I realize this doesn’t sound like typical food served at a three year olds birthday party. Instead of  this being a toddler event, we had decided to throw a BBQ for all the people that are a part of my little guy’s life. We’re super fortunate to have a great group of people surrounding us that all adore my son and help out any time I’ve needed it, especially with Huberoo out of town. This was as chance to celebrate one of the best things in my life, my darling son and a celebration of the amazing group we have in our lives. And with any gathering in my home this meant I had to feed these lovely folks some damn good food.

The two dozen sliders I made were gone before I had a chance to take any pictures. I barely tasted the one that I inhaled as I was socializing and cooking but I was fairly impressed with what I accomplished. Thankfully, I had made a lot of the caramelized onions and saved some ground beef so I could make burgers again for us the next night. I made a plain ol’ cheese burger for the little guy and we all happily sat around in the backyard enjoying every delicious bite.

The onions take awhile so I suggest making this a weekend meal. The burger patties themselves were a 1:1 combination of lean and extra lean ground, local beef with Montreal steak spice and some of my home made HP sauce.

Bourbon Caramelized Onions

6-7 yellow onions thinly sliced
3-4 sliced pieces of bacon
2 tbsps Canola oil
1 tbsp white sugar
1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1/2 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup bourbon
1 tbsp fresh thyme
salt to taste

In a large saucepan over medium low heat cook the bacon until just crisp. Add the canola oil, sliced onions, sugar and balsamic vinegar and allow the onions to cook down about 20 minutes. Stir in the bourbon, stock and thyme and continue to cook until the liquid has all reduced and the onions are creamy and delicious. Season with salt towards the end of cooking. When liquids reduce the salt intensifies so seasoning too early can ruin some perfectly wonderful onions.

I used a Scotch bap bun from our local baker that was the perfect size for a slider, slathered with some good mayo. Grilled the patties and then topped them with a healthy spoon of the onions. Finished with some grated extra old cheddar and melted until gorgeous.