Rollin' with my Comees

Tuesday night, our friends the Comees came over for dinner, on their way home from their vacation. As mentioned before, Les is a self-professed Burger Man. So we knew that he wouldn't be super impressed with anything too fancy. However, Marilyn would, so finding a happy medium was a challenge. And nothing gets our blood pumping like a good cooking challenge. What could be more impressive than bacon or cheese? That's right, bacon and cheese! Blue Cheese bacon burgers on homemade rolls, to be exact. For burgers this awesome, we also needed a few understated sides. I only had about a bajillion pounds of potatoes left over from this weekend, so I whipped up my southern-style potato salad. We also had some roasted corn, so we made up a quick salad using that as well. It might be my new favorite thing. Next time, I might add some red onion or cilantro. Or both, plus black beans.
Sanne's kaiser rolls from scratch turned out beautifully. And Les just so happened to have a bottle of champagne in the car.

Blue Cheese Bacon Burgers
Mix together:
1lb ground beef
some bleu cheese, crumbled
6 slices of bacon, cooked, drained and crumbled
a few T chives, chopped
worceshire sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
salt + pepper to taste

I decided to caramelize some onions for the burgers. I got a little distracted and they got a little burnt... or so I thought. Turns out, what I did was a pretty advanced cooking technique, which Les calls "darkening". Darkening is like burning, but with purpose.

Like so.

I tried it with the bacon too...

:/

Fresh Corn Salsa
Mix together:
1 ear of corn
1 avocado, finely chopped
1c cherry tomatoes, quartered
juice from half a lime
salt & pepper, to taste

Unfortunately, this was the only picture I  got of the corn salsa. I couldn't stop eating it, this stuff was so good!

Dinner was amazing, but the company was even better. I'm telling you, come visit, and we will try our best to impress you with a beautiful meal. That is my solemn vow to you.

What do you do to make your burgers extra-special?

m