Mushroom-Stuffed Cheeseburgers

The separation clarified everything. Not our separation — the pandemic separation from the rest of the world. Being locked in a house with Derek for two months has proven what dating for two years suggested: this man is my home. Not the house — the man. The man who makes the shower schedule and brings the coffee and sits in the back row of debate tournaments and cried at my table when Isaiah called me Mom T. The house in Cascade Heights will come when it comes. The man is already here.

He knows this too. We sat on the back step of the townhouse on a Tuesday night — the kids inside, the air warm with May — and he said, "I don't want to wait for the house." I said, "Wait for what?" He said, "To marry you." I said, "The world is shut down." He said, "The world doesn't get to decide when I marry you." He said it with the quiet certainty that is Derek's signature — not dramatic, not sweeping, just the truth stated plainly by a man who knows what he wants and has decided that a pandemic is not a sufficient reason to postpone it.

We decided: a small ceremony. Backyard. Summer. Just family. No venue, no caterer, no three-hundred-person production. Just us. In the backyard of the townhouse in College Park, the same backyard where Marcus grills burgers and Zoe draws and Curtis falls asleep in the lawn chair. We'll get married where we've been living. Because the living is the wedding. The wedding is just the naming of what already is.

I called Curtis. I said, "Derek and I are getting married. This summer. In the backyard." Long pause. Then: "About time." He said, "I'll walk you down." He means the aisle. The backyard aisle. The strip of fabric on the grass that will be the path I walk with my seventy-four-year-old father toward the man who will be my husband and the "about time" was Curtis's blessing and the blessing was enough.

The Tuesday night Derek proposed on the back step, we didn’t have a caterer or a venue or a three-hundred-person guest list — we had each other, the warm May air, and the backyard where Marcus already knew his way around a grill. When it came time to actually celebrate, I didn’t want anything fussy or formal. I wanted the kind of food that belongs in a backyard, the kind that makes people stay in their lawn chairs a little longer. These mushroom-stuffed cheeseburgers are exactly that — nothing pretentious, just something worth savoring slowly, which is pretty much what Derek had been saying about our life together all along.

Prep Time: 20 minutes | Cook Time: 15 minutes | Total Time: 35 minutes | Servings: 6

Ingredients

2 lbs ground beef (80/20 blend)
8 oz cremini mushrooms, finely chopped
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp unsalted butter
4 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 tsp smoked paprika
6 brioche hamburger buns, toasted
Lettuce, tomato, and condiments for serving

Instructions

Cook the filling. Melt butter in a skillet over medium heat. Add mushrooms and onion and cook, stirring occasionally, for 6–8 minutes until softened and any liquid has evaporated. Add garlic and cook 1 minute more. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 minutes. Stir in cream cheese and cheddar until combined. Season lightly with salt and pepper.
Form the patties. Divide ground beef into 12 equal portions. Flatten each into a thin round patty about 4 inches across. Place a heaping tablespoon of mushroom filling in the center of 6 patties, leaving a 3/4-inch border around the edge.
Seal the burgers. Top each filled patty with one of the remaining plain patties. Firmly press and crimp the edges all the way around to seal, so no filling is exposed. Season the outside of each burger with salt, pepper, and smoked paprika. Add Worcestershire sauce to the outer surface if desired.
Grill or pan-cook. Preheat grill or cast-iron skillet to medium-high heat. Cook burgers 4–5 minutes per side for medium, or until the internal temperature reaches 160°F. Avoid pressing down on the patties — the filling needs room to stay put.
Rest and serve. Let burgers rest 2–3 minutes before placing on toasted buns. Add your preferred toppings and serve immediately.

Nutrition (per serving)

Mushroom-Stuffed Cheeseburgers — Backyard Love, No Venue Required