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Grilled Sausage Bar

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Nothing quite screams summer like grilled or roasted hotdogs, smokies and sausages.

With two of us celebrating birthdays during the summer, we think it’s the perfect time to have friends and family gather and celebrate with a Grilled Sausage Bar.

Gather your friends and prepare a Grilled Sausage Bar
Grilled Sausage Bar

A sausage, hotdog or smokie is a blank canvas. Sure you can add mustard and ketchup – maybe even relish. This is how most of us grew up eating our dogs and smokies.

But what about taking your sausages to the next level?!

So many toppings you can add to grilled sausages
Bison Whiskey Sausages and Cheese Smokie

A grilled sausage bar offers exactly that, new flavours of smokies and sausages to try and new toppings to love.

To celebrate summer, birthdays and local products, we are sharing our spin on a grilled sausage and smokie bar to create a memorable summer gathering.

Valbella Sausage and Smokie packs
Valbella Sausage and Smokies

Sunterra Market and Valbella Smokies and Sausages

Valbella smokies are made in Canmore, Alberta using Sunterra Farms Pork.

If you are going camping or out for a picnic and want to keep it simple, Sunterra Market offers smokie packs that include buns, bbq sauce, caramelized onions and Dijon mustard, making it a one stop shop.

If you want more control of your options you can buy each item separately: smokie or sausages package, buns, toppings and a delicious dinner awaits.

Grilled Sausage Bar
Chicken & Apple Sausage – Jalapeno Apple Slaw

We grilled our sausages. Played with our toppings. Tried a few different things. Added our own chili to a few of them and here’s our fun topping creations for this summers Grilled Sausage Bar.

The Grilled Sausages and Smokies

Bison Whiskey – Shallot & Pancetta

Peel and slice shallots into rings. Mix together 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 cup milk, 1 egg, 1 tbsp olive oil, salt, pepper and a sprinkle of smoked paprika. Heat oil in large saucepan to 350F. Dip rings in batter, shake off excess, fry battered rings until browned turning carefully as needed. Transfer to paper towel lined sheet. Add to sausage with ketchup, diced fried pancetta even some bacon jam if you have on hand.

Cheese Smokie – Chicago Style after the Bar Smokie

Here we’ve gone back to our dance hall days when we would leave the bar only to find a hot dog cart cooking up some sausages outside. We’d load them up with diced white onion, relish, sauerkraut, relish, spicy banana peppers and mustard. Sometimes even a queso cheese sauce.

Smokie: Taco Dogs

These dogs are delicious wrapped up in a tortilla or pita. For photo purposes they wouldn’t stay together but when eating, there is no judging. Shredded lettuce, diced tomato, spicy banana peppers, diced onion, sliced avocado and salsa or pico de gallo to top these smokies. Ole!

Chicken & Apple Sausage – Jalapeno Apple Slaw

Mix together 1 cup sliced cabbage and 1/2 gala or green apple sliced into matchsticks. Whisk together 1/2 jalapeno mixed with 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tbsp chopped cilantro, 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar, salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp cumin. Mix cabbage and olive oil dressing together. Moisten buns with a little mayo. Add sausage. Add slaw. Hits all the sweet and spicy notes.

Turkey Honey Garlic – Chili Cheese

Make up a batch of your favourite chili, Like our Bacon Turkey Chili, grate some old cheddar for the top and prepare for a messy meal. Knife and fork optional.

Tuscany – spicy, balsamic or gourmet ketchup

Why be ordinary and use plain old ketchup when you can be extraordinary and go gourmet. With a small variety of unique ketchups available, this is the time to change up your ketchup game and try something new.

