Sunday's Gourmet Lunch

The week and weekend of AJ's 28th birthday was filled with a lot of food and friends -maybe too much (of food that is).

However, when Tim called Sunday morning and suggested we make homemade beer-batter onion rings and bacon and blue cheese burgers, we definitely did not say no. A quick trip to the grocery store and we were on our way to another culinary adventure.

I am not much of a fan of deep fried items and the actual process of deep frying, quite frankly, scares the beejesus of out me. Hot oil splattering around just does not sound fun to me and let's not even mention the shear panic the thought of cleaning it all up puts me in! I managed to burn myself pretty badly pulling my banana bread of out of the oven the previous week so I was not looking to repeat the pain (note to self - drinking wine while baking - might not be the best idea).

Tim arrived and immediately went to work. Thanks to the soon to be Mr. and Mrs. Spencer Logan, I have a shiny and brand new deep griddle in my pantry and Tim decided it would be the perfect deep fryer for our onion rings. He quickly started sliced the onions into perfect rings, coated them in flour and set aside while he whipped together the beer batter. He used Kilt Lifter from Four Peaks for the beer, which happens to be AJ's favorite.

Being that I am the daughter of a butcher (well he was in high school) and I like having my burger patties perfectly symmetrical, I seasoned the ground chuck and shaped the patties. AJ, in case you were wondering, was slightly hungover and sat at the bar watching Tim and I work our magic in the kitchen most of the time. Eventually, Tim did put him to work on the grill because, let's face it, the burgers were not going to cook themselves.

Tim was busy on the stove top cooking the bacon and preparing the blue cheese dressing for the burgers. He melted butter in the pan, added and sauteed shallots. Once the shallots were transparent he added crumbled blue cheese, Worchester and seasoned with salt and pepper and let reduce for about 15 minutes.

After letting the beer batter set up and the oil started crackling in the pan, we dipped the rings in the batter and placed them into the griddle. Tim started the process and we I realized it appeared to be safe, I jumped in and had quite the time with the onion rings. I would probably suggest wearing an apron to avoid ruining any clothing you have on (like my UofA shirt). Cooking time for the onion rings depends on how crunchy you like them. For me, 3-4 minutes on each side seemed to create a perfect golden brown color and crunch.

AJ cooked the burgers to perfection and we even broiled the buns with a little bit of butter on them to really add some extra flavor and texture. The finished product was delicious and the plating looked as though we had ordered from a restaurant! It was a fantastic was to end the week of indulging for AJ's birthday. We each sat down with a beer (yes, AJ got back on the horse) and our burgers and enjoyed watch the last round of the PGA Championship.

Thank you to Tim for the awesome suggestion. Planning is already underway for this Sunday!