Pellet Smoker Cooking: Cheeseburgers and wilted lettuce

Every summer I look forward to 3 fresh produce from the garden, wilted lettuce, tomatoes, and corn on the cob or roasten ears as we call them. I had some good tomatoes from Tennessee earlier but now I have to wait on the ones in my garden. In a couple of weeks should be getting some roasten ears.

My lettuce did not do well but a good neighbor brought me a big batch of their leaf lettuce so I would have my wilted lettuce. I fried up some lardons, that’s fancy chef’s talk for diced up bacon, with Kah’s bacon. Chefs like to use fancy terms to confuse us cooks, like chiffinade; which really is long very thin slices of leafy veggies like basil or spinach.

I fried up the bacon & saved 2 to 3 Tbs. of the grease. When my burgers were about ready I heated up the bacon grease, added a couple slices of onions to sauté, then added ¼ cup of vinegar, and 2 Tbs. sugar, poured over the lettuce, mixed well and added the lardons, bacon bits.

I finally tried the cast iron grate from my Weber Q100 for the burgers in my Treager at 300 deg. I was getting some sear & should do better at higher temps. I was using premade patties from my butcher Kah’s, thinner than my usual. I found to get my grandson to eat them I had to make them closer to McDonald’s size!

I preheated my Traeger to 300 deg. and did the burgers for 30 min. turning at 20 min. Then went in & made my wilted lettuce. I added some of my smoked sharp cheddar to the burgers, after about 3 min. topped with the buns for a couple of min. then served.

Everyone doctored up their burgers with toppings of their choice. Dill pickles, tomatoes, & onions were some of the choices. I had a couple leafs of the wilted lettuce, some potato chips & SW style mustard on mine. I cut up a tomato to add to my salad, hot house & not that great.

Everyone liked the salad but my grandson; he had a mixed lettuce salad. When my veggie d-i-l got home from work she ate the left over wilted lettuce, bacon & all!

The lettuce