Italian quesadilla … delicious, if not oxymoronic
I bought brown rice tortillas this week, and that means quesadillas in our house. The little tortilla pies are not something we indulge in very often because they just don’t come out great with corn tortillas. Since Owen and I don’t eat wheat, and we find it hard to work with the texture of the sprouted grain tortillas, we weren’t really left with much choice until I stumbled upon these little beauties at Trader Joe’s.
Of course we couldn’t keep it simple — it’s like unleashing a newly released prisoner in Las Vegas, right on Brothel Street. It’s hard just to ease into it once you’ve been given permission to let loose. We made two different kinds of quesadillas tonight, and it was our melding of two cultures that created the masterpiece.
Yes, we put pesto in a quesadilla, along with homemade sausage from the local meat market, two kinds of cheese and some caramelized onions and mushrooms. A little drizzle of aged balsamic vinegar and a thing of culinary beauty was born.
Cathe Olson’s vegetarian delights – Recipe Roundup
Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.
Are any of you familiar with Cathe Olson? I discovered her long ago, when the nearly-five-year-old was just a wee one, first starting on solid foods. She’s got a wonderful cookbook out called Simply Natural Baby Food, which really takes you into preschool and beyond with creative, healthy recipes for feeding your family. She was deceptively delicious long before Jessica Seinfeld burst onto the scene… four years before, in fact.
Recently, a number of her recipes have crossed my path and I thought dedicating a whole column to her recipes would be worth it, especially if you’ve never had the pleasure.
Pumpkin coconut ice cream, by request
Jessica Seinfeld, eat your heart out — I just made pumpkin ice cream for my four-year-old. Yes, ice cream with a vegetable in it, and get this — he asked for it. That’s right. Some would even have referred to it as begging. So when my self-proclaimed squash hater begs for pumpkin ice cream, is there really a choice?
There’s not even a small part of me that would have thought to put pureed pumpkin in ice cream, but Owen decided he wanted “pumpkin freeze” (still not clear on exactly what that was supposed to look like) at about the same time he realized he finished off all of the coconut milk ice cream yesterday, so our pumpkin coconut ice cream was born.
Lamb and chick pea stew, curried lentil stew, baked ziti – Recipe Roundup
Each week, fabulous recipes grace Debbie’s in-box and pop up on her computer screen, and she’s sharing her favorites with you.
Somehow, more one-dish meals have crossed my path again this week. What is it about autumn that brings the busy and the cravings for the stews? I guess between school starting and the weather getting cooler, we just can’t win. Gone are the days of grilling in shorts. Instead, I’m glad to have my half-zip fleece pullovers and a hard-working oven to warm my kitchen.
Something about Shepherd’s pie just says comfort to me, but I’ve got to admit that sometimes the lack of creativity turns me off of making it. This recipe for curried sweet potato Shepherd’s pie sounds like it will satisfy my need for comfort food as well as innovative flavors, with the curry powder and the switch-up of potatoes.
John’s burritos will make you feel like a cheater – Recipe Test Drive
It’s embarrassing, it really is. I call myself a cook, yet I made this ridiculously easy meal for dinner tonight and we all fell over ourselves loving it. It feels a little wrong, like I cheated on cooking a dinner. There’s something not quite right about a meal with essentially four ingredients, but somehow it worked for us tonight.
John’s burritos consisted of the tortilla, ground meat (we used grass fed beef), a can of re-fried beans and cheese. I know, I could hardly believe it either, but nothing in it sounded gross, so I thought I’d give it a whirl.
Chick pea pizza, stuffed cherry tomatoes, Recipe Roundup
All appetizers, all the time… that’s what’s cooking this week. Last weekend my siblings and I threw a surprise retirement party for my Dad and I was in charge of appetizers. I wanted to do something fun and different so a-hunting I went for fresh and new recipes.
I didn’t make all of these, but I’ll be sure and report which I did make and how they fared with the crowd.
Apple cinnamon muffins – Breakfast at Clique-any’s
When you go ugly-apple picking, you’re bound to have to find something to do with your apples besides just eating them whole (well, take bites) as an afternoon snack. I’m a big fan of the breakfast muffin, as I’m sure you’ve figured out by now since I’ve shared recipes for peachy flax molasses muffins, berry muffins sweetened with agave, oatmeal strawberry muffins and even banana coconut muffins. Yes, a daring choice beloved by one and all.
So it’s probably no surprise to you that I dreamed up a little apple cinnamon muffin recipe to use up an apple or two. As most of my muffin recipes are, I based this one on the Better Homes and Gardens basic muffin recipe from my beloved red plaid cookbook, and then I changed pretty much everything about it.
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