Firin' Up the Grill

Temps in the 80s today.... what what?!? I absolutely looooved it.


I actually spent 2 hours laying outside, reading a book, and working on my tan absorbing some quality vitamin D. It was the best afternoon ever!


Tonight was not the first time we've broken out the grill this spring, but it was the first night we grilled something exciting. So far we've just grilled chicken. Not that boneless chicken breasts can't be exciting with a little BBQ rub... actually no. That's not exciting at all. But this dinner was.


Tonight it was all about the beef. (It's what's for dinner.) 

We made Hawaiian Beef Sliders. My Business Man and I discovered this slider recipe last summer after we bought our baby grill. I've never been to Hawaii, so I don't know if these burgers taste anything like burgers in Hawaii, but I do know one thing: These. Are. So. Good. And because they are sliders you get to eat more than one and not feel like a little piggy.


So many flavors! There's the sweet pineapple with the tangy feta cheese and the salty bacon. And you can't forget the burger! All piled up on a sweet little Hawaiian roll... pure delicious-ness.


I now present you with a photo montage of the assembly of the burgers.

Naked buns! No... not those type of buns. ;-)

On go the burger patties. They look lonely.

A little bit of feta makes it "bettah". Haha. I'm a poet and I didn't even know it.

Bacon, bacon, bacon! Everything's better with bacon.

Transition to the top side of the bun with a bit of crushed pineapple.

And some spinach to include at least one vegetable. 

All set and ready to go!

If you have a grill, you need to make these soon. As my Business Man and I ate them tonight, we decided these are definitely in the "Top 5 Dinner Recipes." 

I wanted to sit down and discuss what the rest of the Top 5 would be, but my Business Man didn't want any part of it. I think it reminded him of my favorite game to play, the question-asking game. This is where I ask him a bunch of random questions usually about food, including but not limited to the following: 

• What's your favorite DQ blizzard? 
• What's your 3 favorite flavors of BBQ sauce? 
• If you could only have one flavor of pizza for the rest of your life, what would it be? 
• What are your top 10 favorite restaurants from our hometown? 

He absolutely loves this game! (Nooooooooot.) It probably doesn't help that usually this game is played once we have crawled into bed and all he wants to do is go to sleep.

Anyways, burgers are good. Especially Hawaiian ones.

P.S. A word to the wise: Be careful when you drain your pineapple. It could end up all over the floor.

Not that it happened to me, no not at all.

Hawaiian Beef Sliders

Servings/Yield

12 sliders

• 20-oz. can unsweetened crushed pineapple
• 1 tsp. pepper
• ¼ tsp. salt
• 1 lb. ground beef
• ¼ cup soy sauce
• 2 tbsp. ketchup
• 1 tbsp. vinegar
• 1 tbsp. minced garlic
• ¼ tsp. crushed red pepper
• 12 (one package) Hawaiian dinner rolls
• 8 slices bacon, cooked until crispy and sliced into 3 pieces each
• baby spinach
• feta cheese

Method

Drain pineapple, reserving juice. In a large bowl, combine 1/2 cup pineapple, pepper, and salt. Crumble beef over mixture and mix well. Shape into 12 small patties; place in a glass dish.

In a small bowl, combine reserved pineapple juice, soy sauce, ketchup, vinegar, garlic, and crushed red pepper. Pour marinade over burgers; cover and refrigerate for 1 hour, turning burgers once.

Drain and discard marinade. Line grill with foil. Place patties on foil and grill 6-7 minutes. (This helps them stay together... they tend to fall apart.) When burgers are seared, remove foil from grill and place burgers directly on grill. Grill until desired doneness, flipping once.

Slice Hawaiian rolls in half. To assemble burgers, place patty on bottom half of bun. Top with a bit of feta cheese and two mini-bacon slices. On top half of bun, spoon a bit of reserved pineapple and cover with a baby spinach leaf. Sandwich together and eat! Yum!

 

Source: Adapted from Taste of Home.