Gilmore Girls Party: Burgers from Luke's

I love planning parties. One of my favorite things to pick out is the food that will be served. Pinterest has made this both easy and difficult. Easy in that a myriad of recipes are available at your fingertips. Difficult in that sometimes it is hard to choose because there are just sooooo many options out there!

In planning my Gilmore Girls 30th birthday party, food was a big consideration. The Gilmore Girls ate so much junk food throughout the series. They also had the weekly Friday Night Dinners. Sooke St. James is a chef and made a bunch of delicious dishes. What to choose???

I knew immediately that burgers of some kind would have to be made. They ate countless burgers at Luke's Diner. I saw a recipe for easy cheeseburger sliders and this was the perfect chance to try it out!

Luke's Cheeseburger Sliders

Ingredients
2 lbs ground beef
1/4 cups oatmeal (or seasoned bread crumbs)
3/4 cup chopped onions (I just used dried onions from the spice aisle because I hate chopping onions)
1/2 t garlic or regular salt
1 package Hawaiian sweet dinner rolls
6 slices cheese of your choice

Directions
Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a bowl, combine beef, oatmeal, onions and salt. Gently press mixture in a 9x13 inch pan so that it makes one large patty of even thickness. Poke holes throughout the meat using a fork (I forgot to do this and it turned out fine). Bake for 30 minutes. As it bakes, the meat will shrink away from the sides and the liquid will accumulate around the edges of the pan.

When fully cooked, remove pan from the oven (keep oven turned on) and carefully drain off the liquid.

Top the meat with an even layer of sliced cheese; return pan to oven for about 2 minutes or until the cheese melts. Remove from the oven and allow to rest for a few minutes. Cut into 2 inch squares (or the size of the buns used).