Messy Burgers

I think everyone has their favorite burger recipe, and for some people the fancier the better, and for others, it's more of a tried and true formula.   I like hamburgers, but don't usually care for them from restaurants. 

All too often the meat patty is a pre-formed frozen disk of meat flavored cardboard.   I like my burgers with a hand made patty, that's been barely handled and just patted into a rough burger shape.   They're juicier and much more flavourful than those frozen things.    I picked up some ground chuck the other day at Earth Fare, and it looked really good, they also told me it was ground fresh several times a day in-store.   Even though I had to take it home and freeze it, I still think I'm starting from a better point than those packaged 'chubs' of mass produced ground beef.  "shudder".

So I made my patties, and fried them on my cast iron pan,  (see the dimple in the middle of the patty, that helps it cook more evenly, just dimple it with your finger before putting it on to cook).

I would have grilled them, but at the moment don't have a barbeque grill, and when I do grill outside, I use my George Foreman grill anyway.
Sauteed an onion,

and some mushrooms for toppings,

grabbed some cooked bacon out of the freezer and warmed them on top of the mushrooms, and we were set.  I'd set out the mustard, ketchup, mayonnaise as well as some bar-be-que sauce, lettuce, tomatoes, onions and pickles already, so we were ready to eat. 
I also buttered and browned the buns on a frying pan, which was a hint I picked up from the Pioneer Woman a while back and it really added a nice layer of flavor to the burgers.

 

So, pardon me but my burger is ready to eat and I'm hungry.     The meat patty is layered with some cheese, onions, mushrooms, tomato and more onions, a little bbq sauce, mustard and mayo.    And it was good and messy.  Easily a three napkin burger, the best kind