Football & Food!

I LOVE Saturdays! I love them even more during football season! NC State football is definitely my favorite thing about fall :-) I really miss tailgating so I try to make good food to make up for it :-/ This week I made burger sliders, twice baked potatoes & breaded zucchini. Everything turned out SO good! I'm not a huge burger fan but these were really good. They're definitely the best I've ever made.

This Saturday was awesome! My Wolfpack won again :-D I got to catch up with my best friend & Josh got to catch up with his, we've scheduled a trip to visit them in October when they go to Raleigh. I can't wait! We didn't expect to go to Raleigh again until homecoming in November & we didn't expect to get to visit with Anna & John until December. We'll probably try to go to the Boston College game while we're there :-)

Smoky Beer Burgers with Creamy Mustard Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lean ground sirloin
• 1/3 pound smoked Gouda cheese, diced into 1/4 to 1/2-inch cubes
• 1 medium onion or 1/2 large onion
• 2 teaspoons smoked sweet paprika, 2/3 palm full
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/3 palm full
• Grill seasoning (recommended: Montreal Steak Seasoning)
• Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves garlic, grated or finely chopped
• Generous handful finely chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/2 (12-ounce) bottle beer
• Extra-virgin olive oil, for drizzling
• 1/2 cup spicy brown mustard
• 1/4 to 1/3 cup sour cream
• 2 to 3 tablespoons chopped fresh dill or 1 teaspoon dried dill
• 4 crusty Kaiser rolls, split and lightly toasted
• Green or red leaf lettuce, for topping
• Sliced sweet bread and butter pickles, for topping

Directions

Preheat grill over medium-high heat.

Place the meat in a bowl and add the cheese. Peel the onion and halve it, if using the medium onion. Grate about 3 to 4 tablespoons of onion directly over the meat into the bowl. Finely chop the remaining onion and reserve for topping. Add spices to meat: paprika, cumin and about 1 tablespoon of grill seasoning and/or some salt and pepper. Add garlic, parsley and Worcestershire and beer then form 4 large patties making them a little thinner at the center than at edges. Burgers plump when you cook them so this will prevent burger bulge. Drizzle a little olive oil over the burgers then grill about 4 minutes on each side for medium rare, 5 minutes on each side for medium and 6 to 7 minutes on each side for well done.

Mix mustard and sour cream with dill.

Serve patties on bun bottoms and top with lettuce, pickles, chopped raw onion. Slather bun tops with sauce and serve.

Breaded Zucchini

I just breaded some zucchini slices & served them with tomato basil sauce...so yummy!

Twice Baked Potatoes

Twice baked potatoes are some of my favorites & they're so easy to make. You just bake the potatoes, let them cool & cut them in half. Scoop out the potato. Mash the potato & add cheddar cheese, sour cream & diced, cooked bacon. Re-fill the potatoes & bake for an additional 20 minutes. I don't really use a recipe, I just add the ingredients to taste. I like to dip them in sour cream.