A Burger the Size of My Head

If there's one thing I've learned in graduate school, it's that cooking is the BEST form of procrastination ever.

To be fair to myself, I was uber-productive today. I had 2 home visits for my dissertation, and I ended up getting more data than I had expected because I talked a father of twins into joining his wife in being part of my study (for some godforsaken reason I've decided to add dads to the mix to compare the way moms help their children talk about the past with the way dads help). So good news is I was able to round up 4 dyads in 1 home visit (yay for me!).

But as soon as all that data collecting was over, I needed a break. So, following my weekly grocery trip to whole foods, I embarked on a burger journey the likes of which I have never seen. Okay, maybe I'm being a little dramatic, but really, look at that thing. Homemade. Here's what I did.

Sunday Burger
1 poblano chile
1 lb ground beef
Salt + pepper
Olive oil
Cheddar cheese, sliced or shredded.
Guacamole (I make mine super simple with avocado, red onion, tomato and salt)
Burger buns

So, I fired up my grill to full heat and threw on the chile until it got blackened on all sides. After I removed it from the grill, I let it sweat in a bowl sealed with plastic wrap for about 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, I seasoned the ground beef with salt and pepper, formed my patties, and brushed them with a little oil; the oil creates a nice crisp exterior when cooked. Those went on the grill next. I'd say about 5 minutes or less on each side, depending on thickness of your patties and your doneness preferences. While those are working, I assembled the guac.

A minute or so after I flipped the patties, I turned off the heat, threw the cheese atop the patties, placed my buns on the grill to toast, and closed the lid once more. Three minutes or so later, I took it all off the grill and let the patties set while I worked on the chile. This is easier than I expected; the skin of the chile slid right off and it wasn't too much of a pain in the butt to seed either. Then I just sliced that sucker up and began stacking up my bodacious burgers. As the picture above illustrates, I slathered guac on the bottom bun, followed by the pattie glistening with melted cheddar, then the chile slices, and finally the topper bun.

Holy guacamole chile burger! And it took all of 30 minutes before I was enjoying my first homemade burger of the season.