Eggs Benedict Burgers

I told you about Kansas City Restaurant week, right? It’s my favorite food week of the year (even more so than Thanksgiving), and boy am I sad it’s over. I basically gained seven pounds in one week, one for each day of gluttonous meal choices.

I can’t even fit into my jeans today, but it was so worth it.

Want to hear what I had???

I’m sure you do, since you’re probably here for your love of food, but sorry if you don’t, because I’m going to tell you anyways.

Monday: Appetizer: Lobster bisque. Entrée: Lobster mac & cheese. So.much.lobster.

Tuesday: Appetizer: Parsnip soup with maple, bourbon, pecans and pomegranate arils. Entrée: Braised short ribs with spaetzel, brussels sprouts, beets and horseradish jus. Dessert: Whipped banana pudding with crispy walnut, burnt sugar, banana caramel and oats. Literally died and went to heaven

Wednesday: Break. Much needed to refuel.

Thursday: Appetizer: Clam Chowder Entrée: Pork Schnitzel with Brown Butter Caper Sauce, Pickled Cabbage and Garlic Mashed Potatoes. So comforting.

Friday: Appetizer: “Caesar” Salad with romaine, parmesan, kalamata olives, croutons and tonnato dressing. Entrée: Pan-Seared Mahi Mahi with artichokes, shrimp, capers, olives and Carolina gold rice. Dessert: Mini donut holes with vanilla pastry cream, salted caramel and passion fruit syrup. Oh, and lots and lots of red wine. Ultimate date night.

You would think after all that food, I’d be ready for a protein shake or something super light and healthy, but nope. After all those fancy and refined dishes the only food I was craving was a cheeseburger, onion rings and strawberry malt. So Saturday night we headed to a favorite old-school diner of ours and grubbed on just that.

Today, I was still craving a burger, so I went into the ol’ notebook and searched through my infinite list of dishes to make until I found this little gem of an idea.

The inspiration for this actually came from my Mom who had a similar burger at a friend’s restaurant. Since I wasn’t there, I’m not sure if this is anything remotely close to what she had, but the idea in general just kind of stuck with me. Not surprisingly since I’m ridiculously obsessed with eggs benedict, and could shamelessly drink hollandaise sauce straight from the blender. (No really, I can.)

Basically, this is just a traditional eggs benedict with a burger patty on it, making it acceptable for me to eat it for any meal of the day. Frying the egg instead of poaching it was the only thing I did differently, and that’s only because I was lazy and didn’t feel like spending the time to perfectly poach an egg, plus I think a fried egg is a little more practical for sandwich stacking purposes.

Beware. This is seriously messy. Like egg yolk + hollandaise sauce + burger grease/juice oozing down the sides of your face, down your hands and all over your gorgeous cream tufted dining room chairs and finally down to your impossible-to-clean-area rug. But just like the massive quantities of food I ate during restaurant week, this burger is so worth making a mess equivalent to a toddler face planting into a giant cupcake on their first birthday.

NOW I’m ready for smoothies, egg whites and veggies to slowly melt off the pounds I’ve packed on in the last week…