Mother’s Day Quesadillas

We made these for Mother’s Day along with the Spicy Orange Salad and Garlicky Black Beans. I like this recipe because it is easy, involves caramelized onions, and has lots of flavor while still being mellow enough to allow for a bolder side dish.

I’m used to Gouda being a mild, smoky, buttery cheese with a texture close to Monterey Jack’s, but for this recipe I used some “1000-day Gouda” from Trader Joe’s, and this stuff was really good — a bit more smoky and tangy, with a texture closer to good Parmesan, but still soft enough to cut easily.

You can use normal oil, but the tortillas will want to soak it up, and in this situation you may want to preheat the oven to 300 and toast the quesadillas up a bit after you make them so the outsides are a bit more crispy than floppy.

To make them all together, start the black beans, then get the onions going. Make the salad and set aside. Finish the onions and tortillas, keeping an eye on the beans. Serve it all.

Dutch Cheese, Barbecue, and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas
Recipe adapted from the <a href=”http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Bbq-Onion-and-Smoked-Gouda-Quesadillas-with-Pea-Shoot-Mini-Salad-242488&#8243; target=”_blank”>Bon Appetit recipe here</a>.

Makes: about 4

Ingredients:

• 3 Tbsp olive oil
• 1 pound yellow onions (about 2 large), peeled, halved, and thinly sliced
• 1/3 cup purchased barbecue sauce
• 2 tablespoons water
• 1 tsp hot sauce
• 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro
• ~6 ounces coarsely grated smoked Gouda cheese (about 1 1/2 to 2 cups loose) I used about 1 c lowfat “soft dutch” smoked cheese from Trader Joe’s, and about 1/2 c “1000 Day Gouda”
• ~3oz Parmesan Reggiano, grated (optional)
• 8 8-inch-diameter flour tortillas
• Atomizer full of oil, or cooking-oil spray

Method:

• Slice onions and put in nonstick pan with oil in skillet. Saute on med about 10min, or until very soft and brownish (some of them should be completely caramelized). If they are getting black on the edges before then, you have the heat too high. Meanwhile, grate the cheeses
• Add BBQ sauce, water, and hot sauce. Stir until sauce coats onions. Remove from heat. Stir in cilantro now for a milder flavor (or, for a stronger cilantro flavor, wait on the cilantro and add it with the cheese to the individual quesadillas).
• Bring a large skillet or saucepan to medium heat and spray with oil. Place 1 tortilla on the skillet, top with 1/4 cheese, 1/4 onion mixture, and 1/4 cilantro (if that’s not already in the onions). Focus on 1/3 of the way in, rather than dumping it all in the middle; leave about 1/2″ around edge. Use a spatula to press down. When bottom tortilla develops dark brown toasted spots, turn over. Put on serving plate. Repeat with the other tortillas
• As the next tortilla is done, use kitchen scissors to cut the previous one into 6. Alternatively, you can make folded-over calzone style half-quesadillas, each using 1/8 of the mix each (results in more tortilla per quesadilla).
• Serve

Old Favorite: Kolache

Kolache

Like a cream cheese Danish on crack. delicious, fattening crack.

Ingredients – Pastry:

1:

• 1 lb butter (or margarine)
• 4c flour

2:

• 3 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

3:

• 1 tbspn yeast
• 1c sour cream

Ingredients – Filling:

• 1 pkg cream cheese
• 1/4c sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Ingredients – Other:

• powdered sugar

1. Preheat oven to 350°F

2. In one bowl, mix filling. In 3 additional, separate small bowls mix sections 1, 2, 3. Combine 2 & 3, then both with 1.

3. Roll out on powdered sugar; cut into 3″ or 4″ strips; cut those into squares, and cut those into triangles [I don’t do any of this cutting; it cooks fine as one massive, log-cake-esque roll that you can slice sideways, post-cooking. See image below].

4. Cover with 1/8 inch filling and roll each triangle up as though it were a crescent roll, rolling the hypotenuse over and over toward the right-angled corner [I just fold the whole thing over like a giant log cake; see above].

5. Bake on a baking sheet at 350°F.