Aretae Burger Recipe

5 burgers, done aretae-style

Ingredients:

1/2 onion

1 tbsp chopped garlic

2 slices of ham lunchmeat

1 jalepeno

5 mushrooms

bacon

Avocado

Mrs. Renfrow's Ghost Pepper Salsa

Other burger toppings.

Prep:

Bacon.

Cook bacon -- tonight: thick bacon ... 5 people, 4 slices = 1/2 pound of bacon. -- I used a microwave bacon tray, and cooked the thick bacon in the microwave bacon tray on auto-cook for microwave bacon -- but I had to double the time, because the bacon was SO thick.

Aretae Burger Topping.

Pour bacon grease into a skillet. chop onions, jalepeno, mushrooms, ham, and garlic, and put them all in the skillet with the bacon grease. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally until mushrooms and onions are well cooked (10 min?).

Burgers:

Take about 1/2 lb of ground meat per burger, shape them into thick (1 inch?) patties with dimples in the middle (to prevent center burger bulge). Salt + pepper both sides liberally.

Place a large pan on the stovetop on high heat. Heat the pan ... ~5 minutes. Ensure the pan is large enough to hold all the burgers you'll cook. Place burgers on pan, cook for 4 minutes on a side. Today, I used a 3-4 inch deep, anodized aluminum pan, covered to 90% with a lid while cooking...and when flipping the burgers, I poured off the burger-grease. Remove promptly.

Buns:

Preheat oven to 400 ... slice cheese (sharp cheddar usually, but feta occasionally) onto buns. Place cheese on buns. Cook 4 minutes. Healthy alternative: Romain Lettuce leaf instead of bun. No cheese, or else place cheese on burger for last 30 sec of cooking.

Standard burger:

Bottom bun

1 tsp salsa (Ghost pepper salsa is spicy ... not mellow like the Habenero stuff)

ketchup

mustard

burger

3/4 slice of bacon

Aretae Burger Topping

thick slices of avocado

Fresh tomatoes/pickles optional

Top bun with cheese melted on.

Yum. My 5yo can apparently eat a whole 1/2 pound burger with avocado, bacon, and ketchup in a sitting.