Jeff's Famous Bobo Burgers

If I had to include one burger recipe, this would be it. One beautiful Sacramento day, Jeff decided to barbeque hamburgers. He'd just finished reading Bobos in Paradise, and decided to create a burger worthy of a Bobo*. He hit it out of the park. The original recipe includes 3 TB good red wine** and 1/4 c. Italian bread crumbs, which are what make them over-the-top insanely good. I've left them out here, but they are still my favorite, hot, juicy, and delicious! Serve them with oven-roasted potatoes, a green salad, or Hot German Potato Salad.

1 lb 80/20 grass-fed ground beef
4 tsp finely minced fresh parsley
1 large egg from a free-range hen
2 medium cloves garlic, finely minced or crushed
1 tsp kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1.5 TB EVOO

Get your barbeque coals ready or heat a cast-iron grill pan on medium. Make sure the pan is good and hot before you put the burgers on. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix all the ingredients, adding salt & pepper to taste. It will be looser than usual because of the lack of bread crumbs; that's ok. Form 4 patties and grill about 4 minutes on each side for medium, 5 minutes for well-done. I like mine topped with a bit of pickled red onion. (Click on the picture for a closer look.)

*"Do you believe that spending $15,000 on a media center is vulgar, but that spending $15,000 on a slate shower stall is a sign that you are at one with the Zenlike rhythms of nature? Do you work for one of those visionary software companies where people come to work wearing hiking boots and glacier glasses, as if a wall of ice were about to come sliding through the parking lot? If so, you might be a Bobo.

In his bestselling work of "comic sociology," David Brooks coins a new word, Bobo, to describe today's upper class -- those who have wed the bourgeois world of capitalist enterprise to the hippie values of the bohemian counterculture. Their hybrid lifestyle is the atmosphere we breathe, and in this witty and serious look at the cultural consequences of the information age, Brooks has defined a new generation."

**Red wine is exceptionally high in tannins, often causing the Red Wine Headache or a migraine. From Wikipedia: "Tannins cause the release of serotonin, a neurotransmitter. High levels of serotonin can cause headaches and that may happen in people who also suffer from migraine headaches."