Small Group Gathering - Burgers

If you haven't been able to tell by my posts, I love gathering together with friends. I love everything about it. I love being able to sit with a group of friends enjoy soul nourishing conversation and wonderful food. I'm convinced it's the best thing in the whole world. 

A group of my husband's friends (and now my friends - don't ya love marriage?! More friends!!) wanted to start up a weekly Bible study for just those purposes. Meaningful conversation and growth as well as an awesome time of fellowship. 

So this is how it works:  

Every Thursday we meet. 

Each couple hosts about once a month. 

We choose and book or book of the Bible and do some pre-reading. 

The host couple chooses a main dish of a particular theme. 

Drinks, dessert, and sides of that theme are divvied up from there. 

Drinks couple is responsible for the discussion. 

Then you rotate everyone the next week. 

You give yourself one free week too to just go out and do something fun. 

It's just the best of group meeting and it's building community and vulnerability in the process. It's a beautiful system. Feel free to steal it and use it for your own get togethers!! 

Last night was Sean and my turn to host. This made my hospitable heart so happy. I love having people in our home and cooking for them. We decided last week our theme would be backyard BBQ being that it is almost the end of summer and that football season is in full swing (Go Blue!) and we would make burgers. 

Now. I have this love for burgers that is really unexplainable. I think mostly it's because of all the extra stuff you can put in them. Have I said this before...food is just a vehicle for sauce (or any extra stuff that wouldn't be considered a main dish). This is my philosophy and I'm sticking to it. One night I sent a text to my friend that said I wanted to go to Bar Louie for their burger specials the next night...mind you, I wasn't hungry and it was like 1:30am. I'm tellin ya, I got burgs on the mind. Burgs all day! Needless to say I was excited to feed these friends some burgers. 

I didn't think I would blog this so I apologize for my lack of pictures and step by step instructions, but I hope you try the recipe and are pleasantly surprised by how juicy and delish these are. All it takes is a sausage/ground beef mix, an egg, some Worcestershire, garlic powder, pepper, salt, a grill, and some gourmet fixins. And you've got this beaut. 

If I can just toot my own horn for a second...they were so good. 

So invite some friends over and set up a burger bar. Wow them with your lovely burgers and enjoy great conversations with the best of em. 

Love,

Food. 

Burgers for Grillin' Recipe

For the patties:

1 egg

2 parts ground beef 

A little less than 1 part country sausage 

(I used 2 lbs gr beef to 3/4 lb sausage (sorry if that doesn't make sense))

1 tbsp of Worcestershire 

1 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp salt

1 tsp pepper

For the fixins: 

Sliced cheeses (muenster and cheddar were our cheeses of choice)

Green leaf lettuce 

Tomato slices

Sliced onions

Dill and bread and butter sliced pickles

Sautéed mushrooms

Semi-caramelized onions

Condiments of choice 

onion, kaiser, ciabatta, whatever kind of bun you want!

You could also do bacon, blue cheese, buffalo sauce, olive spread, fried eggs, etc etc etc. I'm tellin ya, sky's the limit!!

1. Get the grill going - till the charcoal is orange and ashy
2. Mix all the ingredients together for the burger patties and let it sit to set for a bit.
3. Cut up and organize your fixins on pretty plates 
4. Sauté onions with a couple pats of butter, cover and let brown a bit 
5. Add (or do separately) the same thing with the mushrooms. 
6. Form the burger patties from the set meat. 
7. Grill them up! I'm bad at being patient so I'm always flipping the burgers a bunch, but if you're patient and your coals are hot, it will take about 5-6 minutes per side I would say. 
8. You could melt the cheese on the grill, but I learned a nice little trick to infuse more moisture and really get the cheese nice and creamy. Take a lid or a small metal bowl and put it over the burger on a skillet over the stove. Spray or splash a little water underneath the bowl and let the moisture melt the cheese - also makes the burger nice and juicy especially if you have to wait to serve them. 
9. Go to town with your fixins and eat a delicious burger that you'll want again the next day!