Burger Geek: Whole Food's Releases iPhone App Featuring Burger Recipes

As much as I love iBurger (and the hilarious sounds my daughter makes while playing it) I haven’t found a truly useful burger app for the iPhone (note to self – get off high horse and invent truly useful burger app for iPhone). To the rescue comes a new app from foodie grocery chain Whole Foods featuring a full slate of burger recipes presented in a truly slick interface.

Over 25 burger recipes are featured ranging from the uber-healthy (beef and bulgur burgers) to the truly decadent (stuffed burgers with gorgonzola and smoky bacon).

Nutritional info is provided (and thankfully placed strategically so it is easy to ignore) as are diet keys which help point you to offerings that may/may not fit into your diet (you’ll be happy to know that Sliders are good for those who are “sugar conscious”).

One of the best features (though not burger specific) is called “On Hand” which allows you to type in up to 3 ingredients you have “on hand” and then suggests recipes in the library based on that.  Pretty handy to have when you are scraping the refrigerator bottom before shopping day.

We’ll be testing out the slider recipe soon and probably checking in on the app while out shopping to see what we can create.

Whole Foods annual “Buck A Burger” sale ends tomorrow (July 7th) I think.  We loaded up and cooked off some of their bacon and blue cheese burgers for lunch yesterday (tweet – Rounding out a weird weekend with some Bacon & Blue Cheese burgers from Whole Foods Buck A Burger sale. http://twitpic.com/9eezw10:41 AM Jul 5th from TweetDeck ) – pretty tasty.

ps:  If you are a budding iPhone app designer and are interested in helping create the burgatory iPhone app (and enjoy working for free) drop me a line…we actually do have a neat idea!

Home Cookin': Buffalo Bill/Dabney Coleman BBQ Bacon Cheese Burger

Sunday night is burger night around the house and this weekend’s version was inspired by a viewing of a PBS The American Experience episode about Buffalo Bill Cody, which when trying to cook and tweet at the same time somehow morphed into a reference to Dabney Coleman’s early 1980’s sitcom Buffalo Bill (see tweets here – heck, sign up to follow if you wish).

What made these burgers even more special was that the beef and bacon were procured from our local farmers market.  In most parts of the North East farmer’s market season has just kicked off and that is great news.  Within walking distance of our house are a bevy of delicious, seasonal options produced and sold by the person behind the till.  Stories, suggestions, recipes and heart are all within easy reach of the consumer and we are all a bit better for taking the time to slow down and interact on a more personal level with our food and those that grow it.  Of course these markets are famous for their veggies but we have found that many offer great quality meats as well.  Whether “farm-raised,” “grass-fed,” “organic” and/or “natural” meat, options abound and include not only beef from cows, but good quality bison and small-batch bacons.

Not so much a recipe on this one…more a parts list:

85/15 all-natural ground beef

Thick-cut all-natural bacon

Ultra-sharp cheddar cheese

Onion rings

BBQ sauce

Whole-wheat Telera rolls

Bobby Flay calls his version a Cheyenne Burger.

Carl’s Jr.’s call it a Western Bacon Cheeseburger.

Dabney Coleman Fever movie on YouTube (kiss 8 1/2 minutes of your life goodbye before clicking)

Home Cookin': The Burger Explosion

More than a little hat tip to the gents over at BBQ Addicts whose invention, the “Bacon Explosion,” was the creative jumping off point for this monstrosity.

No shot of getting this thing in the New York Times, but my concerns (and those of our crew of culinarily curious friends) were in getting this in our bellies.  The idea just seemed like the logical next step and although it took about 3 hours start to finish, it is more than worthwhile trying it out at home for your next get together.  This one is guaranteed to stop people in their tracks.  As always, I will note that I am not a professional chef and though these directions worked for me, they may not work well for you.  This recipe is fairly forgiving so as long as you are certain to cook these beauties all the way through I can see little danger in making a minor misstep (and tons of upside in creating your own variations).