Try some new toppings when you make a grilled sausage bar
Chips go perfectly with a grilled sausage bar

What Kind of Buns for your Sausage Bar

It’s ok to think outside of the box here. It’s also ok to add your favourite buns to the mix. We suggest:

  • pitas
  • baguette cut to size
  • soft tortillas
  • pretzel buns
  • naan bread
  • French rolls
  • oval crusty buns
  • thin waffles
  • crepes
Grilled Sausage Bar
Grilled Sausage Bar

What to serve with your Grilled Sausage Bar

Chips, because chips are delicious on smokies. Salads, watermelon, fresh vegetables, a variety of shredded cheese, pickles, different kinds of mustard’s, baked beans, french fries even corn on the cob.

the whole line up of our grilled sausage bar
Grilled Sausage Bar

Love our Grilled Sausage Bar?! Check out more of our tips and tricks.

We are working in collaboration with Sunterra Market to promote Valbella Smokies and Sausages. All opinions remain my own.

Grilled Skewered Olives

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Prepare these flavourful Grilled Skewered Olives at your next gathering or barbecue and dazzle the olive lovers!

Grilled Sicilian Olives
A variety of Grilled Olives including Sicilian and stuffed

Warmed olives are popular and for good reason, the heating of olives tends to enhance their flavour rendering them even more buttery and delicious than if they were just taken out of your refrigerator.

Grill your olives and watch them melt in your mouth
A delicious way to eat olives, grilled on a stick

If you are a fan of olives but have never had them warmed before, you really need to try this recipe. I’d only ever had them out of a jar out of the fridge until the last couple years I’ve been fortunate to try them at media events – warmed.

Look for Colossal or Queen sized olives (large size), once grilled eat them right off the stick or put in a bowl to share, we won’t judge.

How should I serve grilled olives

If you are having friends over for dinner, going to a potluck, family dinner, a barbecue or picnic in the park, these olives are quick and easy to prepare and have ready to go.

You can also make them in advance, just ensure they do not get refrigerated before serving.

Other ideas include serving with an antipasto platter, as tapas or mezze.

Delicious served as tapas with cheese and grilled baguette
Grilled Sicilian Olives are delicious served as tapas

A few ways we like to serve them are grilled with baby potatoes and Chimichurri sauce, eating the grilled skewered olives right off the stick, or seasoned with lemon rind, pink peppercorns, fresh ground black pepper, Himalayan salt and fresh parsley.

Olive selection before grilling
Preparing the olives for grilling

Our simple preparation includes picking up some large, pitted olives, drizzling on a little extra virgin olive oil since they come packed in brine, not oil, some fresh black pepper and sea salt, skewering and grilling just until grill marks appear.

What kind of olives do I buy

We’ve made this recipe a few times. First time was Sicilian olives and grilled baby potatoes on sticks. This recipe coming soon.

You can also use olives that are stuffed. We tried olives stuffed with jalapenos, blue cheese, pimento and provolone. They all offered up unique and tasty flavours.

Grilled olives with potatoes
Grilled olives with potatoes

These olive can also be chopped up after being grilled and used in dips, even a tapenade. Grilled olives are a total game changer.

Here’s some things to remember when grilling olives.

PRO TIPS and FUN FACTS:

  • Grill only until heated through and grill marks appear.
  • Olives are a fruit, not a vegetable!
  • Olives are an antioxidant!
  • Do not buy canned olives (sorry yucky tin taste), jarred is fine.
  • Ensure you buy pitted olives for skewering.
  • Large olives are also known as Queen or Colossal olives.
  • If using wooden skewers, make sure you soak them before hand.

Recipes to enjoy with grilled olives

Like these recipes?! Check out other uses for olives.

Grilled Sausage Skewers

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There’s no doubt about it, summer took a long time to get here. Officially it’s still Spring, I know, but when you’ve had 8 months of winter you just want to say summer over and over again. So I say welcome summer, it’s been awhile, we hope you stay until December.

Grilling through the winter months is fairly easy for us – unless we hit -20 and our barbecue refuses to cooperate. When warmer weather hits barbecuing is almost a daily event. Sausage is always a reliable guest when you decide to grill so for

Grilled Sausage Skewers
Grilled Sausage Skewers

this recipe we opted to grill our sausage about 75% of the way through. Remove it from the grill, place onto a plate and cover with aluminum foil to cool down. After all the other prep work is done it’s time to skewer and grill.

