Turkey Burger Sliders

Today was a fun day! We celebrated our daughter's first birthday. And with first birthday parties come many kids (especially when you have an older child, because, let's face it, at that point the party is to entertain the 5 year-olds!).

At the last minute the fact that I did in fact have to feed and entertain children occurred to me. At my son's first birthday, the party was really about entertaining the adults.

And so…I furiously looked around the kitchen at what I had, and what I could make that was kid-friendly (I had sworn to my husband I would keep the party to a $200 total budget and all the shopping had been done, and money spent…so I couldn't buy more food).

I had recently received a copy of Annabel Karmel's book Top 100 Finger Foods for review, and hoped it might shed some light on my situation. She has a recipe in the book for turkey burger sliders. Because we were doing a barbecue, this would fit perfectly with the theme! Note that sliders required me to send my husband back to the store one more time for the super cute little buns. But we had $3 left in the budget! I didn't have all the ingredients Annabel's recipe called for so I had to slightly modify.

By the way, my husband set up the awesome shot of the turkey burger slider on my daughter's mini kitchenette, pictured here, we gave her for her 1st birthday. She's a big girl! Now she can cook like mommy. Without further adieu, here's the recipe. Very kid friendly. I actually grilled these on a Calphalon grill pan, which gave it the barbecue feel, without having to overly-tax my husband at the grill, and worry about sliders falling into the coals. I was able to pre-grill them, then just slightly heat when the kids were ready to eat. Made my time at the party a lot more enjoyable!

Super Cute Turkey Burger Sliders

1.5 lb ground turkey
1/2 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, diced
1 yellow onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 tsp soy sauce
6 tbsp ketchup
1/3 cup diced tomatoes
salt and pepper to taste
slider buns

Saute onions in olive oil for 5 minutes. Add garlic and saute for another minute. Transfer to food processor. Whiz. Add bread crumbs, soy sauce, ketchup, diced tomatoes, salt and pepper to the food processor. Whiz to combine. Add ground turkey. Whiz until combined.

Drop the mixture by tablespoonfuls onto the nonstick grill pan. Press down with a spoon and saute for 2 minutes per side, until cooked through.

Serve on slider buns and add accompaniments.

Makes about 3 dozen sliders.