Squash Blossom Quesadillas

Happy Thursday! Today I am going to share one of my favorite Mexican recipes. It is so simple but the flavors are AMAZING. If you have never tried squash blossoms or fresh made tortillas, prepare to have your taste buds do a little dance! Homemade tortillas are so easy and taste a thousand times better than store bought. All you need for flour tortillas is white flour (or whole wheat), some type of fat (olive oil, butter, shortening), baking powder, salt, and water. You don't even need a tortilla press, just use a rolling pin! I have experimented with all kinds of fats to make the masa (dough) for tortillas, this time I was inspired by a recipe in Martha Stewart's Everyday Food to try olive oil. The tortillas turned out great, light and fluffy, just like flour tortillas should be! The squash blossoms imparted a beautiful delicate flavor that perfectly accentuates the slight saltiness of Mexican cheese.

These quesadillas will change the way you think of quesadillas. The typical American quesadillas stuffed with yellow cheese and oozing grease do not even compare to these. In Mexico, you don't see yellow cheese quesadillas, they always use white cheese such as Queso Oaxaca (my favorite, kind of similar to mozzarella) or Queso Fresco (slightly salty and crumbly).

Squash blossoms are just coming in to season and can be found at farmers markets and local Mexican grocery stores. If you grow squash (or pumpkins) in your garden you can pick the blossoms and use them. To prepare them, take off the spiny green outer calyxes, clean blossoms by swishing them around in a bowl of water then shake them dry. You can use the whole blossom! Some people remove the inner stamen (long yellow pointy part) I just chop it up along with the blossoms and use it as I see no difference in flavor with or without stamen. Squash blossoms do not keep long so pick them or buy them the same day you plan to use them. I served my quesadillas with a side of simple corn and black bean salad and some avocado slices. Enjoy and get ready to never buy store bought tortillas again!

Tortillas

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons olive oil

2/3 cup water

Mix dry ingredients together. In a small bowl, mix oil and water, gradually add to dry ingredients, mixing with your hands.At this point the dough shouldn't be too wet (sticky) but not crumbly either. If it feels too sticky or wet, add a bit more flour. Too dry? Add a bit more water. This is a learning process, practice makes perfect!

Knead dough and allow to sit for one hour (I sometimes skip this step and they still turn out okay).

After dough has rested, seperate into about 10 small balls. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rest for 10 minutes to half an hour.

On a non-stick surface sprinkled with flour, roll out tortillas, using a floured rolling pin, to about 10 inches in diameter. If the dough is sticking to everything, sprinkle on more flour. I usually roll one ball out, cook it, then do another one. Just easier for me...

Heat up a griddle over medium high heat, add a bit of butter so the tortillas don't stick and put a tortilla on the HOT griddle, cooking about one minute on each side until it starts to puff up and you see little brown spots forming. Remove from heat and wrap in a thick towel or put in a tortilla warmer.

*Hint - if you are going to use these right away to make quesadillas I would recommend not letting them get very brown because they will continue to cook as you cook the quesadillas, make sense?

Now on to the quesadillas...

Squash Blossom Quesadillas

Adapted from Food Network recipe

Ingredients

Olive oil, for cooking

1/2 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

15 individual fresh squash blossoms rinsed and cut in half

1/2 cup chicken stock

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

4 (10-inch) flour tortillas

1/4 pound white Mexican cheese (queso oaxaca or queso fresco work well), grated or shredded

Directions

Heat a large saute pan with a little oil and saute the onion, and garlic for 5 minutes, until the onions have become translucent. Then, add the squash blossoms and simmer with chicken stock until flowers have wilted and stock is pretty much evaporated. Season with salt and pepper, and set aside to cool.

To compose the quesadilla lay the 2 of the tortillas on a flat surface. Distribute the cheese equally on both tortillas. I like LOTS of cheese! Then, spread 1/2 of the squash blossom filling over the cheese. Cover with more cheese and the other tortilla, place on heated griddle on nonstick saute pan with a little oil, and cook for about 2 minutes on each side. Try not to flip until cheese has melted a bit or they tend to come apart .When nice and golden brown on each side and cheese has melted, remove and cut into quarters.