Grilled Sausage Skewers
Grilled Sausage Skewers

Any kind of sausage will do and of course pick your favourite vegetables or go out of your comfort zone and try something new. The kids admittedly were not thrilled with the ribbon zucchini, however the adults loved it as it retained some of its crunch. I told the kids there would be more zucchini in their life so they should probably suck it up. You can imagine how they responded of course since they are tweens.

You won’t believe how easy this is. Let’s get started.

 

Grilled Sausage Skewers
Grilled Sausage Skewers

 

Smokey BBQ Beef on a Bun

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BBQ Beef on a Bun makes you think summer doesn’t it?! It really does for us as we serve up this recipe every summer and get the whole neighborhood smelling our smoked, grilled beef.

This is another one of those recipes I’ve been making for over 20 years and never documented. It’s like your mom or grandma makes something and it’s so ingrained in their brain, they make it without even thinking about it. I’ve got so many of those recipes ingrained in my brain, it’s terrifying.

It was 2003 and I started a new job with a company in the South of Calgary. This rather large company would throw an employee and friends Stampede Barbecue every July. I was in charge of organizing this shindig and ensuring there was enough food and beverages to go around for hundreds of people. The company had a commercial BBQ and every year they barbecued these beef roasts after marinating them all night. I watched, I learned, I oversaw the cooking and this is where my inspiration to make my own beef on a bun came from.

Beef Roast on the BBQ
Beef Roast on the BBQ

This roast serves quite a crowd. We recently had our end of Summer BBQ with 33 adults and kids. We cooked up extra hot dogs for the kids and even after several of the men went back for thirds, but we still ended up with close to half of our roast leftover. Which was great for leftover dishes in the days to follow.

If you have less to feed, buy a smaller roast. And plan for some delicious leftover dishes. We we had beef on a bun twice throughout the week, Beef Pot Pie, beef quesadillas and Beef Soup before I was done with the beef and tossed the rest in the freezer until next time.

You need to prepare this bad boy the day before to let it marinate giving you added flavour. Buy the extra large ziplock bags – the ones for your kids sports stuff and make sure you have wood chips and a smoker, or extra heavy duty tin foil. Watch it become a family favourite.

 

Beef ready for the bun
Beef ready for the bun

 

 

Sweet Red Chili Glazed Chicken with Salad

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Summer days can be hot leaving us with no interest in cooking a big meal. Simple, light and easy meals like our Sweet Red Chili Glazed Chicken with Salad are how we get through summer!

Sweet-Chili-Chicken-v2

Leftover sweet red chili sauce, grilled local corn and fresh in season asparagus become the canvas for this salad. We whipped up a cilantro dressing which complemented the salad nicely. If you do not like cilantro, use basil instead.

 

This meal may seem labour intensive but it’s really not. First thing get your lettuce cleaned and corn/asparagus ready for the grill and BBQ them. Grill chicken next. While it’s cooling a bit get your dressing ready. Finally finish off the chicken and assemble. The first time I made this dish I admittedly kept two of the chicken thighs out of the glaze as I thought the kids would like it. Boy was I wrong. They devoured all the glazed chicken and LOVED it!

 

Here’s how we did it.

 

Grilled Beef Satay

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Beef Satay is the perfect, light summer meal. Use your favourite marinade or try this one the next time you make these. They literally melt in your mouth. Make sure you cut your beef thin and let it marinade for at least an hour or more depending the cut of beef you use.

If you are using a cheaper cut of steak like I did (inside round), ensure you have acid in your marinade to tenderize the steak and let marinate for longer than an hour if you can. With this meal I par-boiled some baby potatoes, let them cool, skewered them and added olive oil, salt and pepper. A few minutes on the grill finished them off.

This is an easy and tasty meal to get your Summer Grilling on!

Grilled Beef Satay
Grilled Beef Satay

 

Grilled Bread & Tomato Salad

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Sunny days make me want to get outside and eat all the things and plant or harvest my garden and eat fresh grown tomatoes. Right? We’ve had an unusually warm start to 2016 which is great for us Calgarians but not so great for the farmers and producers who rely on the moisture to plant their seeds.

