A night of better burgers

So a couple of weeks ago, Brian and I watched a contest on Food Network called Build a Better Burger. It's an annual competition sponsored by Sutter Home Winery where thousands of Average Joes from all over the country submit their best original burger recipes. Sutter Home selects the top 5 beef recipes and the top 5 alternative (non-beef) recipes, and the finalists then compete in an exciting 4 hour grill-off! The beef winner takes home $50 grand and the non-beef winner gets $10 grand. Not bad for a little ol' burger recipe!

By the time the show was over, we were pretty much drooling for a burger. So we looked at the calendar and picked the first available date where we had time to fire up the grill and spend several hours in the kitchen.

Saturday was the much-anticipated day. After much deliberation, we decided to go with...

"Southern Burgers with Carmelized Vidalia Onions, Fried Green Tomatoes and Georgia Pecan Chevre"

What a mouthful! A yummy mouthful!

Also included with this burger is a bed of spinach, sauteed with bacon. And it's served on a biscuit, not a bun. Oh wow.

Three hours and a mess of a kitchen later, ta da!

If you're willing to brave the recipe, here it is. Brian and I would say that its definitely worth the effort. We did decide to nix the fried green tomatoes, though - neither of us are big fans, although I'm sure they're really good if you like green tomatoes. Plus, I could hardly get my mouth around the burger as it was - I truly don't know how we could have opened wide enough if there were tomatoes on them!

I paired the gourmet sandwich with our favorite "fries." They're super easy and we both love them, although they should probably be termed chips since I don't fry them. All you have to do is a scrub a potato (don't peel it) and slice it lengthwise in thin strips, probably about a quarter of an inch thick. Spray a cookie sheet with cooking spray (I like to use the sprayable olive oil), and lay the strips in a single layer on the sheet. Lightly spray over potatoes once more with the spray and then season with whatever you want (we like Lawry's seasoning salt and garlic salt). Bake for 10-15 minutes at 425 degrees. Remove from oven and flip each fry over, and then put them back in the oven for another 5 to 10 minutes, depending on how crispy you want them.

And to complete the Southern theme of the evening, I made a super easy, incredibly delicious Key Lime Pie. I LOVE Houston's (the restaurant) version of this tangy delight, and this recipe is the closest I've found to duplicating it. It's sooooo good (excuse the whipped cream dripping down the side - it was a bit warm in our kitchen). If you try this pie, definitely use key lime juice if at all possible. I've tried plain lime juice and it's really not as good. Also, I use low-fat condensed milk and can't even tell the difference from the real thing.