These are sooo good! With the extra tortillas I made quesedillas with sliced avocados in between and quesedillas with corn in between. Also delicious!

¡Buen Provecho!

(Bon apetit in Spanish)

Whisked Away Wednesday: Wildflower Honey Cookies

These are so great! I have been looking for a good recipe to use the honey I bought at a farm stand a few weeks ago. I was planning to make granola, but when I happened upon this recipe in one of the awesome used cookie cookbooks I picked up at the library resale, it looked too delicious not to try! AND I got to utilize my new flour sifter. Sifting the dry ingredients in a cookie recipe produces a lighter cookie and is an important step. If you don't have a sifter you can use a strainer to sift. These cookies turned out soft, sweet, and with a light caramely flavor (thanks to the wildflower honey, I believe). I am sure they would be good with regular honey as well. I switched out some of the raisins for dried cherries and cranberries for a bit of variety.

Wildflower Honey Cookies

Ingredients

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup soft butter

3/4 cup honey (preferably wildflower)

1 egg

2 cups flour

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp baking soda

2 cups raw oats

1 1/2 cup raisins or other dried fruit

Cream together sugar, butter, honey and egg until well blended and smoooth.

Sift together flour, salt, cinnamon and soda and add to the honey mix.

Add oats and raisins.

Drop by generous teaspoonfuls onto parchment paper lined baking sheet and bake for about 10 minutes (depending on your oven) until cookies are lightly browned. Cool on a cooling rack.

Have a happy Wednesday!

Dad's Day Beer Can Chicken with Grilled Lemoney Asparagus and Veggies with Champagne Vinagrette

Happy Father's Day! In honor of Father's Day I am going to post some original recipes my dad came up with. He is a great chef and I have learned much of what I know about cooking through watching him. He can whip up a delicious gourmet meal with seemingly no effort. Whoever said that men can't cook never ate dinner with my dad! I was lucky enough to get to spend most of the day with him yesterday doing one of our favorite things, creating delicious food! My cousin, her husband and their son were also there which made it extra, extra special! Dad doesn't really believe in measuring out ingredients and just "eyeballs" it. So when reading these recipes, keep in mind that the measurements are approximate. You can use more or less of the ingredients as you like. The other thing about the way dad cooks is that when he adds spices to things, he just starts grabbing spices and putting them together. He has an innate sense of which spices, when blended together, take a food from good to GREAT. A skill I am hoping to learn from him! He is a big fan of Penzy's Spices and used them in these recipes, if you don't have the Penzy's spice mentioned in the recipe I included spices you could sub for them. The meal we made last night would be a great one to whip up with your dad or for your dad. It is not difficult and the majority of the cooking is done on the grill. Our menu included Beer Can Chicken, Grilled Lemoney Asparagus, and Veggies with Champagne Vinaigrette. When paired with warm basmati brown rice and a nice cool glass of iced tea, this meal is the perfect way to wrap up a warm summer day. I hope you enjoy it and don't forget to call your dad today!

Beer Can Chicken

Grilling chicken over a can of beer creates an amazing, moist meat with just a hint of that great beer flavor! Try it, you'll like it :)

Ingredients

1 can beer (any brand, dad says, "Whatever is cheapest") drunk down about an inch

1 whole chicken

~2 tbsp Penzy's Northwoods Fire (depending on size of chicken)

**coarse flake salt, paprika, chipotle pepper, black pepper, cayenne pepper, thyme, rosemary and garlic.

~2 tbsp poultry seasoning

1 onion cut into about three chunks

Lemon Butter Marinade (recipe follows)

Rinse chicken and pat dry. Insert can of beer in chicken's body cavity (see picture).

Dad has a special stand that he uses but says you can prop the chicken up with metal skewers or whatever you have on hand.