I am slightly addicted to bread so anything that involved bread makes me happy. Having to make up something for a BBQ I decided on a bread, tomato, parsley salad. Simple but delicious. I picked up some roasted garlic bread, gave it some lovely brown char marks and tossed it with the tomatoes. Don’t dress your salad or even add the bread until you are ready to serve it or the bread gets soggy. And serve it immediately for as it sits the bread soaks up the tomato and dressing goodness and it becomes soggy. A little added chunky salami or even cooked chicken would make this the perfect meal in one.

Since I’m using garlic bread I opted not to add garlic to my oil. This dish is beautiful served alongside grilled steak or chicken.

 

 

Grilled Garlic Chicken

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Since about mid January we’ve had mild weather here in Calgary. It’s very unusual for this time of the year as we typically have tons of snow on the ground. I kid you not. In my world we would have 2-3 months of cold winter and snow with the rest of the year sunny and green.

With warm weather comes serious spring fever. Last weekend we did yard work and cleaned up the yard in preparation for planting and Spring. My rhubarb is popping up and I’m ready to start seeding the lawn and eager to start planting. The kids have already advised they will each be having their own pepper and tomatoe(s) plants again this year. Sun and warmth feels so good. With this warmer weather we find we want to grill all the time. Fish and soy sauce are always on hand here and since we are die hard grillers (we will grill in any weather unless it hits -20), it’s not the first time we fired up the BBQ this year. We served up this chicken with our Green Rice.

I prep the food, my husband tends the grill. We make a good team. The longer this chicken can marinate, the more flavour you get.

The flavours in this chicken shine when allowed to marinate up to four hours or overnight. If you do not have the time, give the chicken at least 30 minutes to get cozy with the marinade.

 

Grilled Garlic Chicken
Grilled Garlic Chicken

Crispy Molasses Coleslaw

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We had an International German student living with us for almost a year. She had a few food allergies and one of them was carrots. So I got used to cooking without carrots. Although the allergy was mainly to raw carrots, I just stopped using them so as to not “forget”. With my coleslaw’s I always experiment. Sometimes I’d add apple or pear, other times it’s nuts or seeds. But the basics of my coleslaw are always the same; cabbage, onions, cilantro with a mayo/sour cream/vinegar dressing.

As I was making the dressing to go with our Beef on a Bun, I asked my father in laws girlfriend/partner what she thought about me adding molasses into my dressing. She wasn’t sure at first so I pulled a little out & mixed in some molasses. Let her try it to get her opinion and Bam she liked it. I know some people add sugar to their dressings, so the molasses could add the sweet factor. And since I’m more of a salty person to begin with I needed feedback and second opinions. It was well received that evening by everyone. And so the Crispy Molasses Coleslaw recipe was born.

This recipe feeds a crowd so if you are cooking for a smaller family you may want to half it. And yes I put cilantro in my slaw. You can always replace it with flat leaf parsley.

 

Crispy Molasses Coleslaw
Crispy Molasses Coleslaw

Blueberry Turkey Burgers

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Carrying on with our blueberry theme for National Blueberry Month (July), I had planned to whip up some blueberry turkey burgers for dinner since I had lots of BC Blueberries in my fridge. It’s not a new to me idea as I’ve tried turkey/chicken sausage with blueberries before, and last year at the BC Blueberry Launch we made up some blueberry turkey sliders.

Since I had the Blueberry Bourbon BBQ Sauce ready to go, I tossed in about 1 tbsp of this sauce into my burger. We also topped the burgers with the sauce, some havarti cheese and prepared to chow down and a relatively healthy burger. It was the ideal dinner to have on the deck.

 

 

Blueberry Turkey Burgers
Blueberry Turkey Burgers

 

Blueberry Bourbon BBQ Sauce

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Inspired by BC Blueberries, a bottle of bourbon I was recently given, a bottle of Guy Fieri Bourbon/Brown Sugar BBQ Sauce, and a Crosby Molasses contest, I decided to try and create a Blueberry BBQ Sauce. With molasses. I’ve never made a BBQ sauce with molasses before but I know it’s been done. The bourbon was honestly an afterthought but it works. In fact I have received 4 thumbs up from the in-laws on this BBQ Sauce. Yahoo!

