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With this recipe I hope to show you that you should not not be afraid of the word "spicy" in a recipe.

When a recipe says it's spicy, you can usually control the amount of heat that you want in it. Here, just cut down on the amount of serrano chilies, or use jalapenos instead - they are milder. But do include some chilies because they give the dish a little kick and interest.

You're also going to learn how to clean mushrooms - a handy thing to know because a lot of recipes use mushrooms.

For this recipe, we feature portobello mushrooms. Those are those big huge mushroom caps that you see in the supermarket. Portobello mushrooms are favorites with vegetarians because of their meaty texture. You feel like you are eating something substantial.

Mushrooms do need to be cleaned; they usually have a bit of grit on them. But you shouldn't wash mushrooms because they tend to absorb water very quickly and that will affect the texture of them when they are cooking. Of course, if the mushrooms are going to be cooked in liquid, go ahead and wash them in water. But here we are sautéing them so we don't want all that extra moisture.

So if you can't use water, how do it clean them? You'll learn that. You basically brush the grit off using a paper towel. You can buy one of those cute little "mushroom brushes" but I find them to be too stiff and they tend to make a mess of the mushroom cap, taking much more than just the grit away. A plain old paper towel works great.

And, of course, with this recipe, you'll be learning how to make a quesadilla.

Quesadillas are the ultimate easy and quick meal. You can put almost anything between two flour tortillas and end up with a tasty lunch or light supper.

You're also going to be introduced to balsamic vinegar - a wonderful ingredient that adds lots of flavor to many dishes. In this recipe, the balsamic vinegar really compliments the earthiness of the portobello mushrooms so please don't think about substituting something else! The dish won't be nearly as good. You can spend a lot of money or a little on balsamic vinegar. Read the ingredient description for my recommendations.

A fruit salsa is the perfect accompaniment to these quesadillas. You may recall that in recipe #12, the fish tacos with mango salsa, I told you that you might never want to buy bottled salsa again. Well, here I take that back ... a little. This dish is meant to be super easy, and so I recommend buying the salsa. Buy a raspberry salsa if you can find it. Otherwise, any other fruit-based salsa will do.

With this recipe, you'll also see how you can take a fairly plain, standard meal and turn it into a presentation showcase! Instead of just plopping the quesadillas on a plate and spooning the toppings along side, I've carefully arranged them in a circle, used a squeeze bottle to pipe on a pretty pattern with the sour cream, and then spooned a dollop of sour cream in the middle. Almost too pretty to eat!

If you don't have a squeeze bottle, you can try this trick: spoon some sour cream into a small zip-top bag and seal it. Then snip of just a tiny bit of one bottom corner of the bag to make a small opening. You can now squeeze the bag to get a thin ribbon of sour cream, just like using a squeeze bottle.

At-Home Safe Food Handling *

* with permission from Kansas State University Research & Extension