Two all Beef Patties Special Sauce Lettuce Cheese Pickles Onion on a Sesame Seed Bun

For the first time in MONTHS (many months), I went to McDonald's the other day. I left feeling dirty (and my mouth tasting of salt). I can do better. This post is all about doing better...

Remember a couple days ago when the Master Baker makes HAMBURGER BUNS - And Bakes an Egg in 'em. Well, I can do more than just bake an egg in em. If you recall, I loaded these up with some red pepper flakes, so the buns started better, with a little za za zing already added. I did take one of the buns and cut the top and the bottom off so that I could get that Big Mac look of a piece of toast separating the double decker burgers. I also brushed each with some olive oil and toasted all sides to make them MORE better.

For the "special sauce", Which looks and tastes surprisingly like Thousand Island Dressing to me, I wanted to make it special indeed...

1/2 Jalapeno Pepper
1 TBS Mayonnaise
1 TBS BBQ Sauce of choice

And what would a "special sauce" be without a secret ingredient. Mine is a Tablespoon of honey. I also added some sun-dried tomatoes to add that extra little 90's hot restaurant ingredient to make my sauce just a little bit MORE better.

So, can you really improve the taste of just a couple beef patties. You betcha! Now, normally, I would make a burger of a mixture with about 25% of the patty being a flavored sausage. But, in the spirit of the better challenge, I stuck with the two all beef patties. I did use 80/20 ground beef, so that fat content (fat means flavor) was just right for a juicy burger. I made them pretty thin (you do have to be able to wrap your mouth around them). While they were cooking, I used a bit of Garlic Sauce on one side, and Soy Sauce on the other. These are both thin sauces that do not have the thickness of my "special sauce" above. So they acted as a marinade to be absorbed into the beef. My beef is MUCH BETTER!

For the cheese, I selected a very strong white cheddar. After the beef patties were cooked, I added the cheese and put the pan in the broiler for 3 minutes, so that the cheese was nicely melted. Sounds MUCH Better to me.


And now, it's just a matter of assembling the better parts to make a MUCH MUCH MUCH BETTER BURGER. I like the looks of the fluffy lettuce, a slice of Vidalia sweet onion and sliced a sweet pickle.

Bottom bun

Lettuce

First Beef Patty without the Cheese

Pickles

Special Sauce

Middle Bun

The Beef Patty with the Cheese

Onion Slice

Top Bun...

I don't want to say health food... It ain't. But really, doesn't this look BETTER and just a shade, it is BETTER for you. No preservatives, no additives, no added salt...

It is just ... BETTER!

And Hey, It's Thursday... And you all know what that means don't ya... Today I am hosting my weekly sister posting of I CAN COOK THAT, over at OUR KRAZY KITCHEN! If you follow the links, you will see a very detailed explanation of my journey to find an edible Brussels Sprout. I did it, not just once, but I actually made TWO recipes for good tasting Brussels Sprouts (and I hate Brussels Sprouts).


http://thekrazykitchen.blogspot.com/2010/01/believe-it-or-not-daves-2-favorite.html