If you don’t like bourbon, leave the bourbon out. The first night we had it we slathered it on a pork tenderloin. Next we mixed it into turkey burgers (with blueberries) and used it as a sauce for the top.

 

Blueberry BBQ Sauce
Blueberry BBQ Sauce

 

 

Campfire Baked Brie

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This campfire baked brie is simply delicious. I’m not your average camper where food is concerned. Yes I love smokies, hot dogs, marshmallows, tin foil suppers, and the like. But I like to experiment. Push the limits and see what I can create. Anyone who camps with me knows there will be some tasty bites to try at least once during our trip. Some times the recipes fail, like this past camping trip….I tried a recipe and it burned to a crisp! Win some lose some. One failure, 3 successes. Pretty good odds in my book!

Pick up the largest brie you can find…trust me it goes fast. Bring along your favourite toppers (olives-tapenade , berry compote, sundried tomatoes, fresh fruit, pulled pork, nuts, etc.). Score the top of the brie, add your toppers, wrap in foil and grill carefully for about 10 minutes, turning once. While cooking grill up some sliced baguette or french bread. Winner Winner this could be your dinner. Dinner for one. Or to share. Either way it’s delicious.

 

Campfire Baked Brie
Campfire Baked Brie

Grilled Citrus Chicken

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My kid watches me in the kitchen and has been doing so since she was little. She’s 9, almost 10 going on 14. She’s a true Leo as she was so stubborn during her birth, that after 64 hours of labour, she ended up being escorted out of my belly via emergency C-section. She brings this stubbornness into the kitchen when she bakes. Always wanting to race ahead, and do things her way without reading instructions properly or sitting back to listen & learn. I do love this about her, but it can be challenging.

A couple weeks ago I gave my kids a chicken challenge. Cook any kind of (simple) chicken dish you wanted for supper. Think about it, go through recipe books, or make up a recipe. Hailey’s first idea was to make up a watermelon marinade for the chicken. Since we don’t care for grilled watermelon, and watermelon logged chicken didn’t seem to appeal, I talked her out of it (maybe a mistake?). I could have googled ideas, but I wanted this to be hers. So I suggested she think up something different. She decided on this citrus chicken. Created it entirely on her own. I directed her to the fresh herbs, she smelled & tasted and decided which she wanted to add to the marinade. She loves grilled halloom cheese (from Superstore) and knew she wanted grilled this cheese as part of her meal (she calls it the squeaky cheese), with the grilled chicken placed on top. And her favourite Tabbouleh Salad. I helped with suggesting grilled lemon or lime on top. Her dad did all the grilling.

For the first time we worked together in the kitchen (I helped with the chopping) without any battles. It was flawless and so much fun to watch her follow her vision. And she did an amazing job. While it may not happen again anytime soon, this mom is super proud.

To assemble plate place a little salad on bottom of plate in a circle. Add a slice of grilled halloom cheese. Top with a piece of grilled chicken and if using, grilled lemons or limes.

 

Grilled Citrus Chicken
Grilled Citrus Chicken

 

 

Planning dinner & making a list
Planning dinner & making a list

 

Teriyaki Pork Burger

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Since we are shying away from beef more and more lately due to the more than 18% price increase, we are buying more pork. And chicken. But those items are getting more expensive to. And the cashiers in the stores are noticing less people buying meat. Guess we will all become vegetarians. But before then we will enjoy these Teriyaki Pork Burgers!

Fresh ginger in this burger makes it taste even more delicious. Use your favourite store bought teriyaki sauce (or home made). Sometimes easy reigns supreme when you have busy activity nights and just need to feed the kids and head out the door stat. These burgers are awesome to whip up, mold into patties, freeze and take camping. Or serve to a crowd.

Toast your buns and add your favourite burger toppers. We served our burgers with some Salsa Baked Beans.