I actually made a Bacon Explosion alongside the Burger Explosion for comparison’s sake.  The recipe for the “Bacon Explosion” which is packed with pork sausage is best picked up at BBQ Addicts, though I will note that I tweaked that recipe a little, swapping out the bbq rub for a home spun mixture of salt, pepper and rosemary.  The rosemary worked out very well.

Burger Explosion (serves 8-10)

1lb 80/20 ground beef

4 slices of white American cheese

9 slices thick cut bacon

3 slices of regular bacon

1 butt of whole grain bread – toasted

1 large egg

2 tablespoons Oyster Sauce

1/3 cup BBQ sauce (any kind will do)

Step 1 – Fry up the 3 slices of regular bacon on a griddle as you would for morning breakfast, when done remove from griddle and pat dry (don’t worry about getting too much grease off, this ain’t health food!)

Step 2 – Take the butt end of the whole grain bread and sop up the rendered bacon fat from the griddle.

Step 3 – Place the bread into a food processor and whir it up for a few seconds to make breadcrumbs (yes, even the breadcrumbs are gonna taste like bacon!).

Step 4 – Put your ground beef, egg, oyster sauce and 3 tablespoons of the bacon-y breadcrumbs into a bowl and mix thoroughly by hand.

Step 5 – Make a 4×5 lattice pattern with the bacon (this may be the most fun part of the recipe)

Burger Tweets: Beyond 140 Characters

Doing some housekeeping on the site this morning and noticed that a few days had passed since the last post (more to do with the last post being about the birth of our son than with the lack of burger related news). Like millions of folks I have been “tweeting” and since I have more readers here than followers there I thought I’d republish a few recent tweets (with some extra info that I couldn’t cram in with the 140-character limit) to hold you over until I finish up a few pending posts.  Feel free to follow me @burgatory.

R.I.P. Gino’s Genie (Dom DeLuise) http://ow.ly/5kyz Nostalgic for the old Gino’s chain? Check out this amazing fan site http://ow.ly/5kyO

Remembering the late Dom DeLuise and stumbled upon info that he was the “Gino’s Genie.”  Gino’s was an east coast burger/chicken chain which ceased operations in the 1980s.  I can distinctly remember the location near my parent’s house.  Didn’t remember DeLuise in this role, but this was pretty much the only burger link I could find on the Internet (stunning considering his size and love for food).  The Gino’s fan site run by John S. Flack, Jr. is pretty amazing and a great way to waste some time on the web.

A Dogmatic Hot Dog cart for sale on Craigslist? http://ow.ly/59r7 Did you ever see their promo video? Amazing! NSFW http://ow.ly/59ri

Still not sure the deal with the cart (seems odd that it was only used 40 times?), but the video is really great -> click to view.  Clearly not burger related but I’m going out on a limb here and guessing that if you like burgers you like hot dogs, too.

Burger/Baseball News: Summer Collegiate Baseball ‘Prospect” League Has 2 Teams Named “Sliders” Uh-oh. http://ow.ly/4SMc Mmmmmmm Sliders.

Remember back in the day when ESPN would show Canadian Football League games and every so often you’d tune in to see the Ottowa Rough Riders play Saskatchewan Roughriders (notice the subtle difference in team names).  8 teams in the league and 2 of them had the same name?  Fast-forward and switch sports and the newest summer college baseball circuit, the Prospect League, offers baseball and burger lovers 2 teams named the “Sliders.”  Oddly enough the teams do not meet during the regular season so here’s hoping both teams do well so we can see a post-season “Sliders” vs “Sliders” matchup.

Slippery Rock Sliders

Springfield Sliders

Oddly mesmerized by the intro video over @CounterBurger http://ow.ly/3CFz Might set baby up in front of computer screen to pacify him.

If you can pull yourself away from the screen you are a better person than me.  Utterly mesmerizing.  Click

ps:  Baby still not sleeping, G-d bless my wife for doing most of the heavy lifting with him while I manage our 3 year old (and her burger dreams).

Twitter image modified from free image availale via webdesign.fm