Corn and Pepper Jack Quesadillas with Radish and Cabbage Slaw and Mexican Tomato Salad

I'm not quite sure how this happened (because it was not intentional), but this week we did Meatless Monday and then ended up with a Meatless Tuesday.  I hadn't actually thought about the fact that we were serving vegetarian meals two nights in a row.  Granted, it would not have made much of a difference because I wanted to use up our corn and tomatoes from the farmers' market.  It just kind of happened...  And when you buy as much produce from the farmers' market as I did this past Sunday, a few vegetarian meals are inevitable.  I have another vegetarian meal on tap for later in the week.  Don't worry though - tonight for dinner we will be making pork schnitzel.

I have to admit that this dinner came together kind of randomly.  We picked up tortillas and a shredded pepper jack blend this weekend at Trader Joes, so quesadillas sounded like a natural use for both of those ingredients.  And I had one ear of corn left over from Monday's Corn on the Cob with Lime Salt, so I figured I would throw some corn in the filling to the quesadillas.  And I got the idea to add mayonnaise to the filling from a recipe I found on Epicurious.  I was a little skeptical but I went with it and it really worked.  I had tomatoes to use, so I was going to make a salsa, but I decided to make a pico de gallo-esque tomato salad instead.  We also had radishes left over from the farmer's market so I wanted to make some sort of cabbage and radish salad/slaw of sorts.  So we ransacked the fridge (and I picked up some new cabbage from the grocery store since ours had seen better days) and we threw in a little bit of this and a little bit of that and made dinner.  I thought that considering how random my meal planning was this time, dinner turned out surprisingly delicious.  The brightness of the slaw and the acidity and faint heat of the tomato salad paired beautifully with the richness of the quesadillas.

Recipes after the jump!

Squash Blossom Quesadillas

Along with the snow pea shoots I picked up at the farmers' market yesterday, I grabbed some beautiful squash blossoms.  The few months out of the year when squash blossoms are available I tend to make frittatas with them.  We have tried sauteing them with baby zucchini (not good enough to merit a post) and breading them and "frying" them in the oven (good but not great).  So when I picked up the squash blossoms I was originally contemplating making a frittata with mint or basil and some creamy cheese.  But once I got home and started thinking about it, I changed directions.  I started thinking that the way to go might be quesadillas instead of a frittata.  When I Googled "squash blossom quesadillas" I kept coming across references to recipes using grilled poblano peppers and epazote.  I didn't have any epazote, but I figured I could substitute cilantro instead.  Since literally every recipe I came across called for poblano peppers and I needed to go to the grocery store anyway, I decided it was worth picking up at the store.  So after a crazy work out session (remind me that pilates followed by a really hard spinning class - perhaps the hardest spinning class I have ever taken - is completely nuts), I ran to the grocery store and picked up my poblanos, tortillas and Monterrey Jack cheese.  And then we came home and made lunch.

Quesadillas aren't exactly traditional Fourth of July fare, but they are delicious.  And these were no exception.  We served the quesadillas with homemade pico de gallo (a combination of Roma tomatoes, sweet onion, garlic, cilantro, jalapeno, salt and lime juice).  It was a wonderful meal.  The squash blossoms taste faintly like zucchini and their inherent delicacy makes the quesadillas feel that much lighter.  Yum.  I love summer.

Recipe after the jump!

Adobo-Marinated Chicken Quesadillas

I love good Mexican food.  And I have found that truly good Mexican food is hard to find.  So I have started making my own, although I don't claim that my version of Mexican is authentic.  I basically just make it up as I go along, sometimes with a little help from Google, a restaurant I have eaten at or a cookbook.  For instance, for tonight's dinner I got the idea from the chicken mole quesadilla at our local Mexican joint, The Great Burrito.  And then I looked online and in Rosa's New Mexican Table by Roberto Santibanez.  Then I sent Alex to Zabar's to pick up some dried chilis and we improvised like we always do.

Our past two meals have been smashing successes (which is exciting).  Last night's Pork Vindaloo was delicious, but I might have preferred these quesadillas for a variety of reasons.  First, while this chicken has a brief marinating period, the entire dish comes together much more quickly than the pork did.  One problem with braising pork is that it takes forever, whereas sauteing up some chicken strips takes less than 10 minutes.  Both dishes were very flavorful and tender.  I just feel like this dish is one that everyone will like, whereas the pork is only going to appeal to some.  So I'm not sure that I necessarily preferred the flavor of these quesadillas over the flavor of the vindaloo, but I think as an overall dish and experience I preferred the quesadillas.  There was a tiny bit of heat from the chilis in the adobo, and a bit of tang from the apple cider vinegar.  I'm glad we used apple cider vinegar instead of regular white distilled vinegar, because that gives the chicken a tiny bit of sweetness which works really nicely with the cinnamon and cloves.  I think this chicken would make a really nice topping for a taco salad, tacos, or a tostada.  You can use the marinade to create all kinds of different Mexican dishes and I bet they would all be delicious.

Recipe after the jump!

Korean Steak and Kimchi Quesadillas

I love meals made almost entirely from repurposed leftovers.  They make me feel so virtuous and thrifty.  Plus meals are so much easier to make and quicker to put together when your proteins are already cooked and some of your ingredients are already prepped.  I made these quesadillas with the leftover Momofuku Marinated Hanger Steak Ssam with Red Kimchi Puree and Ginger Scallion.  We used the leftover hanger steak, the leftover red kimchi puree, and the leftover ginger scallion sauce.  I had originally intended to make our quesadillas with some brown rice tortillas that I picked up at Trader Joe's, but when I took them out of the fridge today they looked a little moldy.  So I threw them out.  And decided to use some lavash (also purchased at Trader Joe's) for our quesadillas, which actually worked quite well.  The only other thing we needed was some grated cheese and we were in quesadilla-making business.  And it was good business.  Our quesadillas were quite delicious.  I really enjoyed them - they were really easy to make, and very tasty.

Recipe after the jump!