bacon cheeseburgers, cooked indoors

When I headed home from work today (early, with a headache behind my eyes so bad it turned my stomach – or my stomach, turned itself and this thing is bigger than it seems… I’m a licensed electrician, not a licensed physician…) it felt nice and hot out. We’ve had weather dipping down into the 50’s, midday, which makes the sun coming out seem extreme and excessively warm all of a sudden. It also does wonders for staying healthy, but I digress…

Yesterday I had planned to make dinner on the grill, and then that folded. It looked like rain, then it smelled like rain, and on my way home, it looked even more like rain. Then the skies opened up. Today? It looked so nice. It was sunny. My head was throbbing, my stomach churning… Once home and showered, a solid nap behind me. I woke up with thunder crashing around the house. And my phone ringing.

the rain was sideways most of the time…

“Yeah, Julia? I’m calling from the supply house. If you could call me back at (617)…”

I returned the call. It was to an electrical supply house – but in my world, that meant it was a call about banana bread. Why had I done such an unforgivably stupid thing as to drop off banana bread after everybody else had gone home, 5-ish, last Friday? Oh, well, I don’t know. It was when I could get there, for starters. Our conversation was brief and covered banana bread and cupcakes. My point was solid though. I had stated upon delivery of said banana bread “here, share this with somebody” – we’ve now learned that this guy doesn’t listen all that well when he’s holding a loaf of banana bread.

My head started feel better, as did my stomach after a long nap, a bit of toast, and a lot of water. With the rain coming down sideways, I decided I’d start dinner in the oven and see if things cleared up. I made some bacon in the oven, cause I wanted to lay down again.

the skies did clear – but not for very long…

Well, for about 15 minutes, the neighbor’s kids came out and started playing stickball again, and no sooner had one of them struck out (either two strikes, or three, I wasn’t really counting) the skies opened up again!

Bacon
cooked in the oven
adapted from thekitchn

take cookie sheet, lay aluminum foil on the pan
lay out strips of bacon
put bacon in oven

THEN turn on oven
375-400 degrees F

cook between 15-20 minutes (depending on desired crispiness)
bubbles will start to form on the bacon strips when almost done
lay on paper bags or paper towels to absorb fat after baking.

Did you know that you could do this?! Yeah, that’s right. Bake burgers in the oven. For the life of me I’m not sure why I never gave it any thought. I’m not sure why I didn’t… well, for starters I thought that “cooling racks” couldn’t be baked on… Go figure. I thought, why not give it a whirl? What’s the worst that could happen – messy messier oven?

I took some pre-made patties that I’d frozen and then thawed out this morning (oh, how on-point was I at 5:30?!) they were probably just under 1/2 lb each, and already had salt and pepper in them, prior to freezing.

all the elements combined — the bacon is in there somewhere…

OVEN ROASTED BURGERS
adapted from amateurgourmet.com

• cookie sheet/baking sheet
• tin foil
• wire cooling rack
• preheated oven to 475F (make sure you’ve cleaned the bottom of your oven recently, or things could get smokey!)
• meat thermometer

4,  85% lean burgers, salted and peppered to taste
4-6 slices of bacon, cooked (or baked, as above)
4, buns, slices of good bread, or chiabatta, whatever you wanna eat it on – I suggest something sturdy.
4 poached eggs (optional)
4 slices of cheese (I did american, cause that’s what I had and it melts wicked quick!)
condiments of choice

Last minute I figured that if I wanted to cook them for the same amount of time, I’d make two smaller burgers for myself and larger ones for my darling boyfriend – who prefers his burgers medium, or medium-rare. I’m on the supermedium-well done kind of a chick. I get scoffed at for it frequently, but hey, man… it’s just what I like! This way, I could spend all my time poaching eggs instead of going in and out of a ridiculously hot oven to mess with burgers. Just going in once to add bacon and cheese.

stonewall kitchen’s farmhouse red relish makes another appearance, we’re almost halfway through the jar and have had it less than a month—- holy crap!

Cook for roughly 15-20 minutes, or until you read 140F on your meat thermometer, that’s medium-well, I think… Or cooked enough to eat. I think ours were really closer to 145-150, but thats cause raw meats freak me out…

Just before you have desired “doneness” pop the bacon on there and add the cheese – leave for about two more minutes, or until cheese is melted enough. Pile these bad boys up, and eat.

Tagged: bacon cheeseburger, burger recipes, hamburger, oven baked bacon, oven roasted hamburger, poached eggs, quick dinner, quick meal, recipe

Posted in: BBQ, beef, burgers, eggs, food shopping, Lunch, meats, meats, pork, weeknight meals