The last burger of summer

(This post has been waiting to go up since Labor Day weekend, but it took me this long to get the picture off of Matt's phone!)

Matt's employer very kindly gave him the day off for Labor Day, but my boss decided that we were staying open, and I wound up having a very hectic day. The last thing I wanted to do when I got home was spend another hour in the kitchen, so we were looking for a quick and easy supper that evening.  What else would make more sense for a fast meal to make on Labor Day than burgers?  It was perfect... we even had ground beef thawed and waiting in the fridge.  The only thing missing was the bread.

We had a couple of frozen heels from old loaves of wheat bread, which would have worked fine, I suppose.  It just wasn't quite what we had in mind.  We discussed having burgers without buns, we wondered about baking fresh buns, we even contemplated pizza... then Matt pulled out the bag of corn tortillas.

While the Applebees chain is fairly common in cities across the United States (there's even one in Anchorage, AK), there isn't one anywhere near us.  Which is sad, because we really like their food!  But for those of you who have never experienced one of their quesadilla burgers, or who, like us, live in a city without an Applebees, we have a solution for you.

Matt's Quesadilla Burgers
1 lb ground beef
8 slices cheddar cheese
8 slices Monterrey jack cheese
8 corn tortillas
thick, chunky salsa*

Form ground beef into burgers; cook in skillet or on grill.
Meanwhile, lay out tortillas on large sheet pan.  Brush very lightly with olive oil.  Broil, checking often to make sure they don't burn.  When tortillas are slightly crisp, remove from oven.  Flip over and lay two slices of cheese on each tortilla.
When burgers are just about ready, put tortilla pan back under broiler just until cheese begins to melt.  Remove from oven; put burger and salsa between two tortillas.

We enjoyed ours with home-made potato crisps, made by peeling and thinly slicing two potatoes, brushing lightly with oil, and broiling.  If the pieces aren't uniform, the thinner ones will char while the thicker ones are still raw... it wasn't very fun, they didn't taste all that amazing and wonderful, and next time I would probably just take the same amount of time to whip up a quick potato salad.  The rest of the meal was wonderful, though!

*If your salsa has too much moisture in it, this is going to be a very messy meal!  We strained ours through paper towels, and just put the chunks of tomato and peppers on our burgers.