Last Monday, we were in the midst of a more than 3 day blackout, courtesy of Hurricane Irene. We had access to a generator so we keep our fridge cold but all of my kitchen appliances and stove were  not an option. Still, we made a nice home-cooked dinner every night of the power outage. There were certainly other options – like hitting up local restaurants that didn’t lose power – but being able to sit down to a hot meal at home was a much-needed few minutes of normalcy in those crazy days.

These burgers were one of the meals I made during the blackout. Prepping only took a few minutes and then we sat out on the back deck grilling. The original recipe called for the onions to be caramelized. I think that would have been fantastic, but in the interest of making things quick and easy, we just threw the onions on the grill until they were soft.  They were great this way, but when I make these again I’ll definitely try the caramelization route!

Chili Garlic Burgers
(adapted from PreventionRD)
Serves 2

1/2 lb. ground beef
1 1/2 t. low-sodium soy sauce
1 T + 1/4 t. chili garlic sauce, divided
3/4 t. black pepper
2 slices bacon
2 slices sweet onion
2 T. bleu cheese dressing
2 burger buns
2 slices Swiss cheese

Preheat grill. Mix the ground beef, soy sauce, the black pepper and 1 tablespoons of the chili garlic sauce. Form into two patties.

In a small bowl, mix the bleu cheese dressing and the remaining chili garlic sauce.

Grill burgers, bacon and onions over medium heat, removing to a plate when done. (The bacon should finish before the onions and bacon.) In the last two minutes of grilling, melt the cheese over the burgers and toast the buns.