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Willow White

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Best Ever Grilled Hamburgers

It’s in the name. Let’s get to it.

Best Ever Grilled Hamburgers

So good, you won't ever need another burger recipe.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 20 mins
Cook Time 10 mins
Refrigerator Time 1 hr
Total Time 1 hr 30 mins
Servings 3 burgers

Ingredients
  

  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 1/4 cup barbeque sauce
  • 1 teaspoon black pepper
  • 1/2 cup pineapple juice (reserved)

Instructions
 

  • Mix ground beef, barbeque sauce, pepper, and a splash of pineapple juice in large bowl
  • Patty out meat into 1/3 lb patties onto a rimmed baking sheet (I line mine with aluminum foil for easy clean-up)
  • Splash a bit of pineapple juice over each patty to act as a marinade (TRUST ME)
  • Refrigerate 1-2 hours until ready to grill

Notes

Make a small indention on each patty with your thumb so they cook evenly.
We have found that cold hamburgers grill up better than room temperature, so keep your meat in the refrigerator until ready to grill!
This recipe is for 1 lb of meat, which makes 3 burgers for our family. Adjust the recipe based on how many pounds of meat you are cooking.

A note about these burgers: after making the patties but before splashing on the pineapple juice, press your thumb gently into each patty to create a small indention. This helps the burger retain shape after grilling. And for what it’s worth, I weigh out the meat before I patty it out. I use about 5.3 oz of meat per patty.

And the pineapple juice marinade is KEY to this recipe.

WARNING: I’m going to insert a pic here of raw hamburger meat, but I have to show you the pineapple juice on the patties.

See how the juice just sits there? It’s the perfect marinade for juicy burgers with a hint of sweet.

Cody does all the grilling around here. I asked him about grilling instructions and he said that he and the grill are one. He knows the grill. The grill knows him. He can feel in his spirit when the burgers are cooked. He says to follow your heart.

He also said about cooking for about 5 minutes on each side over direct heat should do the trick.

More specifically, he said that it’s very important to not move the burgers during the first 5 minutes. The same goes for after you flip them. Keeping them still during the first parts of cooking creates almost a seal to keep the juices in. Also, don’t press down on the patty with the spatula. It squeezes all the good juices out!

We use a gas grill, so specifics may vary for different gas grills, charcoal grills, indoor ranges, or any other cooking apparatuses you may be using.

Also, we don’t toast the buns. Untoasted buns remain soft and complement the juiciness of the burger. I dunno. Do what you want. But don’t toast the buns.

These burgers are a favorite around here and a staple throughout grilling season. I like to throw on a few dill pickle chips and a little ketchup. Delish!

Book Organization that Kids Can Maintain

This is not staged, and unfortunately, it looks better in this pic than it does most days. This eyesore of a bookshelf sits right behind our living room sofa. You see it immediately as you walk in the front door, coming down the hallway, sitting in the dining room…there’s no place to escape from it. Honestly, it’s the best location in the house for Ezra to get to his books whenever he wants, and I’m all for encouraging as much reading as possible. But I was so weary of it looking like a mess ALL. THE. TIME.

I knew that in order for it to get organized and stay that way, I had to come up with a system that was simple, easy for him to maintain, and most importantly, free using what I had in the house. #covid19quarantine

Here’s what I came up with: colors! Imma genius, right?

Colors = categories, and here are the categories I used:

• Royal Blue: Storybooks (These are collections of stories and we have several of them.)
• Orange: Comic books/graphic novels
• Navy Blue: Beginner children’s books
• Pink: Books in a series
• Light Blue: Dr. Seuss books
• Purple: Magazines
• Yellow: Educational books/textbooks
• Green: Bibles and bible story books
• Maroon: Chapter books (I suspect this category will grow the fastest at this point in Ezra’s reading level and interests)

These are loose qualifiers and arguments could be made for certain books to belong to different categories, but I chose what would work best with our collection of books and I sorted them in just a few minutes, so I was making quick decisions.

