Hummus Quesadilla

The pinto beans were a bit elderly and not quite feeling up to being eaten, so the hummus bravely offered up itself. The result was so delicious I couldn't do anything else while I ate but taste.

Spread a generous layer of hummus on a (whole wheat, what else?) tortilla, then cover with lots of (red leaf) lettuce, tomato slices, carrot slivers (when this guy isn't busy trying to kill me, it does a great job with the carrots), and hunks of sharp cheddar. You gently fold it in half and microwave until the cheese is quite melty.

Devour distractionless. :)

Super Crispy Tortilla Pizza

Pita bread doesn't like me: when I try to make it poof up, it just sits there; when I try to make the tortillas crispy by baking them at 450 for a few minutes before adding pizza-y toppings, the tortillas fill up their lungs to sing. Molto strano.

They got what they were asking for: a violent and crunchy punching down. Then they got a liberal covering with tomato slices, basil leaves, cheese, lots and lots of dried basil and dried oregano on top, and a spoon-controlled drizzling of olive oil.

Back in at 450 for 10-15 minutes, and devoured. Delicious!

P.S. I also roasted the tomatoes before hand, which I think helped. The cookie sheet wasn't too happy though...

Quesadilla Adventure

One of the things I always say I love about cooking is the creativity involved/required, and now I'm officially adding the adventure factor. Today, I had an adventure. I am being grateful it was not only edible but delicious (sometimes adventures can be of the exploding variety...); I am being grateful that the sun's fury can't touch the cool breeze floating in the window; I am being grateful that the cheese, whose fault this whole thing is anyway, can make anything taste good; I'm being grateful for the corn I got to dig out of the cob with my teeth.

Today's adventure was an attempt to make a quesadilla with slightly crunchy tortillas, and I decided this would be be done in a greased frying pan (So it was basically this but with scallions and much messier). What I didn't count on was that the cheese needs to be close to the heat (not in a layer on top as shown above) or it won't melt and won't hold the whole thing together. Admittedly, there was probably not enough cheese together, but it wasn't noticeable by the end because none of the ingredients were evenly distributed by the end anyway.

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not quite as easy as flipping pancakes...

Still delicious, but we'll stick with the micronde for now.

What was your biggest cooking adventure? Any you'd repeat?

Stephxican Lasagna

If I were Mexican, I'd probably not want this called Mexican, so it's Stephxican. Don't ask me how to pronounce that. (Pictures were taken before I realized I forgot the corn.)

Last night's delicious feast was preceded by a stunning spectacle of surgical skill: I forgot the corn, but was able to lift off each layer of lasagna (take that, Italians!) to add the corn back. (The masses that told me it wasn't possible were clearly not aware of my spectacular surgical skill!) It was heavenly. It was in a springform pan.

Quesadilla/Sincronizada

Quesadilla- Slather refried beans on a hearty whole wheat tortilla, then thick layers of chopped tomato, cheese, and sweet corn cut off the cob. Add another tortilla on top, and microwave until everything's melty and ideally sticking together. Next time this needs to be done in a greased (to make the tortillas crispy) frying pan because nothing really stuck to the top tortilla.