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Burger nirvana

Joel Stonington
Aspen, CO Colorado

Early on Saturday I picked up the burgers, brats, portabellos, tomatoes and other fixin’s for a good barbe­cue. Though barbecuing is generally a summer deal, I’ve recently realized that a summer burger never tasted as good as a winter burger cooked outside on an open fire.

Last night, with juices dripping down my fingers, I achieved burger nirvana eating a magnificently stacked burger I could barely get my mouth around. For a few minutes, as the burger disap­peared in leaps and bounds and then was gone, I existed only in burger.

It started with the hike up Butter­milk. The skin up is just long enough to get you hot and sweaty. And Satur­day night was more than warm enough for light cloth­ing.



By the time I reached the fire pit, I was already feel­ing hungry enough that my focus was nearly entirely on shoveling out the pit and getting the fire going.

Soon, six of us were sitting around a blazing fire as the low clouds drifted past and the skies cleared in bits and pieces.




Working the grill is, perhaps, one of the best parts as you pay attention to the cooking and burn level of each onion, bun or burger. Of course, there are always a few little morsels lost.

The ones that make it through, however, are worth the wait. For me, it was a bun with a burger, portabello cap, tomato, onions, grilled peppers and ketchup. After a 10-minute wait, I had to cap it all off with a brat on a bun with onions and peppers.

Yum.