 

Grilled Rustic Bacon Wrapped Chicken

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My 3rd and final entry into the Great Cream Challenge 2014 was this really tasty Grilled Rustic Bacon Wrapped Chicken. For those that don’t know, this cross Canada recipe challenge pairs 3 Canadian Food Bloggers against each other in a special monthly cooking challenge. At the beginning of the year you pick three challenges (one per month) to participate in using real cream, and then start recipe testing until you find a winner.

One of the themes I picked was Grilling, perhaps cause the rest looked easy?! (honestly no idea why I choose grilling lol) When it came time to create and submit the recipe, I panicked for a few minutes thinking about how to use real cream on the grill. But once I settled down, I was able to brain storm and realize there are many options when it comes to grilling with cream.

And so enters a stuffed chicken breast (with cream cheese, cream and other goodies), wrapped in bacon, slapped on the grill and finished with a sage cream sauce. It was very good and of course you can use anything you like to stuff the chicken breast. I used what I could find in my fridge/pantry.

Grilled Rustic Bacon Wrapped Chicken
Grilled Rustic Bacon Wrapped Chicken

I enjoyed being part of the challenge, and got to know several of the food bloggers better through this friendly competition. Here is how I made the Grilled Bacon Wrapped Stuffed Chicken.

 

 

Sweet & Spicy Grilled Salmon

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We returned from several days of camping, and like most campers we didn’t eat as healthy as we would have preferred to. But it’s camping and we always try to keep a balance. Good with the bad. With that theory we we had marinated grilled pork chops one night and grilled Greek grilled chicken in pitas with a Greek salad another night. It’s that balance thing. The remaining nights, well, junky type food or other not so good for you eats.

After these trips I always crave healthy food. And this time upon returning home I was craving salmon. We ran out of aluminum foil and didn’t have any cedar planks so we needed to improvise. The cast iron pan came out and we were off to the races. Usually when we grill salmon it’s either on a cedar plank or on a piece of foil.

I didn’t use much chile powder in this recipe as I wanted the minions to eat it. You could taste the chile powder but there was just a hint of it. Definitely add more if you want more chile flavour, although it might deter from the taste of the salmon.

We whipped this up rather quickly and were eating in 30 minutes. Served it with this delightful grilled corn & arugula salad, with the addition of radishes from our garden.

Loved this meal and I think you might to.

 

Honey Ginger Chicken

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Chicken recipes are always enjoyed in our house. The kids loved this honey ginger chicken I made the other night, enhanced with garlic, oyster sauce and fish sauce. A sweet and savory combination that required no marinating. Brushing the sauce on during cooking did the trick. And since we busy parents don’t always have time to marinate meat before we cook it, it’s the perfect quick meal to make after a busy day.

 

 

 

Cheese Stuffed Burger

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Try our simple to make Cheese Stuffed Burger the next time burgers are on the menu. Mighty, delicious and soon to be a family favourite.

A lot of flavours going on here
Cheese Stuffed Burger

Our foray into the world of stuffed burgers started with a local burger restaurant here in Calgary. They make a variety of burgers with a stuffing, and you can even customize your burgers.

Cheese Stuffed Burger
Cheese Stuffed Burger

Inspiration for our burger came from this restaurant. We kept the bun light, a brioche bun since the burgers are so darn big!

What can you stuff into a cheese stuffed burger

Really anything goes, but it has to be smallish to fit. To discover how unique you can get check out N9NA’s website and menu. Look at their signature burgers. It’s ok to drool a little bit. Then, if you are in Calgary, get over to her restaurant stat.

Take burgers to a whole new level by stuffing with cheese
Cheese Stuffed Burger

There’s very little seasoning here and you know what, it’s not needed.

Go ahead and add whatever condiments you enjoy, or try our Apple Slaw. The crunch from the slaw with a simple flavours makes for a memorable burger experience.

Oozing cheese in these burgers
Cheese Stuffed Burger

What do you serve with cheese stuffed burgers

Whatever floats your boat! French fries, chips, salads. We do it all. Even pickles. And bacon. Sometimes.

