delayed, but delicious

This actually happened a month ago, but I had intended to blog it and I had a picture, so I'm doing it now. Over the past several months I have developed a small (big) man-crush on Bobby Flay, from the Food Network. I think it's because while I'm jealous of his culinary talents (I'm not sure I've ever seen him lose an Iron Chef America competition), he also just seems like a regular dude I'd like to hang out and have a beer with. Or maybe it's because the Food Network is one of about six channels we still get on TV and Bobby Flay is on the air about 90% the time. Whatever it is, I think he's awesome.

For my birthday, my parents, upon learning of my man-crush (thanks for outing me, Meg), got me the Bobby Flay's Burgers, Fries, and Shakes cookbook. There are a ton of things in there I want to make, but the first one I tried out was the California burger, which is a pretty basic burger seasoned with salt and pepper and topped with pepperjack cheese (I think we improvised on the cheese because it was what we had), watercress, a slice of tomato, and an avocado relish, all on a toasted bun. If you ask me, avocado relish is just a fancy way of saying guacamole, but it was delicious nonetheless.

We've also tried out a couple of the milkshakes, the highlight of which was the double chocolate cheesecake milkshake. If you don't salivate just reading that, you're probably a robot. It was actually a hybrid of two of the recipes in the book, and it was pretty incredible. Sorry, no picture of that one. We drank them too fast. Writing this post is making me hungry. Maybe we should have burgers for dinner tomorrow...