old-fashioned cheeseburgers and cucumber salad with sour cream and dill

I think this is officially the easiest and quickest dinner I've made since starting Everyday Food. Old-Fashioned Cheeseburgers with a side of Cucumber Salad with Sour Cream and Dill was completed in 15 minutes!

The burgers are straight up ground chuck. I went to R&J Meats for the beef simply because they are our closest butcher since I decided on this meal at the last minute. I didn't skimp out on the fat content, I think it's important to stay away from lean ground beef when making a burger. I originally anticipated that we should grill these on the BBQ, but Nuno recommended frying in a cast-iron skillet. I have to say, this is the way to prepare a burger! Restaurant chefs do it this way and after doing so I think this might just be one of the best burgers I've ever eaten! The patty was instructed to be very thin but it didn't shrink up. It was seasoned with salt and pepper and fried for no more than 3 minutes. The recipe recommended American cheese, which I have a stash from a trip to the US. Kinda similar to my previous entry about American food availability in Canada, I never see American cheese here in Canada, but I might just have to do a little more searching. Anyways, we loved these burgers and will make them again indefinitely. The side of cucumbers was a great cool contrast to the burger.

As far as food milestones, I guess at nine months you can start your baby on cheese. So I decided Owen's introduction should be a special one. I know this may sound totally crazy but I decided to make Owen a cheeseburger as well!

Let me clarify that I took the idea of a cheeseburger and applied it to what babies eat. I toasted bread, steamed a patty of the ground chuck and added American cheese & ketchup. The ketchup is Trader Joe's organic ketchup with less sugar and salt. Contrary to what the photo suggests, everything was quartered and eaten in pieces.

Loving it!!! Although the photo doesn't show, he also ate the cucumber salad.
I don't know, but this dinner made Owen so giddy and he seemed very proud of himself for being a big boy.