Summer evening BBQ

The past few days have been super hot, as in, temperatures have been in the mid 80s and hitting 90s.........and I HATE IT! Thankfully I live in a place where there's only 3 months of summer and yippee! it is almost over! One good thing about summer, though, is the grilling. You can just head to your backyard and crank up your grill and throw some hot dogs or burgers and actually enjoy the summer evenings...........yeah, I don't mind summer evenings.

So last evening I made these amazing turkey burgers. No, not those pre-made ones. Right from scratch. Actually it is THE easiest thing to make. And when the husband offers to grill 'em for ya, nothing like it, right? Bought some ground turkey and some sourdough onion bread, rather than plain old hamburger buns. Had rest of the ingreds at home.

First: Transferred the ground turkey into a big mixing bowl. Added some minced garlic (about 3-4 cloves), some fresh cilantro, followed by a dash of salt, pepper, lemon juice and a little bit of that Italian seasoning. Then my eyes fell upon this little bottle of biryani spice powder (cinnamon+cloves+bay leaves+cardamom etc etc......) and of course, my genius mind said go ahead and add that as well! Then I added some grated parmigiano and some bread crumbs (to hold everything together). Mixed it all up and allowed to rest in the refrigerator.

Next: Sliced up half an onion. Put a couple teaspoons of oil into a pan. Threw in the sliced onion and sprinkled some salt and sugar and Italian seasoning--- the sugar to bring out the sweetness of the onion as well as to aid in caramelizing the onion. Kept it on low heat-- that is the key to the whole caramelizing process. Believe me, totally worth it!

The sliced onion into the pan

Gorgeously caramelized!

Meanwhile: Had the kids set the patio table. Had the husband to get the grill going. Took out the seasoned up ground turkey from the fridge and made 4 beautiful patties, 1 for each of us and handed them over to the hubby.

Perfect patties, eh?!

Finally: The kids and I settled down at the table, waiting for the hubby to grill the burgers. While waiting for the burgers, we ate some caesar salad from one of those pre-packaged bags. Hey, gotta get some veggies into the body too! Finally the burgers were ready and within no time, it was all gone! Crispy on the outside, but juicy inside. Perfectly grilled--- yes, the hubby did a great job!

On the grill

Waiting........(OK, try not to look at the salad dredged with dressing.........!!)

Aah, finally! Perfect grill marks!

Topped with caramelized onions

Some of that turkey was leftover in the fridge. I converted that into beautiful meat balls and the kids were delighted to eat spaghetti and meat balls today for lunch. What a good usage of all that turkey!
(Note: I used whole wheat angel hair pasta--- mm hmm, talk about going healthy!)

Meat Balls

Every kid's delight- Spaghetti & Meat Balls

Note to Self: NO MORE turkey for at least a couple weeks!!