Homemade Burgers and Fries

My friend was telling me about the Pioneer Woman's favorite burger recipe, so I decided to give it a try. In all of my cooking over the year, this is actually the first time that I have ever made homemade burgers. I usually do a pre-made turkey burger the few times we have ever even had burgers. To be honest, I'm not that much of a burger gal, or I guess I am a bit picky when it comes to burgers. My top burger would probably be from Five Guys. This burger, though, was pretty dang good. Stan, who loves burgers, gave this a 10. The blue cheese and the caramelized red onions were so good. I personally loved the toasted Kaiser roll. It is a great combination of sweet and salty. The Pioneer Woman has step by step instructions on her site (just google it). Baked fries recipe below.

Ingredients
2 pounds 80/20 Ground Beef
1 teaspoon Salt
1/2 teaspoon Black Pepper
Tabasco Sauce, To Taste
2 Tablespoons Butter
1 whole Red Onion, Sliced
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
1/4 cup Real Mayonnaise
Kaiser Rolls
1 cup Crumbled Blue Cheese
Your Favorite Lettuce
Preparation Instructions
Place the ground beef into a medium mixing bowl. Add 1 teaspoon salt and ½ teaspoon of ground black pepper. Add a few dashes of Tabasco sauce. With your hands, mix the meat and seasoning well. Set aside.
Next, for the onions, heat a medium skillet over low heat. Add in 2 tablespoons butter. Dump in the sliced (not too thick, not too thin) red onions. Now add 2 generous tablespoons brown sugar. Give it a toss to combine the ingredients, and then allow the onions to caramelize over low heat for about twenty minutes, tossing occasionally.
While the onions are caramelizing, make the spicy mayo: Place ¼ cup mayonnaise into a small bowl and simply add a few dashes of Tabasco. Stir together and test for taste.
Next, slice the Kaiser rolls in half and spread each half with about ½ tablespoon of butter. Place them face down on a grill pan or skillet over medium heat. Lightly grill the rolls so they’ll be tough enough to hold the spicy mayo. Let the rolls cool on a plate until you need them.
Form the meat into two patties and place on a grill pan or skillet over medium to medium-low heat. Allow each to cook about 3 minutes, then using a spatula, rotate 45 degrees, leaving it on the same side.
Flip the burger and cook it for a couple of minutes, rotating it 45 degrees again to get the nice grill marks.
Now add a large helping of caramelized onions over top of that glorious patty, followed by an equally generous helping of crumbled blue cheese.
As it finishes cooking, spread the spicy mayo on the Kaiser rolls and transfer the burger onto the bottom half of the bun. Top with a handful of greens and top with the bun.


BAKED FRIES:
I tripled this recipe and pretty much followed it exactly. These great a great side to our burgers.


Ingredients

1 large baking potato
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon onion powder
Directions

Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
Cut potato into wedges. Mix olive oil, paprika, garlic powder, chili powder and onion powder together. Coat potatoes with oil/spice mixture and place on a baking sheet.
Bake for 45 minutes in preheated oven.