Brush chicken with lemon butter and pat with spices, sprinkle spices inside as well. Stuff onion into chicken body cavity.

Heat grill over medium high flame for about ten minutes or until hot. Set chicken on grill.

Check in ten minutes and brush with remaining lemon butter mixture. Continue checking every ten minutes until thermometer inserted in deepest part of breast reads about 175.

Remove from grill, let rest for ten minutes (to give juices time to settle).

Carve and eat!

Makes about 5 servings

Lemon Butter Marinade

In a small sauce pan over medium high heat melt 1 tblsp butter. When melted but not hot remove from heat and mix with juice from 1/2 lemon.

*This makes enough for Beer Can Chicken recipe. Repeat these directions to make marinade for Lemony Asparagus.

Grilled Lemony Asparagus

Ingredients

1 lb. asparagus spears(washed with hard ends broken off)

Lemon Butter Marinade (see previous recipe). If you prefer less butter, just use lemon juice.

Brush preheated grill with 1/4 of the Lemon Butter Marinade, (if making with Beer Can Chicken, you can cook the asparagus next to the chicken, but make sure you don't put it on the grill until the chicken is almost done).

Spread asparagus spears onto grill, making sure not to overlap. Turn asparagus every five minutes until tender and cooked evenly.

When tender, remove from grill, toss with remaining lemon marinade and serve. Garnish with lemon rind if desired.

Veggies with Champagne Vinaigrette

Vinaigrette Ingredients

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1/8 cup habanero vinegar (adds a nice kick but don't worry if you don't have this on hand just increase champagne vinegar to 1/4 cup)

1/8 cup champagne vinegar

Sea salt

Mrs Dash Spice Blend

Penzy's Northwood's Fire

Ground mustard

Ground garlic

Fresh ground black pepper

*(I did not include exactly how much as you can adjust them according to your own preference) This vinagerette needs to be tasted as you are putting it together. We like a more vinegary taste, so add more vinegar.

Whisk all ingredients together in small bowl until the oil and vinegar are well melded. Don't under mix.

Vegetables

Ingredients

2 sliced bok choy

3 medium zucchini squash sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

3 large white mushrooms, sliced

1 bunch arugula torn into small pieces

3 cups fresh spinach or other leafy vegetable (chard or kale)

Champagne Vinaigrette

Chili powder

Add 1/2 vinaigrette mixture to large wok. Heat over medium high heat until very hot.

When hot add bok choy and zucchini stir fry about three minutes.

Add in chili powder, mushrooms, arugula and spinach.Stir fry until tender but not mushy. Zucchini should still be slightly crisp. The leafy vegetable cooks quickly so don't overcook. You are looking for just wilted leaves. Toss with remaining vinaigrette and serve.

Makes about 7 servings

Enjoy!

Pasta Primavera

It's high time I posted a recipe that is neither baked nor sweet! And with the various array of fresh produce available right now, this seems the perfect time to do so. I originally found this recipe on Cooking Light's website. What I like about it is that you can use pretty much any fresh vegetables you happen to have on hand. I used carrots, zucchini, asparagus, and garlic spears. It would also be good with some chicken or shrimp thrown in there.

I bought these garlic spears at the farmer's market this past weekend. I had never seen them before and was intrigued. Raw, they are spicy with chive like undertones; steamed, they are similar in taste to really tender asparagus. I steamed them to add to the pasta. Next time I make this I am going to add even more vegetables and use a bit less pasta. Any good veggie suggestions?

Happy Cooking!

Pasta Primavera

Adapted from Cooking Light, April, 2002

2 large carrots (peeled and chopped into one inch spears, or use baby carrots)

1 1/2 cups asparagus chopped into one inch spears

2 cups chopped zucchini squash

7 garlic spears, cut into one inch pieces

2.5 cups whole wheat pasta (I used Penne)

1 tsp olive oil

3 coves garlic, minced

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Salt (to taste)

Chili powder (to taste)

1/4 cup dry white wine

1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 cup fresh grated parmesan cheese (plus more for sprinkling on top)

1/4 cup fresh basil chopped into thin strips

1/4 cup chopped parsley

I started by chopping up the carrots and asparagus into one inch strips. I also chopped all the other vegetables at this time just to get it out of the way. I like to have everything ready to go once I start cooking.