Eats like a manwich, seriously
Cheese Stuffed Burger

Our cheese stuffed burger is something everyone should try. Essentially it’s two patties molded together so best to bring your appetite to the table.

PRO TIPS:

  • It’s important your patties be flat
  • You want to seal all the edges well to ensure they stay sealed while cooking
  • Change up the old cheddar cheese to a spicy cheese or any melting cheese you love
  • Go for a thinner bun since the burgers are massive

Looking for more burger recipes to love? Try these.

 

Chili Lime No Tequila Chicken

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This recipe is simple with simple flavours. I created it while doing the wild rose d-tox. It was satisfying, tasty and filling. You could easily add half a cup of tequila to the recipe for some added flavour and even toss in some chopped jalapenos. But it’s not necessary.

Chicken kabobs can be made in the winter, by broiling them. The one thing about broiling meat in the oven, is there will always be smoke when you open your oven door. But they cook quickly. Fortunately when I made them I was able to open the windows as we were having a Chinook here in Calgary. As always grilling them while camping or on the deck is just as tasty.

The first time I made these kabobs I used one chicken breast. It made two kabobs which gave me two meals. The second time I prepared 2 chicken breasts and ended up with four kabobs or four meals. This recipe is for 2 chicken breasts. You could easily substitute turkey breast. I’d say it’s a keeper since the minions were picking the chicken off my plate hence prompting me to make more the second time around.

Serve it on a salad, on top of  grains or brown rice.

 

Dilly Pork Burger

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A hint of dill in our Pork Koftas not only flavours the meat but provides a delicious taste experience. So much so I decided to scale the recipe down a bit and turn it into a regular burger. How about that, a food blogger changing up one of her own recipes to create something new!

The kids and the hubs really liked this burger. I ate mine in a lettuce leaf topped with a Jicama & Green Apple Slaw. They ate theirs on buns. Husband went back for seconds. I wish I had his metabolism and appetite. This was even better the next day for lunch. Will post Jicama & Green Apple Salad soon.

 

Dilly Pork Burger in Lettuce Cup
Dilly Pork Burger in Lettuce Cup

 

We doubled the pork in this recipe so we would have leftovers the next day. Normally for our small party of 4 we use 1 pound of burger and still end up with leftovers since we make our burgers smaller. Maybe that’s why husband can down two of them at one sitting without thinking twice and then contemplate a third.

In any case add your regular fixings to your burger on a bun. You could even mix in a little dill with mayo for an added dill-elicious treat. Or change it up by adding a salsa or slaw and eating it in a lettuce leaf (do this if on Wild Rose D-Tox). Either way it’s a keeper!

 

Chicken, Apple & Halloom Skewers

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It was about a year and a half ago I first discovered Halloom cheese in one of our local stores. I was curious, and as such the cheese came home with me. This became the beginning of a beautiful love affair. Since then we’ve enjoyed the salty, yet mild grilled halloom cheese on skewers with fruit or meat, in salads, as a desert with a balsamic drizzle, as an appetizer/on a canape or on a baguette in a sammy. So many ways to eat this delicious cheese, but it must be grilled first to fully enjoy the cheese in it’s entirety. The smokey but light flavour adds impact to whatever you serve it with.

For the past couple of weeks Ambrosia apples have been everywhere in the stores and so I picked some up. I had been throwing the idea around of grilling up some skewers for lunch on my indoor grill/panini pan but kept putting it off as the amount of smoke that comes from the grill pan is almost to much to handle at times, especially in the winter months. Finally a warm day came along which meant windows open and grill pan pulled out for lunch time fun.

I placed some chicken, halloom and ambrosia apple pieces, in no particular order, on small skewers. They needed a quick marinade so I poured some Maille Old Style Mustard into a bowl, added a few other ingredients and whisked it all together. This became the marinade and dip when all was said and done.

Quick and easy, it was the perfect lunch for the minions and leftovers were served up and devoured for dinner.

