Monday, July 8, 2013

Independence Day At Almost Heaven South

Our original plan, to celebrate America’s Birthday on the dock, got changed due to rain and I was happy to move to the house considering an alternative now being experienced in the American West.  We decided on a very traditional meal of burgers, beans, and potato salad and, as usual, I went to your blogs for our meal recipes and had two that were recently posted. 

For the beans, I used the recipe posted by Mary at Deep South Dish for Baked Bean Medley  except I used her crockpot instructions rather than heat up the house with the oven.  I followed her recipe as written so just click on the link to view it - in addition to the Bush's Baked Beans, we used the canned beans we had on hand: kidney, black, cannellini.

When Chris at Nibble Me This posted his recipe for Pimento Cheese Burgers, it really spoke to me – I love homemade pimento cheese.  Please click on the link for the recipe, which we followed as written, except we used all cheddar cheese.

For the burgers, I adapted Chris' recipe for the ingredients we had on hand, added one, and up sized for our crowd.

Independence Day BurgersAdapted from Nibble Me This

4 lbs. ground beef
1¾ tsp. salt
7/8 tsp. black pepper
1/3 tsp. onion powder
1/3 tsp. garlic powder
½ tsp. Worsey Sauce

Mix all ingredients and shape into eight half pound burgers (it was a celebration you know).

Being the anal guy that I am, I made a little menu (spreadsheet) for everyone to fill out with their burger options (it had the gridlines showing):

Burger Orders
Grilled  Toasted
Doneness Cheese Bacon Onion Bun
R, MR, M Below Y/N Y/N Y/N
Bonnie
Laurie
Beverly
Pat
Madison
Bill
David
Larry
None
Cheddar
Provolone
Pimento









As usual, I got the burgers about one level more done than requested.  I need to use the charcoal grill with it's hotter fire to be able to get an outside crust quick enough to not cook the inside as much then move to indirect to finish cooking.  Rounding out the meal was delicious potato salad provided by our guests.  Check Chris' site for a good burger shot.


We also had some chips with queso and guacamole dips, several adult beverages, and peach cobbler with ice cream for dessert.  The cobbler, made with a recipe from Allrecipes, seemed to be a big hit.

As expected, I thought everything was very good and thank Chris and Mary for their fine recipes and Bonnie for the potato salad.  Good food and good company made for a fine way to spend our Independence Day.  

Perhaps we should have offered a Publix Italian sausage dog as a burger alternative - it was awesome a few days earlier.
Photos best if enlarged by clicking on them.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by Almost Heaven South.

Larry

7/4/2013 meal date

15 comments:

  1. Looks like you had a great 4th despite the rain. Love pimento cheese, but have never had it on a burger.
    Sam

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  2. Funny, we did almost just the exact same menu for the 4th.. except we did macaroni salad instead of potato salad :) Great minds think a like!!

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  3. Hamburgers were on our menu, also! We set up a hamburger bar filled with yummy choices. I would love bacon and cheese with a toasted bun, please!

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  4. It all sounds fantastic Larry - thanks for the mention too! I'm glad you enjoyed the baked beans.

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  5. Larry, You fretted about the burger's doneness but Laurie and I thought that they were terrific. Laurie loved the beans and I could eat that cobbler all day long! Thanks for the invite and Take Care, Big Daddy Dave, Laurie, Bonnie and Bill

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  6. Sounds like a terrific celebration. And what a fine host you are worrying about the degree of doneness of each burger. Love some peach cobbler with ice cream - it just can't be beat!

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  7. It all looks delicious - and I'll bet it tasted wonderful! :-)

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  8. It sure sounds like a delicious meal was had by all.

    By the way, you will enjoy Camp Freightliner (though the food served may leave something to be desired). I'll blog the details later this week.

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  9. Sounds perfect to me, Larry. Those burgers are to die for and I would have devoured mine. You are a great host, so I have no doubt that your guests had a marvelous time. Have a great day. Blessings...Mary

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  10. The burgers look amazing - Chris has the best recipes. I am off to check out the bean recipe because they look GOOD!!

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  11. We had rain until noon on the 4th, and then it quit until midnight on Friday, so we were dry for the festivities. We had cheeseburgers, too, of course; what else would you have? Other than hot dogs, sausage, potato salad...I like your menu options for everyone!

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  12. It all looks delish Larry! Wish I lived closer! haha! Hope you all had a great 4th!

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  13. That's a perfect 4th of July meal. You made me laugh with your burger spreadsheet, Larry. My son is an engineer and I understand doing something like that. You have made me hungry for a pot of beans.

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  14. We had a window of "no or light" rain right at fireworks time and Trevor and his friends lit up our street with a barrage of fireworks.

    Thanks for the link!

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  15. gawd that Italian Sausage dog looks wonderful! And I love your spread sheet for the burgers! Our 4th was pretty calm, no fireworks due to fire danger. We lived through it.

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