First Burgers of the Season

"There is no disguise which can hide love for long where it exists, or simulate it where it does not."

Francois de la Rochefoucauld

I feel that the above quote perfectly illustrates my deep, true love for the hamburger. Despite recent attempts to reduce my meat intake and eat healthier, I always fall back into the arms of my first love. While she may be a harsh mistress, she is mine and I couldn't be happier that she is back in my life.

It was with great anticipation that I fired up the grill last week for the first backyard burgers of the summer.  I decided to go no frills for the first time out, making normal All-American burgers. (I'll sometimes experiment with marinades, Juicy Lucys, etc.) Using my secret recipe for the ground beef ( salt, pepper and Worcestershire sauce, but you didn't hear that from me) I whipped up my heart's desire.

One of my favorite summer pastimes is grilling so it was like slipping into some old shoes.  The smell coming off the grill was pure heaven and once I got the burgers dressed up with cheese, I was ready to rock.

I went with plain mayo for the first burger. It was nice and juicy.

The second was ketchup and mustard. It wasn't quite as good because I was a little full at this point. Apparently there is a limit to how much meat I can consume. I did eat a lot of fries too.

In any event, the first foray into grilling has gotten me totally stoked for the rest of the summer, where I do the majority of my creative cooking. I'm looking forward to making my old favorites like Beer-Butt Chicken and maybe looking into some new ideas. I'm toying with the idea of buying a smoker. That way I could slow cook ribs, pork shoulders, etc. over the course of several hours. This may mean that I would have to sleep next to the smoker all night and check it every hour, but what are you going to do? 

We suffer for our art.