Father's Day Cheeseburger in Paradise with Salt & Vinegar Potatoes and Ice Cream Sandwiches

As all of my precious reader know - Father's day was this past Sunday, and where there's Fathers there are grills! With my Mother's day Feast fit for a Queen, I had to make something just as good for dear old Dad! So for my amazing Father I constructed a very appropriate and very tasty menu.  

The Cheeseburger I made for my Dad was a Cheddar Jalapeño Bacon Burger. Everyone in my family loves spice so this was the perfect burger to grill up. Not only did this burger have two of my favorite food groups (Cheese and Bacon) but it also had a homemade ranch dressing to go with it!! Throw the diet out the window for this burger folks!! 

I apologize in advanced I wasn't as camera happy as I usually am. That being said, I'm using a new app on my iPhone and the few pictures I did take, came out great!! =) 

I made my hamburger patties a few hours in advanced so the meat would have time to marinate and soak up all the good flavors. 

Burgers:

(Makes 8)

• 2 pounds ground beef ( 90/10: typically hamburger meat should be 80/20 but the onions and jalapeño keep it so moist) 
• 1 small onion, chopped 
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley 
• 4 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce 
• 1 chopped seeded jalapeño
• 1 teaspoon sea salt 
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper 
• 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

In a large mixing bowl combine the above ingredients. Use a fork to combine it all together but be careful not to over do it- we don't want the meat getting tough!!! 

Make the 8 patties and place in fridge for a few hours. Now would be a good time to cook the bacon. In a frying pan cook bacon very crispy and set aside for later. Make sure the bacon is out of site because somehow I can foresee a few by standers munching on it!!  

Take the patties out about 30 minutes before you plan to grill. Another way meat can get tough is when it's ice cold and comes into contact with heat - so you want the meat just about room temperature!!

Now another reason these burgers are so moist and juicy is because of the Worcestershire Sauce. (You can make this while you're waiting for the meat to get to room temp.!) 

Worcestershire Glaze:

• 1/2 cup Worcestershire sauce 
• 1/4 cup ketchup
• 3 teaspoons (packed) golden brown sugar 
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 2-5 dashes of Frank's Red Hot ( If you like things spicy) 

On medium to high heat bring the mixture to a boil. 

Cook the burgers on the grill with medium heat for 5 minutes, then brush the glaze onto them and flip - cook for a few more minutes depending how rare you like it. Flip and Glaze the other side of the burger, and put cheddar cheese and strips of cooked Applewood smoked bacon on this bad boy. Dress the cheeseburger with the usual burger toppings, red onion, lettuce and tomato... and the dun dun dun SPICY RANCH DRESSING!!

Spicy Ranch Dressing:

This can be made a day or 2 in advanced. I didn't really measure this out, kind of made it up as I went along. If I wanted to recreate it this is what I would do. 

• 1 cup Mayonnaise 
• 1 1/2 cup Plain Greek Yogurt (keep the cals down somehow, somewhere!!)
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro 
• Juice from 1 Lime 
• 6 -8 Green Scallions finely minced 
• 1 minced and seeded Jalapeño
• 1 teaspoon Paprika 
• Pinch of Sea Salt
• Pinch of Pepper 

I used a Mason Jar to store the dressing! 

Now what goes better with a Cheddar Cheese Jalapeño Bacon Burger !? Salt and Vinegar Potatoes of course! 

This is so easy. Its not fair. These potatoes are that good!

What you will need: 

Salt and Vinegar Potato Wedges:

• 5-8 Russet potatoes (Just depends how big they are and how much you want to make)
• Distilled white vinegar 
• Sea Salt
• Olive Oil 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Cut the potatoes into wedges, and put on cooking sheet lined with tin foil. ( If it's easier to cut the potatoes into disks that would work too!) Drench the wedges in Olive Oil then with a pasty brush, brush on the vinegar. I was pretty heavy handed when doing this because I wanted to taste to be distinct and defined.  ** Disclaimer**When I was doing this it kind of smelt like I was dying Easter Eggs, but to no avail the Easter Bunny did not show up! 

Because I like my potatoes super crunchy, I cooked them for 10 minutes took them out, flipped them then put the oven up to 450 and cooked for another 15 minutes. Just keep an eye on them and you'll be fine. Once out of the oven, Sprinkle with seat salt and brush about 2 more tablespoons of vinegar onto the these hot little wedges. Serve IMMEDIATELY!! 

Now time for dessert. I had these lavish plans on making Oreo Pudding cookies and making ice cream sandwiches. Only problem, I couldn't find oreo pudding mix - the search for that continues on! So I cheated a bit and used a Barefoot Contessa Pre-packaged cookie mix. But boyyy! Let me tell you, am I happy I cheated - these chocolate chunk cookies are not only AMAZING they are SIMPLE to make too! (My two favorite things, Amazing and Simple!!!) 

 So I made the cookies according the the directions and let them cool a few hours. Then I went to the local DQ (Dairy Queen for all of you not in the know) and got a pint of soft serve Vanilla Ice Cream. I paired the cookies up, put the ice cream in-between and put the ice cream smushed cookies into the freezer for an hour... and then it was dooms day, these babies were gone!!

BON APPETIT MY FOODIES !!!