I know it's almost fall, and I should probably be making more fall-related recipes, however I think there's always room for a good hamburger recipe.  It could be 30 degrees outside, and I'd still be out on the grill. Next time, I promise I'll make pumpkin or something more fall related.

This one I made up myself. Even my husband was surprised it turned out so well -- I'm still not sure how to take that. 

The first time I made this recipe, I put entirely too much Dale's seasoning sauce -- not good eats. Be careful to add little amounts of seasoning sauce at a time. That way, the meat has a chance to absorb the sauce so there's no excess left over.

Carrie's awesome hamburgers (feeds six people)

2  pounds of ground beef

1 cup of shredded pepperjack cheese

1/2 of a large onion, chopped finely

1/4 to 1/2 cup Dale's seasoning sauce (or your favorite seasoning sauce)

1 tablespoon Worcestshire sauce

1 tablespoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

Place ground beef in a large bowl and break it up with a large spoon or use your hands. Slowly add the seasoning sauce until the meat has absorbed the sauce -- don't go overboard with this.

Chop the 1/2 onion into finely shredded pieces. The onions add flavor to the beef, but you don't want to bite into the hamburger and find a big piece of onion instead.  Then add the chopped onion to the beef.

Combine all other ingredients into the bowl of meat and mix thoroughly.  

Take a handful of the meat mixture and roll into patties.  Two pounds should make at least eight patties.  

Fire up the grill and cook the patties five to eight minutes on each side, or until desired doneness (and yes, doneness is a word).

I don't have a picture of the final product -- My friends and I ate them so quickly, I forgot to take a final picture.  Whoops! I'll do better next time!

Homemade cornbread

I recently published a spread about the Francis Mill, a 121-year-old grist meal in Haywood County. The owner, Tanna Timbes, was kind enough to give me some of the corn meal produced by the mill itself.  Granted, the mill doesn't make corn meal for commercial uses, but she happened to have a bag of it in her refrigerator and gave it to me to make homemade cornbread.

You'll have to excuse the lack of pictures -- my camera is currently on the fritz. Hopefully my mad describing skills will be enough.

On the bag of corn meal, Tanna had a recipe for Miss Ella's Cornbread. I believe Miss Ella was her grandmother.

At any rate, here it is:

Miss Ella's Cornbread

2-1/2 cups corn meal

3 teaspoons baking powder

3/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 egg, slightly beaten

1-1/4 cup milk or buttermilk

The recipe says to place bacon drippings or shortening in a baking pan and place it in a 425-degree oven. I'll be honest, I didn't do this part because I had neither.  Instead, I sprayed my pan with cooking spray. 

Combine the dry ingredients together and stir.  Then add the other ingredients. Add enough milk to make a good pouring consistency.  I ended up adding a little over 1-1/2 cups of regular milk, although I'm curious to know how buttermilk would taste...

Pour the batter into your baking pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes or until the crust is golden brown.

I ended up taking the cornbread out a little early -- I have a thing against dry cornbread and could tell the bread was starting to split.  

I noticed bright orange flecks in the bread, which I'm assuming is the corn meal. I'm not used to all this homemade stuff -- I usually get the mix that says "just add water."  At any rate, it came out nice and fluffy, but crumbled a bit.  

My friend was kind enough to take a picture for me, which I don't currently have, but a picture is available in this week's copy of The Guide. Even if I had my own, the bread was too crumbly to look pretty on a plate, so I wouldn't have taken a picture of it anyway.

At any rate, hope you enjoy it.  Don't forget about the Music at the Mill event this Saturday!! Tours and demonstrations will be given, along with music and barbecue.  Should be a great event!

Steak Quesadilla

In college, I loved steak quesadillas. We had a small Mexican take-out place inside one of the cafeterias, and I used to swing by nearly every day for a quesadilla and a fruit smoothie. 

I have yet to eat a quesadilla quite as good as the ones I ate in college, but this recipe, I think, comes pretty close.

Bear in mind, the quesadillas I ate in college and the quesadilla recipe I'm about to publish probably aren't the most authentic -- which is probably why I like them so much. I'm not usually a big Mexican-food eater. I don't really enjoy hot and spicy foods; My husband, Frank, however, could eat Mexican food every day of his life and not bat an eye. In fact, if I could hook him up to an IV of salsa, I would. 

But anyway, I'm getting off track. 

The best thing about quesadillas is that you can mix and match ingredients according to your tastes. I chose a steak quesadilla recipe, but you could switch it out for chicken or mushrooms. Or, if you short on cash, you could just use various types of cheeses.  

Here's the recipe I tried:

Steak Quesadilla

1 red pepper; 1 yellow pepper; 3 large mushrooms; 1 lb. of le

an chopped steak; 1/2 cup freshly shredded pepperjack cheese; flour tortillas; a dollop 

of butter; Dale's steak seasoning

Chop the mushrooms and peppers into thin strips as shown below.

Next, put the mushrooms and peppers into a skillet on medium hight heat. Be sure to add a little olive oil so that the peppers and mushrooms won't burn. 

Combine about 1/4 cup Dale's seasoning sauce (or your favorite steak seasoning sauce) and the lb. of chopped steak in a separate skillet on medium high heat.  Cook until done.

Shred about 1/2 cup of pepperjack cheese.

In  a smaller skillet, place a dollop of butter over medium heat. After the butter melts, place one tortilla on top, then place the mushrooms, peppers, cheese and chopped steak on top of the tortilla.

Place another tortilla on top of the ingredients. The cheese should be partially melted by this point. Carefully flip over with a spatula to brown the other side of the quesadilla.

Place the quesadilla onto a plate. Top with more cheese, salsa and a few more peppers and mushrooms.

Bon appetite!

Hello one and all to Carrie's food junkie blog!  

For those of you who are not subscribers, I am The Guide editor, an arts and entertainment weekly published for Haywood, Jackson, Macon, Swain and Buncombe counties of Western North Carolina.  I write weekly recipe columns in The Guide, and several people have suggested I start this blog.  So, I decided to give it a whirl. 

Many recipes to follow!