hours, so I think the window on that one is closed.  On the minus side (is that word even used like that?), I rushed my burger patty construction, so mine maybe fell apart a little.  By which I mean completely fell apart, but I was able to salvage it using some quick reflexes and duct tape.*

Basically the burgers came about because I really wanted to have another burger with blue cheese inside it, so I bought some cheese last week but somehow forgot the important part of a burger: the actual meat.  Fortunately, some meat magically appeared in the freezer this past weekend, so I used the promise of meat to lure Kathryn over (I hate cooking for just myself) and threw some meat together in burger form.  Also, it turns out that we have a patty making device, so I felt pretty foolish after my burger fell apart.  Luckily I don't suffer from any burger regret, because the actual burger was pretty good.  Next time I will be more adequately prepared to form raw meat.

Also, I'll probably come up with a better side dish than Smartfood popcorn.  Maybe.

-Jon

*That may be an exaggeration.  I actually have slow reflexes.

Red Robin (Yummmm)

Well, it seems pretty clear that the Red Robin in Wilbraham is vastly superior to the Red Robin in Holyoke.  Also, Holyoke is a word and Wilbraham is not, according to spellcheck.  Also, I am apparently ridiculously allergic to cats now, since I can barely open my eyes to type.  But none of this is really on topic.

Mom, Chuck, Bill and I went to Red Robin for dinner because Mom and Chuck were at Home Depot, and Red Robin is one plaza over.  I, of course, was fully in support of this idea for 2 reasons:  burgers are a great choice for dinner, and there was pretty much a 0% that I would have to pay for this burger.

I decided to try a burger that I was 80% sure I had never had before, so I went with the Bleu Ribbon Burger.  Get it, Bleu Ribbon instead of Blue Ribbon?  It's because there was crumbled Bleu cheese on the burger.  They are so clever.  There was also some kind of chipotle sauce, which was pretty good.  There was also definitely some kind of sauce, like maybe Heinz 57 or A1 or something with a number in it.  And there were some onion straws, which just seemed excessive.  Maybe they were there for health reasons?  Are onions even healthy?  I'll have to look this up, by which I mean completely forget about it.

I would eat that burger again.  And I would eat it with its wrapper thing still on it, because that was a really messy burger.  That chipotle sauce gets everywhere.

-Jon

Burgers & Hockey

After going to the Worcester Sharks game tonight with Jen and Melissa, the number of hockey games I have attended in the past. . . 5 years has increased to 1.  Which is kind of strange, since hockey games are actually pretty fun to attend, even though we didn't get to throw those foam pucks on the ice.  I guess it was some sort of contest for tickets or real pucks or God only knows what.

Before the game, we stopped for dinner at some place called Junior's in Worcester.  It was a nice place, and we could eat outside, which unfortunately let us listen to 2 separate siren incidents, 137 motorcycles, and one guy who was driving down the street dragging some part of his car underneath for what had to be several miles.  Also, the Red Sox were getting absolutely hammered by the Rays, and that is always a bad thing.

I ended up getting the hamburger (which was the only burger on the menu) and threw a bunch of stuff on top of it, like bacon, onions, mushrooms and cheese, in addition to the tomato that it came with.  There was also lettuce, but it didn't make the cut.  And even though I ordered it rare, and this burger came anything but rare (more like medium well, but hey, cooking is hard even if it's your JOB!), it was still pretty good.

Also, the fries were fantastic.  You gotta have good fries to go with a good burger.

-Jon

More Bacon!

For Thursday night dinner, it's always a surprise what is going to be coming since that is dinner with Dad and Stepmom day.  But as the weather improves, the chances are greater and greater that it will be a burger day.  Last week, there were burgers in the fridge, and I was pretty pumped, but it was not to be.  It ended up being Chinese food, which ordinarily is a fantastic choice, but for some reason the place decided to:  forget that Dad ordered food, put a super-rush on the food, and pack it up before it was actually hot.  The dumplings were good though.

Fast forward a week and it was again Thursday night.  This time I was coming straight from volleyball, so there was no chance to get psyched up.  However, when I smelled the bacon cooking, I was pretty sure there were burgers coming, and the sight of Ruffle's chips and that Frito-Lay jalapeno cheese dip (it's a Dias thing) confirmed my suspicions.  It was burger night!!

That was a good burger.  And the Sox just scored 3 runs as I type this.  And I've got a Sam Adams in lap (it would be dangerous to type and drink at the same time).  Life is good.

-Jon

Bringing Home the Bacon

There is nothing that quite compares to middle school drama.  And surprisingly enough, I am not using that in the sense that anyone would expect it.  I am literally talking about drama, as in the drama club's presentation of a play called Flapper.  Yes, I went to it.  And I dragged Kathryn.  Mostly because my students asked me to go, but I usually go to it every year since apparently the kids "appreciate it so much" in the words of Mrs. Pereira.

Somehow I ended up not having dinner before the play, so we went to Uno Chicago Grill (hereafter referred to as Uno's, because that's how I remember it from growing up) and I was ready to order within 4 seconds of sitting down.  Bring Home the Bacon Burger, spicy cheddar cheese, rare, Sam Summer.  I didn't even know places still made burgers rare anymore (other than R.F. O'Sullivan's, which will probably give you raw meat if you asked for it), so it was even better than I expected.  And I have high expectations for that burger.

It was made even better by the fact that I ended up not paying either.  That Kathryn is quick on the draw when it comes to getting the check.  If I were more of a gentleman, I may have even been upset by it.  Luckily I am not.

-Jon