Bobby Flay Everyday!: Bacon Burger Dog

Gabe Haro, a reader of Bobby Flay Everyday, put in a quest recipe request for the the Bacon Burger Dog. The Urban Dictionary defines the Bacon Burger Dog as "A delicious snack/meal based from The Cosby Show. Consists of bacon, hamburger, and hotdog. 'Dad...I want a Bacon Burger Dog!' - Theo Huckstable." Bobby Flay does not have a Bacon Burger Dog, by that name - but he does have a delicious snack/meal Blue Burger (page 70 of Burgers, Fries and Shakes). The Blue Burger is a bacon burger with Blue Cheese and Blue Cheese sauce. To make it closer to the Bacon Burger Dog, I also grilled a hotdog, but when I went to take the photo, I was so happy with that Blue Cheese sauce that I didn't put the dog on the plate - but trust me this was Bobby's version of the classic Cosby Show Bacon Burger Dog. Thanks for the quest request Gabe!

Wisdom of the Grill. The burger was first grilled the Booby Flay way. Excellent ground beef, formed into a patty, a crater pushed into the middle of the patty, brushed with canola oil and seasoned with kosher salt and ground black pepper. After the burgers were turned, I topped them with thick sliced bacon and crumbled Blue Cheese. I used Bobby's basting pan method to melt the cheese and smoke the bacon. You can see the "crater" and basting pan method on YouTube. I used both those techniques on Super Bowl Sunday. Its only a few minutes long, so take a look at the video and you will never grill hamburgers the same way again. Watch the video at http://www.youtube.com/user/dvcraig1101#p/a/u/1/UBPkkIKK99k

The Blue Cheese sauce that I poured over the Blue Burgers just as they were served was a twist. I have a small sauce pan I use on the grill. I poured about two cups of milk into the pan and set it on the grill to heat up and simmer. When it was really steaming, I added butter, some onion, all purpose flour, chopped chives and a dash of cayenne pepper. The sauce thickened up pretty quick, but then I stated adding crumbled Blue Cheese. You can see that it made a great thick sauce that was packed with that bitter/sweet Blue Cheese flavor. The Blue Cheese sauce recipe is on page 110 of Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries and Shakes book. The grilled potatoes were also from that book - Bistro French Fries, page 88.

Weather Report. No snow, but instead wind - and cold. Depending on the angle of wind to runway it is a good night to fly. There are clouds, but they are so high that no small airplane could catch them. "I know nothing, nothing in the world, equal to the wonder of nightfall in the air." That is what Antoine de Saint-Exupery wrote in his book Wind, Sand and Stars. You may also know him as the author of The Little Prince. But to pilots he is revered because he was able to capture on the page the feelings, the emotions and the sensations of flight better than anyone ever did before or since. He flew for the French Air Squadron in World War II and was a commercial aviation pioneer. My phrase "Wisdom of the Grill" was subconsciously stolen from the title of another Saint-Ex book, The Wisdom of the Sands. I think Wind, Sand and Stars is the best of his books, but its like trying to pick a favorite between grilled Rib Eye and New York Strip. It is a MUST read for pilots, its a great read for everyone else. It was written in 1939, but has been reprinted and translated for decades. It was named to the National Geographic list of the Top Ten Adventure Books of all Time.