Bleu cheese burgers with bacon

This winter we haven't seen but a handful of days above freezing in this part of Pennsylvania. When the weather dips into the teens and single digits, fire up your grill to get a little bit of summer back in your life. There's nothing better than burgers on the grill to transport you to that warm July evening when it was still light out at 9 pm and flip flops were de rigueur.

You'll need only a few ounces of your favorite crumbled bleu cheese, ground beef, and bacon to top the burgers. Combine the bleu cheese and ground beef, and form into whatever size patties you prefer.

I like to poke a hole in the middle of the patties. They seem not to tighten up and shrink as much. Fire up your grill on high heat. I have a gas grill, so mine gets cranked up to the highest setting. When your grill is hot, put your patties on, and leave them alone for a few minutes. Don't move them or press them or otherwise disturb them. Flip them over when they have some nice grill marks.

After you flip them, top with uncooked bacon and turn down the heat of your grill or move them to the cooler side of your charcoal grill. With a gas grill, you need to be careful of flare-ups from the grease of the bacon, so pay close attention.

I prefer to use a nice peppered slab bacon and cut my own chunks of bacon from the slab. I didn't have any on hand, so a regular sliced bacon works as well. Cook the burgers until they are done to your liking. If you like a crispier bacon, precook the bacon and put it on after the burger has finished cooking.

This is a very rich and flavorful burger. The bleu cheese gets all melty and oozy, a creamy and tangy complement to the smokiness of the grilled burger and saltiness of the bacon. I like to top this burger with a sweet pepper relish to cut through some of the richness, but it'll stand up to any of your favorite condiments.

Only 157 more days until summer!