Backyard Cheese Burgers and "Batman Begins"

I'm pretty sure I have a slight addiction to cheeseburgers. If a freshly grilled cheese burger isn't my favorite thing to eat it's, certainly in my top three. Though you can make a great burger indoors with a cast iron skillet, nothing beats the flavor you get from grilling. Through your favorite cheese on top, melt it to perfection, on a fresh bun with an toppings you desire and this is one quick lunch or dinner few will pass up. This weeks movie recommendation isn't quite as literal as some of my other pairings, but it still seems to fit for me. In fact, just the other night when I sat down to enjoy my burger I put the DVD of "Batman Begins" in to enjoy. It's the start to Christopher Nolan's Dark Knight Trilogy and whether you might believe it at first or not, they are three of the best films made in recent years. Lets get the burgers going before we start talking abou the film.


For 3 Cheese Burgers 
1¼ lb of Angus ground Beef 80/20
Kosher Salt and Black Pepper 
2 tablesoons of softend butter
¼ lb of sliced cheese (Always Cooper Sharp Cheese for me)
Burger Buns

Burgers are pretty simple to make, with that said there are a few easy mistakes that I think a lot of people make. Selecting good ground meat is essentially the first key to making a perfect cheese burger. Angus beef is always the best quality and you want to look for one with about an 80 to 20 ratio of lean meat and fat. Now you might have realized I don't add a bunch of spices to my burger and you'll never catch me with those generic grill spice mixtures either. Keeping the seasoning simple to just salt and pepper is another tip to making a great burger. Once you take the wrapping off your burger, season it with some salt and pepper.
 
Now the next tip to making a great burger is when you form the patties themselves. You want to be gentle in this process. Don't roll up the ground beef into a ball using your hands and then flatten them out into their shape. When you compact the burge down tightly like that, you're forming a very tough burger. Gently pull a part a handful of the ground meat and pat in gently with your hands to form your burgers. Once you've formed your burgers, season again with a bit of salt and freshly cracked black pepper. Now a little trick I think helps keep the burgers juicy is spreading a little bit of very soft butter on the outside. Place the burgers back in the fridge for until you are ready to grill.

Heat your grill to a high temperature and allow the grates to get nice and hot. Place the burgers on top of the grill giving them a few inches in between each other. Place the cover on your grill and allow the burgers to cook on one side for about 6 to 8 minutes until you can see the meat browning around the bottom edges. Turn your burgers carefully and allow them to cook for another 6 to 8 minutes. One final tip here, never take your spatula and press down on your burger while it's on the grill. You may think you're helping it cook quicker but all you are doing is pressing all those flavorful juices right out of the burgers. Top your burgers with the cheese and cover the grill until the cheese has melted.

 Throw your burgers on your bun with your favorite toppings. I like a little freshly sliced red onion, a crispy dill pickle, and some ketchup and mustard. The burger should have a nice crispy outer crust and be moist and juicy on the inside. This to me folks is heaven on a bun! Now the Cheeseburger has a love affair with French Fries or Onion rings so click the links for my recipe for each. But sometimes I like to keep it simple with some good old potato chips. Now that dinner is at hand, time to dive into our movie of the week.

In 2005 Christopher Nolan took over the directing duties for the Batman movie franchise. While the first two movies directed by Tim Burton and starring Michael Keaton as Batman were widely popular hits with fans and critics, the franchise hit rock bottom with is horrid and comical sequels with "Batman Forever" and "Batman and Robin". It seem as though Batman would never again see the respected light of the silver screen. Christopher Nolan's "Batman Begins" changed all of that and not only did he set the bar for all movies based on comic book heroes, he made three of the most popular films of the past decade.

"Batman Begins" starts off with the story of how Bruce Wayne comes to be the mask hero of Gotham City. Christian Bale stars as Bruce Wayne/Batman, the young man who saw his parents murder with his own eyes when he was just a boy. Broken and lost, Wayne has buried himself far away from any signs of his former life and lives his life in hiding. Until a man named Ducard (Liam Neeson) discovers Wayne and promises him the means to seek the justice needed to get his revenge. Bruce soon finds himself back to the city her left years ago only find that Gotham has been completely corrupted by criminals and the rich thugs of the mobs.

With aide from his loyal butler Alfred (Michael Caine) and the head of the research and development department of the Wayne company Lucious Fox (Morgan Freeman), Bruce begins his double life as the masked vigilante known as Batman. While the entire city sees him as just another criminal, one cop named Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman) trusts that Batman may actually be trying to help. Together they will have to stop an unknown force that threatens to tear Gotham and it's people apart before there very eyes. Katie Holmes, Ken Watanabe, Tom Wilkinson, and Cillian Murphy co-star in the first installment of the Dark Knight Trilogy. Click here for the trailer of "Batman Begins"