Burger Bar and Onion Rings

When I made the Chicken Cobb Burger I got a comment from Dan recommending making small burgers so you can experiment with different toppings. The idea stuck with me and when we were trying to think of something for dinner tonight a Burger Bar sounded like a great idea.


We thought onion rings would be a good compliment to the burgers and we'd recently seen an episode of ATK where they made oven-fried onion rings. The recipe was pretty straight-forward and once I got everything together took hardly any time at all. Here are the rings ready to be put in the oven:


The toppings for the burger bar:


... including (from the top going clockwise) Swiss cheese, cooked mushrooms, American cheese, blue cheese, caramelized onions, sliced jalapenos, jalapeno cheese and bacon. The onion rings cooked for about 15 minutes in the oven and got nice and crispy and golden-brown:


We cooked the burgers on the grill with a nice, hot fire so they got a good sear. After topping them with the cheese to melt, I put on the rest of the toppings inside.


We had four different kinds of burgers, including my take on the Spicy Baconator from Wendy's with jalapeno cheese, sliced fresh jalapenos and slices of crispy bacon:



... blue cheese and caramelized onions:


... mushroom and Swiss:


... and a good, old-fashioned American cheeseburger:


Of the four kinds I tried a cheeseburger, adding a little mayo and ketchup:


... and one of the knockoff Spicy Baconators:


The burgers were amazingly good. I loved the different toppings and it was a lot of fun to try different flavor combinations. Unfortunately the onion rings got a tad cold while I took my photos. Next time I'll leave them in the oven until we're just about to eat so they're nice and crispy and hot.

Oven-Fried Onion Rings
ATK

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 large egg , at room temperature
1/2 cup buttermilk , at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Table salt and ground black pepper
30 Saltine crackers
4 cups kettle-cooked potato chips , crumbled into smaller pieces
2 large yellow onions , cut evenly into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
6 tablespoons vegetable oil

1. Adjust oven racks to lower-middle and upper-middle positions and heat oven to 450 degrees. Place 1/4 cup flour in shallow baking dish. Beat egg and buttermilk together in medium bowl. Whisk remaining 1/4 cup flour, cayenne, 1/2 teaspoon salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper into buttermilk mixture. Pulse saltines and chips together in food processor until finely ground and place in separate shallow baking dish.

2. Pull apart the rings in each round, discarding any that are less than 2 inches in diameter. Working one at a time, dredge each onion ring in flour, shaking off excess. Dip in buttermilk mixture, allowing excess to drip back into bowl, then drop into crumb coating, turning ring to coat evenly. Transfer to large plate and repeat with remaining onion rings.

3. Pour 3 tablespoons oil onto each of two rimmed baking sheets. Place in oven and heat until just smoking, about 8 minutes. Carefully tilt heated sheets to coat evenly with oil, then arrange onion rings on sheets. Bake, flipping onion rings over and switching and rotating position of baking sheets halfway through baking, until golden brown on both sides, about 15 minutes. Transfer onion rings to plates lined with paper towels to drain briefly. Serve immediately.

MAKE AHEAD
Oven-Fried Onion Rings can be breaded in advance and refrigerated for up to an hour. Let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes before baking; if baked straight from the fridge, the onions will not soften properly and will remain crunchy.

Stewart's Root Beer

When I was growing up my dad used to take me to Stewart's Root Beer to "eat on the window" (aka tray service). I loved the novelty of eating in the car, the frosty mug of root beer and the fantastic burger and fries. SP and I found ourselves near a Stewart's today (not the one linked above, that's just the only one with a Web site) so we stopped for lunch. We both ordered a double California cheeseburger, along with fries and onion rings:


I love the fries here because they actually taste like potato:


... and the onion rings are crispy and crunchy:


The burgers are on the small side here, but a double is perfect:


The California is served with lots of lettuce, a thick slice of tomato, thin slices of raw onion and a smear of mayo, along with plenty of melty, gooey cheese:


No meal at a Stewart's would be complete without a frosty mug of root beer:


This Stewart's has only outside seating so it's seasonal. I love that I can go somewhere I went with my father over 15 years ago and everything is exactly the same.

Anniversary Weekend Day 1 (Saturday Morning)

We’re back from our fantastic anniversary weekend extravaganza. I’m going to do two long entries with both food and scenery pictures starting with Saturday since I was a moron and didn’t bring my camera with me Friday night. I’m still kicking myself about it since we had amazing pizza that was incredibly photogenic.

Saturday morning bright and early we drove into Lambertville for our anniversary breakfast at the Bed & Breakfast where we got married. Laurie, who is a fantastic cook, and her husband, Mark, greeted us with big hugs. Laurie starts every breakfast with fruit in some form and we lucked out with fresh, juicy cantaloupe:


… served with a fruit “salsa” made with finely diced banana, kiwi and strawberries. But the star of the breakfast (and the reason we chose to go Saturday instead of Sunday) was the pumpkin waffles with homemade apple cider syrup:


… which are out-of-this-world good. She only serves them at this time of year even though people clamor for them year-round.

After chatting with other guests about our wedding and saying goodbye to Laurie and Mark for another year we set out for a long walk. Our plan was to walk into Stockton, which is about 3 miles down the D&R Canal. It was a gorgeous, crystal-clear day, not too cold or too hot. Perfect for a long walk.


Along the way I took a ton of pictures of things that caught my eye, such as this rusting railroad car hidden amongst the trees:




…a farmhouse barn:



…train tracks leading to nowhere:



…and our shadows as we walked along the path:




Once we got into Stockton we crossed the bridge into Pennsylvania and stopped at Dilly’s, a roadside stand that has excellent burgers and onion rings. After all that walking we wanted a snack (well, I did, but SP’s a good sport so he got something, too).


You order at the counter and they give you a random playing card that acts as your number. Once your order is ready they’ll call out “three of diamonds”:


… and you pick up your food and take it to one of the picnic tables. I ordered a burger with raw onion, lettuce, tomato and mayo:


… which was perfectly charred and layered with fresh, crisp toppings. But the real star were the onion rings:



…which are crispy and hot, fresh from fryer, coated in a thin batter. These are just outstanding and worth the 6-mile roundtrip walk.



On our walk back to Lambertville I took even more scenery pictures. My favorite is this one with the bench and the two trees:




Once we got back to town we decided to stop at the farm and get pumpkins to finish decorating our front yard:


SP also wanted to carve pumpkins so we spent the afternoon on the front porch doing just that. The finished product:


...along with an ornamental pepper plant I couldn't resist buying.