To marry the colors and categories to tangible organization, I used my Silhouette Cameo to cut vinyl rectangles about 2″ x 1/2″. I created a Silhouette file that would cut an entire 12″x12″ sheet of vinyl into 138 rectangles. Notice that I left one long strip at the bottom. I’ll get to that in a sec.

[I’m including this Silhouette Studio file for free if you are interested in using it!]

I peeled off the rectangles and stuck them on the spines of the books toward the bottom. Then took the long piece of uncut vinyl at the bottom, trimmed with scissors to the length I needed, and stuck in on the shelf right beneath the coordinating books. That way, it’s easy to see at a glance where each color is and where the books need to go.

If I didn’t have a vinyl cutting machine, I would use small pieces of construction paper or washi tape on the spine and cover it with clear packing tape.

Sometimes, with kids, you have to make things easy and straightforward so that it sticks! And that’s okay! And for me, it’s all about empowering Ezra to take care of his belongings on his own. And it keeps me from nagging.

So here’s the final product:

SO. MUCH. BETTER. I much prefer this look. And when it gets untidy, it will be easy for Ezra to tidy up quickly. Bonus: as Henry grows, it will be an easy system for him to learn!

It’s not perfect, but it works great for us! Overall, this project only took a couple of hours from start to finish and will be easy to keep updated as more books come into the house. It will also keep library books easy to distinguish from home books.

And since I’m feeling extra, I made a TikTok of the process. If you’re in to that sort of thing, enjoy 🙂

@willowwhiteletters

Organizing my 8-year-old’s books ##quarantine ##keepingbusy ##stayhomestaystrong ##organize ##books ##kidsbooks ##adhd

♬ Paris (In the Style of The Chainsmokers) [Karaoke Version] – Instrumental King

Li’l Marinade for Grilled Chicken

I an definitely NOT a food blogger. You can tell because I’m going to get right to the recipe. So here we go.

Li’l Marinade for Grilled Chicken

A li'l of this, li'l of that makes a great li'l marinade.
Print Recipe Pin Recipe
Prep Time 15 mins
Course Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 1 1/2 cups pineapple juice
  • 1/2 cup soy sauce (low sodium)
  • 1/2 cup brown sugar
  • 1 tablespoon minced garlic (heaping tablespoon)
  • 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 1 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Instructions
 

  • Whisk all ingredients together.
  • Pour over chicken into zip-top bag or covered bowl.
  • Refrigerate for 30 minutes to overnight.

Notes

We marinated our chicken for about 6 hours. If you don’t have hours, even 30 minutes can make a big difference when marinating meat.
We cooked our chicken on the outdoor grill, but this marinade would work well for baked, slow cooked, or pressure cooked chicken.
This recipe was enough to cover 4 large chicken breasts that were cut in half. Adjust ingredients as necessary for the amount of chicken you will be cooking.

Now for the narrative portion of our show…

Just kidding. I don’t have an interesting back story to share or a fun reason for the name. It’s just a li’l of this, a li’l of that, and boom – you have a li’l marinade.

Cody grilled this chicken on our gas grill. I have no idea how he did that part. So I’m zero help there. I do know that this was his first attempt at grilling chicken breasts. He’s grilled pork chops, hamburgers (recipe coming soon!), corn, pineapple, and potatoes, but never chicken breasts. He knocked this chicken out of the park.

It ended up being DELICIOUS. The chicken turned out sweet, juicy, flavorful, and just right. I put a variety of dipping sauces on the table when I served dinner and NONE of us reached for them. The chicken was THAT. GOOD. all on its own.

Marinate your chicken like this. You won’t regret it.

Also:
Marinade = the sauce that you pour over meat
Marinate = the act of soaking meat in a sauce

Feels good to get that out.

“Soaking meat” sounds disgusting, but this marinade is amazing. Try it!

For more information on creating your own marinade, check out The Lazy Genius blog and podcast. She’s amazing and super duper smart. She’ll tell you everything you need to know about marinades and also life.

Enjoy!