FIVE FALL BURGERS.

The days are getting shorter, your sandal tan is fading and there’s a chill in the air. However, even though the warmth of summer is behind us, that doesn’t mean we have to say goodbye to the warmth of our grills! The telltale ingredients of the fall season give us the power to add a new twist to the simple summertime burger.

Apple Cider Burgers

Generously infuse your burger mixture with apple cider. If you're cooking up toppings like onions and mushrooms, try simmering them with cider as well. Heck, while you're at it spike the ketchup with cider. You'll feel like throwing on your cable knit sweater and skipping through an orchard.

Apple Burgers with Cheddar

Apple and cheddar is an amazing combo to begin with that gets even better when you infuse it into a burger. Shred some apple into your ground beef mixture, then stud it with chunks of sharp cheddar. We think bacon makes it even better. But that's always the case with bacon.

Caramelized Onion and Apple Burger

Caramelize some sweet onions and green apples and then smother your burger with this concoction. The sweet onions play sublimely against the tartness in the apples. We could eat this any time of year, but somehow it just tastes best in autumn.

Cranberry Burgers

Sweet, sour and bursting with flavor, cranberries conjure up thoughts of cranberry sauce shared at a big family dinner. Try making a pesto of sorts by blending cranberries, olives, fresh herbs, oil and vinegar. Use this as a topper instead of the usual condiments. You'll take an ordinary beef burger and make it sing.

Pumpkin Burgers

Pumpkin spiced lattes. Pumpkin muffins. Pumpkin, well, everything. It wouldn't be fall without this gourd making its way into just about everything. So why not a burger? Cook some ground beef with onions and work in some canned pumpkin and pumpkin pie spice (and a little tomato sauce or tomato soup). Sound crazy? If by crazy you mean glorious, then yes. It's like a Sloppy Joe, so it's not a grill-able burger, but it still packs a lot of flavor, and isn't flavor what it's all about?