Bacon-Butt Burgers for the Birthday Boy

I finally got to make my baby boy his birthday dinner tonight. His request:  hamburgers, my homemade macaroni and cheese with Ballyshannon Irish cheese, and canned peas. I made a run to the Farmer's Market and got two pounds of freshly ground chuck (poor chuck) at the butcher shop, some vine ripe tomatoes and lettuce. Strangely enough, the Farmer's Market did not have any lettuce! We had to go to Wal-Mart for that.

When your hamburger is ground fresh not a lot needs to be done to it. The only thing I added was a tiny bit of cayenne pepper and some soul seasoning.  I had some bacon ends and pieces (purchased in a 3 pound lump really cheap!) so I decided to give my hamburgers a bacon butt..  After mixing the seasonings gently into the ground chuck (poor chuck) I formed them into patties and added bacon pieces to the bottom and placed them in a pre-heated skillet on medium high to fry.

While the burgers began to fry, salted water went on to boil for the macaroni and I began slicing up a huge chunk of Kerrygold Ballyshannon cheddar cheese. It is Irish cheese and one of Nick's favorites.
Kerrygold cheese

When the water came to a rolling boil I added the macaroni and boiled until just tender. I do not like mushy noodles! It was dumped into the strainer (one pound of macaroni, by the way) and then back into the hot pot. One stick of REAL butter, half a pound of chunked Ballyshannon cheese and a splash of heavy cream get dropped into the hot noodles.  The amount of cream depends on how thick you want the sauce in the macaroni.  We use very little as we like the butter and the cheese to do the work.

In the meantime, the burgers have been flipped over.

The bacon has cooked into the butt of that burger like a glorious bikini bottom! The next is key:  DO NOT SMASH YOUR BURGER!! Good grief people. Let the burger be thick and juicy. Don't make the bacon give the hamburger a wedgie!!!

These yummy burgers were served with thick-sliced vine ripe tomatoes, lettuce, provolone cheese, onion, mac and cheese, and peas.  Here is the happy birthday boy with his dinner:

Even though his birthday dinner was delayed by one day, he was a happy fella.  He loved my bacon butt burgers and his homemade mac and cheese.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY NICK! I LOVE YOU!


PS....I must qualify this.  The birthday boy specifically asked for canned peas. I don't really eat them anymore. I used to make them when they were little and we were broke. Now that we are better off financially and I am a little more knowledgeable, I use frozen. I used canned tonight at his request.

Daughters are wonderful!

I was very, very tired when I came home from work today.  I laid down on the bed to catch a short nap before I made dinner.  I flipped it to the "Maury" show (my secret vice...I know it is trash TV but I love it) but I was so tired I fell asleep. 

My sweet daughter, Paulina, came in and told me to stay in bed, that she was going to make dinner.  And boy did she ever!  She made meatballs and garlic & butter pasta.  I hate to say it, but her meatballs were better than mine! She had them seasoned just so perfectly! Her garlic and butter pasta was the perfect blend of garliky buttery goodness.

After dinner, I did the dishes.  I don't mind doing the dishes when someone else cooked!  I also dove into my new favorite cookbook for a recipe to make a treat for my friend.  The cookbook is the Betty Crocker Picture Cook Book from 1956.  It is quite worn out but it still has a lot of old traditional recipes.  I enjoy using it.  I frequently use the pancake, crepe and yellow butter cake recipes from it.

I decided to make a Blueberry Buckle cake.  I had some frozen blueberries in the freezer left over from the smoothie craze the oldest kid went on for a while.  I rinsed and thawed them out and made that.  It is in the oven right now, smelling so good!  I hope it turns out okay.  I am going to take it over to Monique Negron's house as a thank you.  She made dinner for my family last week when my sweet husband was in the hospital. 

I am certainly one very blessed lady.  I have awesome children, an awesome husband and wonderful friends.  Thank you God for blessing me so much.