burger cook-off

We held our annual Burger Cook-off on Labor Day, and the competition was pretty fierce. Everyone really stepped up their game in the burger department this year- maybe because they wanted to bring home one of these magnificent specimens:

I was able to modify these thrift store finds (see the before photo here) into official burger trophies with the help of some gold foil plaques. I found some gold foil card stock in the (shudder) scrapbooking section of the craft store, and was shocked that I was actually able to print on it (note: I did use a fancy office laser printer, an inkjet might not be as successful). Once I got the printer to print on the gold foil, it was only a matter of glueing the plaques on and voila! Official USA World Champion Trophies!

We cut all the burgers into fourths so there would be enough for everyone to try a piece of the six different entries. Lamb burgers were once again the crowd favorite, with a Moroccan-spiced lamb burger taking the top prize, and a lamb burger topped with chutney and yogurt sauce winning the People's choice award.

The winner for Most Original Burger really took some creative liberties and made the cutest burger there ever was: the Big Mac(aron) burger. There was no hope of anyone else winning most original when these almond macarons with chocolate ganache and a mint leaf garnish showed up. Just look at those little sesame seed buns!

Once everyone voted for their favorite, the crowd waited anxiously to find out who would take home the top prizes. So many excellent entries made it mighty tough to choose a favorite. 

Congratulations to the big winners!

Now when can we eat more delicious hamburgers?