Cookout Day

James', Nicole's and my first cookout at the new house came and went in a fairly successful fashion. Of course, I am defining success as: nothing caught on fire, no one was hospitalized and the police did not show up (other than the officers who were invited). In addition, many beverages were consumed and there was no damage to the house. After being involved in so many house-damaging and police-arriving incidents in college, it was a nice change of pace.

The clear highlight of the entire party was Mom's taco dip, which lasted approximately 19 minutes. After that, James took care of grilling duties, and we had some chicken wings, hot dogs (gross) and cheeseburgers. The wings were good, but the burgers were excellent. I am not sure how I ended up with one (it was on a plate and I decided it was mine; this might not have been the case), but I was pretty pleased with the decision. Next party we'll have to go with more burgers and fewer hot dogs, since we ran out of hot dog buns and people were using our precious burger buns with their nasty hot dogs.

Also, we had several cases of Summer Ale, so there was some nice progress on this year's Summer Ale Challenge. That may have also been responsible for the mysteriously appearing burger. Good times.

Happy Father's Day

Nothing fancy here, just a couple burgers over at Dad & Kelly's for Father's Day. I think they were the usual ones they get from Big Y, kept a little bit rare. Even though Kelly eats charcoal burgers, she still grills good ones for the rest of us. What a nice lady.

There were also tomatoes to put on them, because as everyone knows, burgers are much better when tomato is included. Don't ask Melissa though, because she is silly and thinks that tomatoes are bad. There was lettuce too, but who gets excited about lettuce?

I think that Wednesday night might have to be a burger night to celebrate the end of school for the year and the temporary suspension of my oppressive math regime. Also to celebrate the passing of the 200 mark for this summer's challenge. Now that is something to get excited about.

-Jon

Live From New York

Finally. After several months of reading Jon’s posts, I am officially joining in his quest to find the world’s best burger. Hopefully I can contribute any and all burger-related news with some semblance of regularity, but I’m afraid that Jon may have me beat on that count, considering my 150 sq. ft. New York City apartment with no outdoor space prevents me from grilling anything at all (as much as I wish I could!). But what NYC lacks in space, it certainly makes up for with some of the best burger joints on the East Coast. It’s my mission to hit up as many of these places as I can, as long as my stomach (and waistline) can handle it. Stay tuned…

In Lieu of Work

After something like 172 days of doing work, it was finally time for the 8th grade field trip to High Meadow. This marks the 5th time or so that I've been there, because that was definitely the exact same 8th grade trip that the school took when I was there. Hey, it's Ludlow: if something changes there is going to be a panic attack on an epidemic scale.

The thing about this field trip that is great is that there is pretty much no responsibility on my part other than eating and making sure everyone that is on the bus on the way is also on the bus for the trip home (success!). And obviously I decided to go with a cheeseburger for lunch. Considering that the people cooking were feeding something like 5 schools of kids, I can't be too upset with the burger being way more cooked than it needed to be. You gotta figure there were something like a thousand kids there at once. I think the most burgers I've ever been responsible for at one time is like 8. Besides, there was red onion. Can't really go wrong with red onion.

I bet next year I can just copy and paste this exact same thing and have it still be true. Stay tuned for about 12 months.

-Jon

A New Record

After a wild night with the Funbags, I had to make my way down to CT for Amy and Scott's engagement cookout/yard sport extravaganza. And since my car had to spend the night across town, that meant I got a late start on my trip down after walking across town to pick it up. This actually worked out pretty well, because it meant that the food was already ready by the time I arrived.

I am not exactly sure what the seasoning on the burgers was (because the name of the seasoning was Burger Shakers, a somewhat vague title), but it was great. I think the order of events was something along the line of: open a Magic Hat, eat a burger, finish Hank's game of croquet, eat another burger, sit on a hammock, eat another burger (this one only had a bottom bun for some reason, which caused much amusement for everyone else present), sit around making jokes about college, sit around making jokes about pretty much everyone we went to college with, and eat another burger. Yes, I ate 4 burgers. That is a personal best. And, possibly more impressive, there were no repercussions like meat poisoning. I think that record will probably stand for a while, if not forever.

-Jon

More Spicy Burgers

Well, maybe it wasn't that spicy, but you would think a burger with the name Fire Pit Bacon Burger that had pepper-jack cheese and smoky chipotle spread (and yes I am currently looking at the menu online) would have at least a little zip to it.

I also learned another valuable lesson about women. Apparently if one tells you at 5:30 that you should show up any time after 6, she really means that you should show up immediately at 6 because if you aren't there by 6:13 you will get a unnecessarily angry text message about your current location. Also, as a side note, if you are already "late," (although I can't see how you could be late if the time frame is so vague) she may get upset if you open a beer upon arrival. Even if you drink the beer in 8 minutes. I know, I was shocked as well.

Anyway, I was sort of the odd man out (literally) at dinner, as I am the only one who got a burger, the only one who got a beer, the only one that is a male and the only one who eats burgers properly. Meaning rare. Technically the burger was not really rare, but I ordered it rare so I get points for trying. It seems that Melissa, Kathryn and Diana all are fans of charcoal burgers, by which I mean burgers that taste like charcoal, not charcoal grilled.

The burger was good in spite of its failure to be spicy, and it had red onion on it, which is fast becoming a required topping for me. Stay tuned for my next story in which I don't eat for 19 hours and then end the fasting with a ridiculous lunch.

-Jon

My Best Work Yet

Alright, now we're talking.  I think I'm finally getting the hand of this grilling thing.  Well, getting the hang of it again.  I guess taking the winter off really hurts your abilities.

Today there was no falling apart of burgers, nothing fell through the grating, and everything came out right.  The burger du jour was grass-fed local beef from lovely Shelburne Falls, courtesy of Kathryn.  I decided to get a little crazy and try to do something fancy, and it ended up working out pretty well.  I picked up a red onion at Randall's (since it is clearly the superior onion) and went with the Nicky S. plan of grilling a nice cross section of it.  Then I threw a little crushed red pepper on the meat along with a bit of Tuscan seasoning (which comes highly recommended by Nicole M.).  Finally, in a stroke of genius, I melted the cheese OVER the onion.  Seriously, from now on, all toppings will go under the cheese.  It's fantastic.

After all that preparation, the burgers were finally ready.  I will say this for the Tuscan stuff:  even if it doesn't make the burgers better (even though it does), it makes everything smell great when you open up the grill.  Maybe it's part potpourri?  The burgers came out nice and rare, and as of yet, there is no food poisoning.

Plus, I got to add to the Summer Ale Challenge (also courtesy of Kathryn).  Between beers and burgers, there isn't a whole lot that could ruin this night.

-Jon

Call Me Lance

Ok, that is a little bit on the fruity side, what with the ball thing.  And that guy from N*Sync.  Or the Backstreet Boys, whichever one had the Lance guy.  But I did ride a bicycle today for about 6 miles, so it's sort of appropriate, and definitely referring to Lance Armstrong.  Not that I am on any sort of health kick; it was strictly to get a burger.  And it was a fantastic decision.

We had burgers that were very similar to the stuffed bleu cheese burgers from last time.  Possibly the same burgers, although these ones were spicier.  Also, I am not sure if we had tomatoes with them last time.  But the bleu cheese inside was great again, and the bleu cheese on top (along with grilled onions, which may or may not have fallen on the ground).  Plus, spicy burgers are making a strong case for being superior than the non-spicy kind (for instance, the Blackjack Burger).  And you really can't go wrong with a couple Summer Ales.  But not too many, because it might be a crime to drink and ride a bicycle.  And I don't want any firsthand knowledge if it is.

-Jon

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.