 

Ginger Beef Burger

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We are definitely not fair weather BBQ people. How can you be living in Canada where winter comes 6 months a year! Hubs and I both grew up in small Northern Canadian Towns, and as such you learn early that most winter weather is acceptable to BBQ, unless it’s blizzarding and/or below -10. At this point it becomes challenging to manage the heat as the BBQ starts to get grumpy.

The night I created these burgers we were drinking a ginger beer. I decided to pour some into the burger mixture along with some fresh ginger. I tossed a few other things in from the fridge and a ginger burger was born. We devoured these burgers that evening and to quickly to document or photograph.

Enter round two of ginger beef burger. Started with the same base by adding ginger beer and fresh ginger to the burger, but went a different route and tossed in a few other items I had sitting around. The flavour was even better. I’m sure if I aimed for a round three the burger would be outstanding, but I’m going to stop here because it was pretty darn good and sometimes you just need to quit while you are ahead.

Because I am having a love affair with caramelized onions, I had to top my burger with a slice of cheese, little mayo, some lettuce, my Caramelized Onion with Ginger mixture and some Quick Pickle Cucumbers. I found keeping the condiments simple, allows the subtle flavour of the burger to shine.

And yes in case you are wondering the bun in my burger photo is upside down. Why be ordinary? I wanted to shake it up a bit and help stop the burger from sliding. Don’t laugh, it worked!

 

Beer Butt Bird

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Beer Butt Bird, Beer Can Chicken or even Drunken Chicken is one of our favourite things to BBQ during the summer. You do not need to spend money on a beer butt chicken holder, the can and proper positioning of legs on the grill will do the trick. Too many gadgets make for too much clutter. At least that’s my motto!

Recently I heard about brining the chicken the night before you grill it. We’ve brined a turkey before so why not a chicken. Made perfect sense to me. There is a lot of debate between Celebrity Chefs on to brine or not to brine. I say do what you want. I’ve found brining imparts flavour into the bird and makes it come out incredibly moist and juicy. But it is an extra step. We brine our beer butt chickens on a regular basis now.

I took a couple photographs of the bird on the grill while it was still cooking. They ended up being too close and as such I can not post the “better” photos. Note to self to zoom out next time. When it was done it was completely browned and looking delicious. We’ll be making it again soon, I’m sure. Better photos next time.

We really like using an IPA beer with our chicken but have also played around with other types of beer. The type of beer you use really does enhance the taste of the bird. If you are not a beer drinker you can try ginger-ale, 7 up or even coca cola.

In all our variations of beer butt bird, we’ve used a fresh poultry herb blend purchased from the store instead of individual thyme and rosemary, we’ve set up our smoker box with some wood chips and allowed the bird to smoke while cooking (no pun intended). Tossed in some orange or lemon peel into the brine. And even rubbed the bird with a buttered spice blend before cooking. Many ways to make this delicious meal and the leftovers always taste better the next day.

 

Honeyed Chili Chicken Wings

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Nice thing about chicken wings, is they are the perfect traveling companion. Simply trim and prepare the wings, toss into a ziplock bag or plastic container with a marinade and have chicken will travel. Take them camping, out to a BBQ or to a tailgate party. How you cook them depends on your options. Grilled, baked or deep fried, they are equally delicious and the ultimate finger lickin good food.

It’s been awhile since I made chicken wings. I’ve been tossing some flavour combinations around in my head for wings for quite some time and finally decided to bite the bullet and get clucking….er cracking. One thing I do not enjoy is eating fatty wings. Being one who used to enjoy a wing night or two back in the day (before kids) I have had my share of fatty wings (epic fail). Wings need to be crispy. End of story.

Any wing going into a marinade should be given ample time in the marinade. Get your wings ready either the night before or the morning of and let them swim in the sauce all day/night. There are so many delicious flavour combinations to choose from and/or create, this is one of many we enjoy or at least it got a 3/4 thumbs up in in our family.

Our family loves wings (kids prefer the basic salt & pepper) and Rob, my husband probably loves them the most. So the night I made these wings I made a huge batch (doubled the recipe). I did not make a dipping sauce for the wings as they really are flavourful enough and can hold their own.