Summer still hasn't arrived in the Northeast, but that does not stop me from having “Hamburger Friday”. Hamburger Friday is a make your own burger night where everyone makes their own dinner. The concept is to make your own burger with ingredients inside of the fridge.

This weeks special guest is Juliette Azan, a long time friend from high school. To add to her toolkit of knowledge she is pursuing an Associates degree in Culinary Arts . Her claim to fame is while we were on vacation she tasted wine in a dish that no one at the table tasted.

The best thing besides a George Foreman grill, is a stove top grill. Your meal tastes just like it was made outdoors and gives those cool grill marks on your food. My next experiment is to grill some fruit on it.

I decided that I was going to make a “stuffed” burger. A stuffed burger is a hamburger that is stuffed with cheese prior to cooking instead of having the cheese on top after cooked.

Fruit in the meat?
When I looked behind me, my guest chef, Juliette was making a stuff burger as well, but guess what?!

She kicked it up a notch and added cranberry and apple chutney into the meat. Fruit and meat, I know may sound interesting, but I'll tell you, the end product was tasteful. It was a great complement to the burger. It was reminiscent of thanksgiving turkey and cranberry sauce.

Flatten or not to Flatten?
Baron was on grill duty that night, and he did was most of us do on the grill. Flatten the burger. We all seen it at BBQ,'s the 'grill master' standing by the hot coals, smashing the burgers down with a spatchula . I yelled out “Nooooo, don't flatten my burger”, why you may ask. When you flatten a burger it takes out the natural juices that are inside the burger. If you want a moist burger full of flavor, have it sit on the grill and cook naturally. Its worth the wait.

I encourage you all to start your own “Hamburger Friday's” and see what mixtures you come out with and don't forget, don't flatten your burger.

What interesting mix do you think you will come up with?