Grilling

Summer time is a great time to be outside. One of my favorite things to do in the summer is grill. You know what they say, "If you can't take the heat, get out of the kitchen!" Well I can't- so I take it outside.
This isn't really a recipe, but more like a collection of tips on how to grill burgers.

• Get the grill nice and hot before you put the patties on (I heat mine as hot as it will go). Then once the patties are on turn the heat down to medium or low.
  
• Only flip the burgers once! Each time you turn them, juice drips out, and no juice means dry burgers. Similarly, resist the temptation to open the grill every few seconds.
• Use only tongs or a spatula. Again, we want to keep the juice in.
• The way to tell when your burgers are ready to flip (because after all, we are only going to flip them once, right?) is wait to until there is a puddle of juice on top. This I learned from working at Arctic Circle. It'll look like this:
• Don't smash the burger with your spatula- I have seen many people do this and used to do it myself because I thought they knew what they were doing- They don't. Remember, we want juicy burgers, not beef jerky.

• Season the burgers. I like to use garlic pepper seasoning or McCormick makes one just for burgers. Seasoning salt also works well.
  

• Don't get too lean of meat- remember we want juicy burgers- and that juice comes from fat. Think 80-85% lean ground beef.

Well, those are some of the things I do, but I would love to hear your tips or techniques. Leave them in the comments below. Then, go outside and start grilling!