Memorial Day, that traditional kick off to the Summer grilling season, saw all of my grandkids at our house for barbecue. To keep it simple, the menu included the first sweet corn of the year and hamburgers.

To try and add a little uniqueness to impress the kidos, ages 6-10, I blended in a little Heinz 57 sauce and shredded cheddar cheese to each patty. To keep the burgers moist as I cooked them to 160 degrees, I also added some olive oil to each patty.

Then I sprinkled each burger with some Red Raider Grilling Spice, courtesy of Guy Loneragan and Texas Tech. (I also grilled a couple of prime rib eyes the next night and totally depleted the Red Raider Spice jar; on my way to Lubbock soon to get some more.)

Prime rib eyes are about as food safe as safe can be. You know they have not been blade tenderized nor marinated. Just don’t cross-contaminate them in your kitchen from the ground beef you messed around with the night before.

And that is the point of this blog: cross contamination.

As I made those burgers, I had several things going on with all the ingredients etc., not to mention rinsing and slicing up some onions and tomatoes and washing the romaine lettuce that would serve as garnishments.

Those Grandkids are pretty special, and I sure did not want them getting sick from my cooking and preparation of ground beef patties and vegies like the romaine lettuce that has recently contributed to E coli illnesses.

I do not know how many times I washed my hands so that the next time I pulled out the shredded cheese or the romaine head of lettuce from the frig, I would not have to wonder if I had cross contaminated them or anything else.

And of course there are the counter tops and cutting boards that all got treated as if they were loaded with Anthrax.

But was I careful enough?

Probably not, so thank you to those in the meat industry for doing all they can to make certain our ground beef is as safe as it can be.

By the way, the romaine said it was a product of California. Thank you FDA for at least identifying the source state for the recent outbreak as Arizona.

Cooking to 160 degrees was the easy part. Preparation was the hard part.

I think next year those Grandkids will be eating prime rib eye steaks or just plain old hot dogs so I won’t have so much to worry about.

PS: Perri, I do not have your email address to send that PP to that you asked for.

Grilling burgers and keeping my grandkids safe

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