Happy Father's Day!

Father's Day—celebrated with all of the family home for the weekend! (Well, we were missing a son-in-law, but he'll be here this coming weekend.) And the weather? It was as if I had placed an order for perfection. We had three lovely days for outside play.

There was time for backyard water fun and corn hole games. Much of our time was spent on the porch just visiting. It was a rare treat for us to have both daughters here at the same time. 

Baby Sister was in heaven because she had lots of people to play with her all weekend.

And there was time for good food—chicken pie for dinner one night, fancy burgers the next night. Plus, there were a couple of pecan pies and homemade peach ice cream for desserts. Jessica had made these burgers for us last summer and we loved them. This was a good weekend for a repeat. The recipe is from Cooking Light. 

CABERNET BALSAMIC BURGERS with SAUTEED MUSHROOMS AND ONIONS

5 teaspoons olive oil, divided

4 cups thinly sliced red onion

1-1/2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

1/2 cup cabernet sauvignon (or other dry red wine)

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

3/4 teaspoon salt, divided

1 (8-oz) package sliced mushrooms

1-1/2 lb ground sirloin

Cooking spray

1/3 cup light mayonnaise

1/4 cup blue cheese crumbles

1 garlic clove, minced

6 (1-1/2 oz) whole wheat hamburger buns

1-1/2 cups baby arugula (or leaf lettuce)

Heat a large nonstick skillet over medium-low heat. Add 2 tsp olive oil to pan, swirl to coat. Add onion and thyme; cook 17 minutes or until golden and very tender, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to medium-high and add wine, vinegar and 1/4 tsp salt. Cook for 6 minutes, until liquid almost evaporates, stirring occasionally. Remove onion mixture from pan.

Wipe pan clean with paper towels. Heat pan over medium-high heat. Add the remaining 3 tsp. oil to pan and swirl to coat. Add mushrooms and 1/4 tsp salt. Saute for 8 minutes or until mushrooms brown and liquid mostly evaporates.

Preheat grill to medium-high.

Coarsely chop 1 cup of the onion mixture and stir the chopped mixture into ground beef. Make six 1-inch-thick patties. Press a nickel-size indentation in the center of each patty. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 tsp salt. Cook burgers on grill for 4 minutes on each side, or until done.

Combine mayonnaise, blue cheese and garlic in a small bowl and mash well with a fork. 

Spread top halves of buns with mayo mixture. On the bottom half of bun, place arugula leaves and burger patties. Top burgers with onion mixture and about a 1/4 cup of mushrooms. Place top half bun of burger.