Yesterday, we celebrated our nation's birthday by hosting our 9th Annual Canada Day party. Our entire extended family, a good friend, and Jackson's guitar teacher all stopped by for a little live music, the yearly Canadian trivia quiz that pits the boys against the girls for patriotic knowledge domination - the girls won this year - and lots of good food, of course.
While I'm terrible about snapping photos when I'm entertaining, I did manage to capture one of the burger bar we set up on the buffet table. We kept the menu simple with grilled hot dogs and hamburgers, but upped the ante with 19 potential toppings for the grilled meats.
I spent my weekend as a culinary scientist, mixing flavourful potions created from our everyday condiments, and the result was a show stopping collection of toppers that pleased everyone. The burgers were made slider-size (2.5oz each) making them perfect for little hands, and small enough that the adults could have more than one, allowing them to experiment with the topping options.
Should you feel inclined to try something similar, here is a list of what we had available on the burger & hot dog bar:
- Lettuce
- Sliced red onion
- Sliced tomatoes
- Chopped white onions
- Dill pickles
- Grated cheddar cheese
- Pickle relish
- Spicy honey Dijon sauce
- Creamy chimichurri
- Pickled jalapeños
- Barbecue sauce
- Dijon mustard
- Bacon and onion jam
- Dijonnaise
- Sriracha Mayo
- Ballpark Mustard
- Mayo
- Spicy ketchup
- Ketchup
Also, a few notes about the burgers:
I made my patties by weighing them so they were all the same size, ensuring they would cook through evenly. I didn't add any filler to my burgers, but seasoned them liberally with kosher salt and pepper on both sides, just before they hit the grill. I used heartier dinner rolls in order to keep the condiments tucked in nicely; slider buns are thin and small, and don't offer much room for the toppings. Because I had 48 buns - plus an additional 15 long rolls for the hot dogs - I didn't have the space or time to butter and toast them, but I would have liked to.
I hope you had a great weekend!
"Most people were bigots in Jesus' day, or Gandhi's day, or whoever's day, and most people are bigots today."
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