Next, bring two quarts water to a boil. Cook carrots and asparagus for about three minutes or until done. While these are cooking, steam the garlic spears.

Remove carrots and asparagus from water with a slotted spoon, set aside.

Add pasta to boiling water and cook according to package directions .

Drain.

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add squash and sauté three minutes. Add in carrots, asparagus, salt, pepper, garlic and chili powder sauté for two minutes. Stir in wine, scraping pan to loosen browned bits. Add chopped garlic spears. Stir in cream and juice; cook 1 minute.

Add cheese and pasta and stir well to coat. Remove from heat, stir in basil and parsley. Top with more fresh grated parmesan.

There you go, a healthy, quick, yummy dinner recipe.

Saturday Market

One of the things I love most about Spring/Summer weekends is the plethora of farmers markets. Lake Oswego has a pretty great one that I usually hit about every other weekend, especially when it's blueberry time! It has a wide variety of produce and other yummy treats and the best part is that they are all produced locally. Fresh really is better. I also enjoy watching all the different types of people and their pets that flood to the markets. Last time I went I snapped a bunch of pictures of all the beautiful flowers, food, and people that I encountered. I like to go to the market early to get the freshest produce, but really any time of the day will yield amazing finds. In addition to the Lake Oswego market, I have been to the Portland Farmers market and the Northeast Portland Farmers market that is held on Sundays. The Northeast market is by far the smallest of the three, but if you live over that way it is worth stopping by, one of the booths has amazing raw honey for sale that works great for granola recipes. The Portland Farmers market is the biggest and has the most variety, but the Lake Oswego market will always have a place in my heart because of my memories of going there with my family. I am hoping to try out the Beaverton market in the next few weekends so I will be sure to give it a thorough review after I finally manage to make it over there!

My FAVORITE snack! Light, cinnamony, Perfect!

From Hoffman Dairy Gardens

This dog was huge, and he was still a puppy!

This booth was new to the market, I sampled their Maple Bacon ice cream, which sounds weird but let me tell you it is soo good! It's a perfect combination of sweet and salty. I am officially hooked!

They don't have a blog... yet... but they are going to be opening a food cart on NE 7th and Burnside. They have a facebook page so look 'em up! I grabbed their flavor descriptions from their page and posted them below. The maple bacon was sublime but their other flavors sound great too, I will definitely be back for more.

Products:Flavors --

Tahitian Vanilla:

We swirl fruity, tropical Tahitian vanilla with a hint of swarthy, smoky Mexican vanilla to create this epic ice cream. This will change the way you think about vanilla.

Maple with Bacon:

Imagine crispy bacon piled high over stacks of maple-drizzled pancakes. Yummy maple ice cream studded with humanely raised, nitrate & hormone free bacon.

Caramelized Apple:

Inside is a pint of award-winning Washington apple cider boiled down into a buttery, bittersweet caramel. The flavor of fresh, tart apples shines brightly.

Stumptown Coffee:

Starring Stumptown's perfectly-balanced organic Latin American and East African coffee. They buy the beans directly from the farmers so everyone gets their fair share.

Slabtown Whiskey:

Just down the street from our kitchen is House Spirits Distillery, Portland's finest purveyors of small-batch libations. Whiskey's fire is quenched by cream & sugar.

Coconut-Lemon-Saffron Sorbet:

An alluring blend of creamy coconut milk and lemon, infused with saffron, cardamom, and star anise. This sorbet is an intoxicating journey down the silk road. A dairy-free delight. (Vegan)

Seriously... hunt them down and try it!

YUM!
Flowers from Vang's Gardens.

Best butter horns around!

Irresistible....


Baked goods from Blue Ribbon Bakery.