Favorite Restaurants... Trapper's Lake Lodge

 

My school district team went up to Trapper's Lake for a work retreat a few weeks ago.  My friend Becca and her family own the lodge and the cabins.  

We were there for 2 days and ate all our meals at the lodge. I really didn't know what to expect as far as the food went.  I know Becca is an excellent baker- so I knew the desserts would be out of this world.  What I wasn't expecting was the quality of the rest of the menu.  I guess I thought because they are out in the middle of absolute nowhere that their menu would suffer from their inability to get ingredients delivered to them.  What I should have figured out was, because they are limited in what ingredients they can source, they make almost everything from scratch!

I don't consider myself an expert on food, by any means.  But I have been cooking and writing about food for a good while.  When I tell you that I had the best hamburger I have EVER HAD IN MY LIFE at Trapper's Lake Lodge- that means something.  

On the first day, we piled into the lodge for lunch.  I split a cheeseburger with one of my co-workers (mostly because we both wanted to eat pie and we figured the only way we could fit it in was to slow up on our entree).  During that meal, I declared that cheeseburger to be the best burger I had ever had in my life.  Little did I know what was going to happen at supper time!

We came back in to have supper.  On the menu I spotted a Jalapeno Popper Burger.  Normally I would steer clear of something like this.  I believe in the law of diminishing returns when it comes to toppings on hamburgers- there comes a point when too much is too much.   Most Popper Burgers are firmly in this territory.  But- when I heard Becca describe it to one of my team mates, I decided to give it a try.

From the outside, it looks like a standard popper burger- a slice of cream cheese, sliced fresh jalapenos...but what puts this burger over the top is the home made bacon jam.  Now, I've had bacon jam before.  I've even had it on hamburgers before.  But the combination of the amazing, fresh, Colorado beef, the thinly sliced jalapenos, the "just right" amount of cream cheese, and the wonderfully sweet/salty bacon jam was the perfect balance of flavors and textures.

I decided right then and there that I would quit trying to make hamburgers at home.  There is just no way my burgers will ever reach the level of that burger.  It has ruined me forever.  At least, until I go up there again to have this one!