Caprese Burgers & Bacon S'mores with our Squirreltail Cocktail

We came up with these recipes while vacationing in the small town of McMinnville, Oregon. We rented a great house through AirBnB to escape the heat and the COVID-19 for the month of July and it’s been wonderful! Our yard has a 75 year-old Douglas Fir tree, a grape vine, rambunctious squirrels, and a nice fire pit in the center of it all surrounded by Adirondack chairs. So this month’s virtual Instagram Live cooking class will be a “Campfire Edition”, held on Saturday, July 4th at 10am, with everything cooked fireside on the Weber Grill. We hope to “see” you Saturday on our Candelaria Design Instagram.

Caprese Burger Ingredients

Makes 4 burgers

1 1/2 lbs ground sirloin beef

1—2 tbs Worcestershire

1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

7 — 8oz ball fresh mozzarella sliced into eight 1/4-inch-thick slices, patted dry with paper towels

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1/4 cup pesto

Olive oil for drizzling

4 Focaccia hamburger buns

2 medium tomatoes sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds

Fresh Basil leaves

Caprese Burger Preparation

• For the burgers: Place a grill pan over medium-high heat or preheat a gas or charcoal grill.

• Combine the beef, Worcestershire, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Form the mixture into four, 4-inch-diameter patties, each about 3/4-inch thick.

• Grill for 5 minutes. Turn the burgers over and place a slice of mozzarella on top. Cook for about 5 minutes longer until the burgers are cooked through and the cheese is slightly melted.

• Allow the burgers to rest for 5 minutes.

• For the pesto mayonnaise, combine the mayonnaise and pesto in a small bowl until smooth.

• To assemble the burgers: Drizzle the cut side of the bread with olive oil and grill until lightly toasted, 1 to 2 minutes. Spread the pesto mayonnaise over the bottom halves of the grilled bread. Place the burgers on top and add 2 tomato slices and basil leaves. Add the top halves of the bread and serve.

Bacon S’mores Ingredients

Graham crackers

Marshmallows

Chocolate Bar 

Bacon

Preparation

• Break graham crackers in half. Break chocolate bar in half and center one square section on each of 2 graham cracker halves.

• Cook bacon strips on grill 3-5 minutes until desired texture.

• Roast marshmallow over the grill about 1 minute until desired char.

• Top each graham cracker half with your roasted marshmallow & 1/2 a bacon strip. Add other graham cracker half and press gently to sandwich.

• Enjoy!

Squirrel Tail Cocktail

2 shots Bourbon

1 shot Chambord Liqueur

1/4 shot Frangelico Liqueur

1 shot Club Soda

Few drops of Aromatic Bitters

1 blackberry

Pour all ingredients into a cocktail shaker. Shake and serve over ice. Garnish with a small Pine branch. Enjoy that Squirreltail!

Spatchcock Grilled Jerk Chicken

Here I have a zesty grilled Jerk chicken recipe for you that's easy, filling and makes great leftover options.

Ingredients:

6 Servings per chicken

* 1 medium organic whole chicken

* 2 cloves of garlic finely chopped

* One New Mexico dried red chili, deseeded and de-stemmed and chopped/crushed.

* 2 tbsp of Caribbean jerk seasoning

* Fresh Italian parsley, coarsely chopped as needed.

* ¼ cup of olive oil as needed to cover the chicken

* 1 tsp of salt and 1 tsp pepper

Preparation

* To spatchcock the chicken - wash the chicken and pat dry. Then lay the chicken breast side down on a cutting board. I like to use a set of kitchen shears and cut along both sides of the chicken backbone and remove the backbone. Turn the bird over and flatten the bird out by cracking the breast bone.

* I then sprinkle some olive oil over the chicken and use my hands to rub it all over the chicken - then wash!

*Then squeeze lime juice all over the chicken and then generously sprinkle the jerk seasoning combined with the garlic and red chili all over the chicken, along with salt and pepper.

* Then place the chicken on the grill breast side up (if grilling on a Weber or similar grille, grill the chicken indirectly) and grill the chicken for about 30-45 minutes before flipping to the other side and grill another 30-45 minutes depending on the size of the chicken until the chicken comes up to a temperature of 165º. I love to grill the chicken on my Traeger grill and so I set mine to Smoke until I see the smoke and then I crank my Traeger to 450º.

* After grilling, let the chicken rest by covering with foil for 10-15 minutes. Cut the chicken into the pieces you like and garnish with more freshly squeezed lime juice and sprinkling of parsley. Serve with grilled vegetables, or rice, potatoes, risotto etc. Save the leftovers for topping a salad, tacos, whatever - ENJOY.